Alchemical Wedding Tarot

See card images of the Alchemical Wedding Tarot

By David Aronson
Tarot Deck - 22 Cards - Published by Adam McLean 2006

Review by Dan Pelletier

A big sized card, almost 13cm by a tad over 9cm. Nice big cards.

Twenty-two Majors numbered in the English/American tradition (Strength is VIII).

Sepia. Nice gentle sepia. No jarring blaring computer enhanced colors stabbing at the retinas.

And dark. No – no, not colorwise, although the sepia can be seen as dark; but I mean dark. Disturbing.

I ramble aimlessly though them…

Masks.

Photo collage.

Some people won’t like this…penises both flaccid and turgid. Breasts, along with snakes, skeletons, and masks. Eyes abound. Babies pouring forth freely from a squatting Empress – in a mask.

Eyes.

Masks.

A falcon headed human figure, perhaps Horus rides a Strombus shell, pulled by two sea turtles to illustrate the Chariot.

The Hierophant appears to remind us of the modern god consumerism, surrounded by electronic toys; the Wheel is a tractor tire with a clock-face inside, multiple hands display multiple data-points, the figure at the bottom truly crushed and the one surmounting truly beautiful. Eyes abound, and in the background an Ouroboros reminds us….

XIV is Art is a winged nude male in mask, bending a flaming bar – framed by eyes. More eyes.

We cannot see the faces of the lovers, and we notice the serpents that surround them are not cold-blooded snakes – these are each crowned with a glans.

Judgement is a posterior view of a winged skeleton standing before a field. A tornado rises in the background.

Nude children grace The Sun and The World.

I won’t talk about Death. Truly and wonderfully disturbing.

This is a deliciously dark deck. It is not for everyone.

However I know I will use it…

It is a surprising, shocking, and brave approach – I applaud it whole-heartedly.

Dan Pelletier is a co-owner of The Tarot Garden, a most highly respected resource for tarot decks and related information on the Internet.