January 7 - 13, 2012 ~ Renaissance Tarot

Renaissance Tarot
Brian Williams
(c) USGames, 1988

A lovely deck!  Many moons ago, a kind Aeclectic Tarot member offered to send me the Golden Dawn Tarot.  Eventually, she wrote and asked if I would prefer the Renaissance instead.  I had since obtained a lovely old copy of the Golden Dawn, so I said, "sure!"  What luck for me!

The deck is one of those taller, slender decks.  I have discovered that USGames decks are a variety of sizes - from short and squat to tall and slender.  They run the gamut of human shapes, it seems.  If I were a tarot deck, I would be shaped like the Navigators of the Mystic SEA - short and a bit squat!  The backs are very plain looking at first glance.  There is no real color, but on closer inspection, an intricate design is seen.  It is a non-reversible back and the larger image is off-center.  It is really quite beautiful in its simplicity.

Yes, this is turning into another one of those "gushing" posts.  Really, I can't find much wrong with this deck or the companion material at all.  The book is well written and informative well beyond just this deck.  It actually contains very little specifically about this deck but rather contains a concise tour through Renaissance art and mythology.  The colors of the deck are soothing and there is gold highlighting that accentuates various aspects of each card as well as the arched border.  In the spandrel of the arches on each card, there are tiny figures or banners that add meaning to the card.  They are in Italian and English and for some cards, are reversible, giving insights into reversed card meanings.  And yes, I learned the word "spandrel" from reading the book.

As a reading deck, it seems very traditional.  By that, I mean that it works better with traditional meanings and the use of traditional aspects rather than "intuition."  I have no problem with that at all and find it refreshing and challenging on occasion. It also has "non-scenic" pips.  But really, I have normally found these allegedly "non-scenic" pips to be quite scenic, and these are no different. 

Rating: Keeper +