Guided by Holly Adams Easley and Esther Joy Archer, hosts of the popular Wildly Tarot podcast, this deluxe collector’s book provides a fresh look at the influence of tarot from its beginnings to today. The elegant slipcase, 24 removable Sola-Busca tarot cards, and illustrated fold-out timeline with important dates in tarot development make this package a must-have for any tarot fan.
The History of Tarot Art shows how tarot morphed from a fifteenth century card game to a popular modern activity. Learn more about the stories behind the art of tarot’s most influential decks, like Rider-Waite-Smith and Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, as well as the female artists whose work was often overshadowed in their time.
The History of Tarot Art also takes a close look at the Visconti, Sola-Busca, Tarot de Marseille, Aquarian, Morgan-Greer, Motherpeace, Cosmic, Druidcraft, Wild Unknown, and Deviant Moon decks, alongside dozens of contemporary decks. In many cases, you’ll see how tarot art reflects its era. The Morgan-Greer deck, for example, could only have been born in the 1970s. More recent decks, such as Black Power Tarot and Fifth Spirit Tarot, aim to represent more diverse experiences in regard to race, gender, and sexuality.
The book also provides tips for doing your own tarot readings and a cheat sheet on the meanings of the Rider-Waite-Smith, Thoth, and Tarot de Marseille cards.
Whether you're a longtime tarot practitioner or a newcomer to the practice, you'll find fascinating new insights in this retrospective.
This is a beautiful, really well presented book. It's going to be in hardback, with coloured illustrations, and it's going to look absolutely amazing.
I'm a relatively recent tarot fan, and this was great as it gives an overview of the history of tarot in a light, fresh style, then shows a lot of the major decks of recent years. The cards chosen to show off give a great overview of each deck. Holly and Esther clearly deeply love and understand the art of tarot and of these decks.
I love the spreads at the back to try, and the fascinating evolution of tarot over the last four hundred years. I also really liked that it takes in the three main schools of tarot, rather than focusing mostly on one. It's great to see them all get their chance. The blurb says there's a cheat sheet on the card meanings; it may be a pullout in the physical book, but it isn't in my ebook proof version. I'm sure it's great though; the authors have shown such insight in other parts of the book.
I love this. My deck wishlist has just about doubled, and I'm going to be coming back to this for a while (or hopefully getting a physical copy to leaf through!) This is a great read if you have any interest in the history, or just want to look at the fantastic images. Gorgeous.
The History of Tarot Art publishes on the 30th November, 2021. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
No comments:
Post a Comment