Tarot and Other Meditation Decks: History, Theory, Aesthetics, Typology

225 Pages·2004·6.59 MB·English

by  Emily E. Auger

Tarot and Other
Meditation Decks

Tarot and Other
Meditation Decks
History, Theory,
Aesthetics, Typology
E E. A
MILY UGER
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Auger, Emily E.
Tarot and other meditation decks : history, theory,
aesthetics, typology / Emily E. Auger.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-1674-5
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
¡. Tarot—History—20th century. I. Title.
BF¡879.T2A94 2004
¡33.3'2424—dc22 2003022658
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2004 Emily E. Auger. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: Cards from the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck
designed by Pamela Colman Smith, ©¡97¡ U.S. Games
Systems,Inc., Stamford, CT
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
Acknowledgments
I first presented some of the material in this book in a series of conference
papers between ¡997 and 2002, including: “Authors of the New Age” (San Anto-
nio: Popular Culture Association conference, ¡997), in which I proposed a cate-
gorization system for contemporary meditation decks emphasizing annotative and
discursive Tarot; “Native American Tarot: Cards for the Curious or a New Sacred
Path?” (Berkeley: Native American Art Studies Association conference, ¡997);
“Artistic Quality in Contemporary Tarot” (San Diego: Popular Culture Associa-
tion conference, ¡999); and “The Post/Modern Art of Tarot” (Calgary: Universi-
ties Art Association of Canada conference, 2002). The discussion of Arthurian
and Celtic Tarot and meditation decks was first delivered in two papers: “Arthurian
Legend in Tarot” (New Orleans: Popular Culture Association conference, 2000)
and “Structure in Arthurian and Celtic Tarot and Meditation Decks” (Philadel-
phia: Popular Culture Association conference, 200¡). Some of this latter confer-
ence material appears in the essay “Arthurian Legend in Tarot” in King Arthur in
Popular Culture, eds. Elizabeth S. Sklar and Donald L. Ho›man (Je›erson, N.C.:
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2002) 233–248. Some of the research in
Chapter One appears in “Looking at Native Art through Western Art Categories”
in the Journal of Aesthetic Education 34.2 (Summer 2000): 89–98, and some of the
material in Chapter Two derives from my graduate studies of English literature
with professors G. Kim Blank and Gordon Fulton at the University of Victoria
(2000–0¡). My thanks to the conference organizers and other participants, anthol-
ogy and journal editors and my professors. My thanks also to those who granted
permissions for reproductions.
In the documentation of decks and their associated pamphlets and books, I
have given copyright dates wherever possible as publishing dates are often
unspecified. Deck contributors are cited in alphabetical order with the artist, if
v
vi Acknowledgments
known, specified. My apologies for any wrong emphases in my attribution of con-
tributions. It was often di‡cult to determine the exact nature of individual con-
tributions to these works.
Illustrations from the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck®, known also as the Rider Tarotand
the Waite Tarot, are reproduced by permission of U.S. Games Systems, Inc., Stam-
ford, CT 06902 USA. Copyright © ¡97¡ by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. Further repro-
duction prohibited. The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck® is a registered trademark of
U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
Illustrations from the Goddess, Gendron, Ancestral Path, Gill, and Barbara Walker
Tarotdecks used by permission of U.S. Games Systems, Inc., Stamford, CT. Copy-
rights ¡998, ¡997, ¡995, ¡990, ¡985, respectively. Further reproduction prohibited.
Illustrations from the Alchemical Tarotreproduced by permission of the author,
Robert M. Place. © ¡995 Robert M. Place. Further reproduction prohibited.
Illustrations from the Arthurian Tarot reproduced by permission of the
authors, Caitlin and John Matthews. Further reproduction prohibited.
Illustrations from the Haindl Tarot reproduced by permission of the artist,
Hermann Haindl. Further reproduction prohibited.
Illustrations from the Kazanlar Tarotand Ibis Tarotreproduced by permission
of AGM AGMüller, CH-82¡2 Neuhausen, Switzerland. © AGM, Switzerland.
www.tarotworld.com Further reproduction prohibited.
Illustrations from Legend: the Arthurian Tarotreproduced by permission of the
artist, Anna-Marie Ferguson. Further reproduction prohibited.
Illustrations from Medicine Woman Tarot reproduced by permission of the
artist, Carol Bridges. Further reproduction prohibited.
Illustrations from Motherpeace Tarotreproduced by permission of Vicki Noble.
Motherpeace is a pseudonym for Vicki Noble & Karen Vogel, ¡98¡. Further repro-
duction prohibited.
Illustrations from the Shining Woman Tarot reproduced by permission of the
artist, Rachel Pollack. Further reproduction prohibited.
Illustrations from the Voyager Tarot reproduced by permission of the author,
James Wanless. Further reproduction prohibited.
Contents
Acknowledgments v
Preface ix
Introduction 1
One Tarot and Visual Art 13
Two Tarot and Literature 53
Three Tarot as Tarot 89
Conclusion 143
Notes 147
Tarot Decks Cited 161
Meditation Decks Cited 167
Appendix 169
Bibliography 193
Index 205
vii

Preface
Tarot, originally a fifteenth-century card game and since the later eighteenth
century an occult accessory, has most recently transformed into a kind of “med-
itation” deck; its new function is supported by the incorporation of a wide vari-
ety of visual and literary symbols from such disparate sources as Arthurian legend
and the I Ching. Twentieth-century Tarot decks are distinguished from other med-
itation decks by their standardized images and division into a 22-card major
“arcana,” formerly a set of trumps, and a minor “arcana,” formerly the regular
playing deck to which the trumps were attached. All meditation decks may be con-
sidered popular art in that they are made for mass marketing and with inconsis-
tent attention to artistic quality; yet, through their use in contemplative, creative,
and divinatory exercises, they are, like more commonly recognized types of twen-
tieth-century fine art, widely associated with self-expression and personal devel-
opment.
As an art historian, I initially became interested in Tarot for the “post-mod-
ernist” impulse evident in its numerous adaptations to di›erent styles, themes,
and traditions. I found the art form eminently collectible and comparison of the
revisions in di›erent decks irresistible; more gradually, I recognized Tarot’s unique
conflation of functionality and fine art aestheticism and decided that it merited
further study and analysis. My initial goal was a typology that both categorized
the di›erent approaches to Tarot revision and placed contemporary Tarot where
it so clearly belongs—with other meditation decks. Working with over ¡00 twen-
tieth-century examples, most produced in the last three decades, I quickly real-
ized that the popular and influential Rider-Waitedeck (¡9¡0), produced by Golden
Dawn members Arthur Waite and artist Pamela Smith, would serve as an e›ective
prototype or, to use the anthropological term, “type specimen,” relative to which
others might be analyzed.
ix