Gilded Tarot

By Ciro Marchetti

Buy & read reviews at: [Amazon.co.uk] [Aeclectic.net]

Published by Llewellyn, 2004

Deck & Book set

ISBN: 0-7387-0520-9

Companion Book by Barbara Moore

‘Myths, fairy tales, and legends have played out their timeless themes for millennia in that magical twilight realm of the imagination, somewhere between fantasy and reality. The Gilded Tarot invites you to explore such an enchanted world where ageless symbols and archetypal themes comes to life as fair maidens, bold knights, and sage mystics.‘ [Back of box]

I first discovered the Gilded Tarot online, as I did Kat Black’s Golden Tarot, which also started out as a virtual deck. I was enthralled and couldn’t wait for both decks to be published.

Unlike Kat Black, Marchetti had a publishing deal under his belt when he started his tarot project, in fact Llewellyn wisely approached him with the idea of creating a deck, but both artists generously shared the progress of their artwork online, which made for interesting, and tantalising viewing as we mere mortals awaited the decks completion.

On the whole the graphics are lovely, like little stained glass windows into your unconscious, though one or two of the figures do strike a bit of a false note [the Lovers for example], but nowhere near enough to spoil the card or put you off the Gilded Tarot, which has made the transition from web to deck very nicely indeed.

I love the bright vibrant colours.

The card stock is flexible but not flimsy, though it does catch a little on the edges when shuffling. Then again on saying that I am clumsy!
The pattern on the back of the cards is reversible.

Strength is 8 and Justice 11 with the standard Rider-Waite-Smith deck associations, i.e. Wands-fire, Cups-Water etc. And this deck has a great companion book by Barbara Moore; the illustrations look great, the writing flows effortlessly and there are little exercises you can do to help you learn the cards throughout with some spreads at the back.

Speaking of which, there are 2 discreet cards included with the deck that show a 5-card Daily Spread layout and the Celtic Cross [with Significator option] if you need a reminder.

The book also has a lovely picture of the Fool on the front and inside the cover starts and ends with a lovely greyscale peacock. The rest of the illustrations throughout the book are greyscale, which is a lovely touch that compliments Moore’s writing, and the Major Arcana have some room for a few personal notes if you can bear to write them in.

The card borders around the main images are nice, a simple gold frame with a large oval gemstone at the top, in the Majors this is where the number goes, and two small round gemstones half way down the card, one on the right, one on the left and a gold plaque at the bottom for the name.

The cards have different coloured gemstones depending on their suit. The Majors are a deep black with a hint of purple, Cups are a lovely glowing orange, Swords are a mid blue, Wands a very pretty muted red and Pentacles a lovely vibrant green.

There are lots of lovely cards in this deck but I can’t talk about them all here, but I will mention a few.

The Hierophant is a treat, a kindly older bearded man in beautifully coloured robes and hat thingy, you know, pointed and religious looking, with a glowing stained glass window behind him, in fact he’s almost a part of it, and behind the free standing window you can see a planet. He’s not your average stern, do what I say not what I do kind of leader, which appeals to me despite the religious connotations of the card.

Listen to this from the book, ‘A leader and teacher wearing vestments, indication wisdom, almost fades into the background. The stained glass window enveloping him brings to mind the great cathedral of the past, incredible poems of glass and stone reaching towards heaven.‘ p. 47.

Now don’t she just have the prettiest way with words! ‘incredible poems of glass‘ I love that.

I do like this deck, it tugs at my imagination, reads well and did I mention that most of the Queens looks at you as if they know you’re there? That occurs on a few of the cards, oh, and the Devil’s a babe of the male variety in the grown up sense of the word [I know, I need to get out more!].

In fact most of the figures in the deck are uncommonly attractive, mmmm, could this be a downside? If I keep thinking this way I’ll be sticking pins in them in a minute!

Well, it is a fairytale fantasy style deck

A few other cards I particularly like at the moment are the Wheel of Fortune, The Sun [unusually for me as a lot of decks seem to go the gleeful baby route, this one doesn’t], the Queen of Cups, Knight of Wands, Two of Swords…

Oh, go buy the deck and see for yourself!

If you like bright colours, fantasy/fairytale images, great artwork and a cracking companion book, the Gilded Tarot is for you.

Put those pins away!