May 05 - 11, 2012 ~ Tarot of the III Millennium

Tarot of the III Millennium
Iassen Ghiuselev
Lo Scarabeo, 2000

This deck came to me in an Aeclectic Tarot Trade Train Side Trade.  I think I made a good trade with this one!  The deck is quite unique and intriguing.  Definitely one I'd recommend to others.

The format of the deck is quite unique.  There is a Marseilles style card inset on all the minors.  The courts have colored drawings and website titles on them, the Majors are monochromatic and, well, different looking.  The pips are line drawings with various electronic schematics or bar codes on them.  For fun, I did a search and found that the schematic on the back of the cards is from a 1960's vintage Italian made phonograph. 

One fun thing about this deck is the relationship between the inset card and the overall card image. Take the Page of Coins, for example.  In the larger image, we can see a card cheat!   The inset is like the ideal of the Page of Coins - but the larger image shows us what can happen when the page goes bad!  The pips are quite interesting and the relationship between the inset and the greater image seems to be more of an illustration in a story.  The cards already "fit together" into a larger image, but each little piece's "back story" is provided by the larger image.  Hard to explain, really.

Overall, this deck will be staying in the collection.  It is fun, yet really allows for a great deal of exploration.