Tarot Decks from the 1980s
Tarot decks published in the eighties.
The Arcus Arcanum Tarot is a more male-oriented deck, and has brightly coloured, scenic comic-book type artwork. It uses the typical suits of cups, wands, swords and disks.
The Art Nouveau Tarot by Matt Myers is decorated in a gorgeously coloured, vibrant (though rather eighties-looking), stained-glass style of imagery. The major arcana are reasonably traditional, while the minor arcana are unique in that they tell the story of four couples going through the trials and tribulations of life together.
The Barbara Walker Tarot depicts goddesses and gods from mythology all over the world. Positive, negative and in-between deities are all shown, creating a complex deck which can seem a little disturbing to those unfamiliar with the myths.
Now available in a small-size tin edition!
The Cosmic Tarot is a popular mystical New Age deck with 78 fully illustrated cards based on the Golden Dawn system. The ink drawings on the cards are coloured in pastel and have a attractive, eighties feel.
A modern-looking, different tarot published in the eighties. The Karma Tarot cards are based upon artists and musicians the creator knew while living in a commune in Copenhagen.
The artist draws on the energies of Mother Earth in the Native American fashion, using pastel, positive looking artwork to create a feeling of harmony, reverance, and wonder in the Medicine Woman Tarot.
The Merlin Tarot has 78 cards based on the Arthurian legends. The reordered major arcana, aces, and court cards are beautifully drawn, but the suits (Birds are Swords, Serpents are Wands, Fish are Cups, and Beasts are Disks) have very spare pip cards. They are disappointingly repetitive and difficult to interpret intuitively.
Morgan's Tarot is not really a tarot in the strict sense, but 88 cards of modern, alternative, amusing and strange archetypes and situations. It was first self-published in the seventies, and then in the eighties and again in 2009 by US Games.
The Motherpeace Tarot is an unusual deck with definite feminist leanings, but unlike many feminist decks it does show a few males. This was the first of the round Tarot decks.
Gods and Goddesses, demigods, heroes and villains from Ancient Greek mythology and legends are depicted on each of the 78 Tarot cards in the popular Mythic Tarot. First published in 1989 and reprinted almost every two years afterwards.
The Native American Tarot depicts folklore, religion and way of life of several different tribes. Some images show historically authentic traditions from a wide range of tribes, but others are unique to the author. The new suits used are blades, vessels, pipes and shields.
Featuring Nordic myths and ancient legends plus Gods, sagas and Runes from the lives of the Vikings, the Norse Tarot has watercolour artwork scenes with elaborate borders. Now out of print.
The colours in the Ravenswood Eastern Tarot are simple - black line drawings on plain white - but the theme is exotic and mixes tarot symbols with Middle Eastern art. The deck is meant to be coloured by the user.
The Renaissance Tarot deck has gorgeous artwork with touches of gold. All twelve deities of Olympus and several other Greek and Roman gods and demigods are pictured in the major arcana. The minor arcana are pips illustrated with small scenes from Greek mythology.
The Sacred Rose Tarot is a beautiful, vibrant Tarot deck that has had some Qabbalistic symbolism added to the colourful artwork, inspired by medieval stained glass and Byzantine icons. Suitable for readers of any level.
Colourful, super-real and in-your-face, the Italian-published Solleone Tarot cards have a medieval style and occasionally use bloody and violent imagery.
Cats of all varieties, including lions and leopards, accompany the colourful Cat People in this deck for all those cat lovers out there. The artwork in the Tarot of the Cat People is beautifully done.
The Tarot of Transition is an Egyptian-themed deck with quite plain artwork in the familiar sideways perspective of Ancient Egyptian art. The majors depict deities, like Isis, Ptah and Hathor, and the minors are divided into suits of Ankh, Ded, Heset and Kheprera.
The Ukiyoe Tarot adapts Marseille symbolism into a Japanese style deck, with traditionally dressed figures on the Major Arcana, and undecorated minor arcana. It was out of print, but is back in print from US Games.
The Voyager Tarot is a deck of pure symbolism that reflects our present day circumstances, in bright and colourful photographic collages of images from multiple cultures. James Wanless's deck is intended to be used for self-empowerment and self-awareness.
The Wonderland Tarot has all the characters from Alice in Wonderland in this Rider-Waite reworking. There are suits of Oysters, Flamingos, Hats and Peppermills, and it also includes Tweedledee and Tweedledum as the Lovers.
Now available in a small-size tin edition!
The Major Arcana cards of the Yeager Tarot of Meditation show scenes with life-like human figures and are interesting, using a lot of black and yellow, but the minor arcana artwork is of lesser quality.