Today’s pull from Georgie’s Magic Card Collection is brand new to me. It was a gift from a friend who just got back from Italy and a visit to Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden. As you may have guessed, it’s the Niki de Saint Phalle Tarot.
Seven Points About This Deck
- Majors Only Deck – The Niki de Saint Phalle Tarot has only 22 cards, the Major Arcana from 0 to 21. But that’s for good reason … see the next point
- Tarot Garden – Each card is based on the Major Arcana figures created by artist Niki de Saint Phalle for her magical Tarot Garden, otherwise known as Il Giardino Dei Tarocchi. It’s a real place with giant sculptures of all the Major Arcana. The garden is located about an hour outside of Rome.
- Card Stock – The actual cards are beautiful to touch and to shuffle. They’re shiny, bright, and not too big, but big enough to show off the gorgeous artwork.
- Artwork – Speaking of artwork – the images are bright, bold, and colourful renditions of the sculptures from the Tarot Garden on a white background … and did I mention they were embossed? Or at least parts of the images are, and all of the titles. It appropriately adds a little sculptural texture to the deck.
- Titles – Some of the titles break from RWS tradition … #6 is called The Choice instead of the more common Lovers. And The Tower is called The Tower of Babel, thus putting more focus on communication then some other Towers might .
- Emperor – The Emperor is a castle, a foundation rather than a man.
- Instruction Booklet – And last but not least, the Little White Book includes notes from Niki herself.
Overall, I love this deck. Its clear, fun, and wise. I know it’s no substitute for actually visiting The Tarot Garden itself, but it’s as close as I can get while sitting in The Tarot Room in Toronto.
…And don’t be surprised if I post some pictures of The Tarot Garden soon, courtesy of my travelling Tarot friend.