The Bohemian Gothic Tarot
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Category: Book
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Book Summary Information
Designer: Karen MahonyDesigner: Alex Ukolov
Edition: Cards
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-30
ISBN: 1905572077
Number of pages: 78
Publisher: Magic Realist Press
Book Reviews of The Bohemian Gothic Tarot
Book Review: Beautiful, unsettling, compelling
Summary: 5 Stars
First, don't be put off by the "Gothic" tag. The word is used here to mean : haunted castles, their mad inhabitants, young women in distress, sinister children, wild weather, etc. In other words, the deck explores and celebrates the literary Gothic which also became-with some of those classic silent films in the Twenties-the filmic Gothic. The images-all 78 of them, Major and Minor Arcana-are based on Victorian photographs. Gore and camp and kitsch are out. . .in this respect, as in many others, this particular Gothic tarot is a million miles away from other so-called Gothic tarots (none of which I found remotely scary.)
The Tarot follows the conventional Rider-Waite pattern, by which I mean there are 22 Major Arcana, 56 Minor Arcana, all fully illustrated. The suits are : Cups, Wands, Swords and Pentacles. And the Court cards are : King, Queen, Knight and Page. None of the Majors has been renamed (the Death card is exactly that, not the obfuscating "Transition" which I've seen on some decks.)
The interpretations provided in the excellent book come in two parts. First, there are the conventional, Rider-Waite-type meanings. Second-and this is one of the salient features of the deck-there are darker meanings given, more Gothic meanings which explore our shadow side, our hidden motivations, our secrets. These darker meanings are, in fact, what most decks would refer to as "Reversals."
What can I say about the artwork except that it is magnificent ? Each image has been matched very well with that card's interpretation whilst leaving plenty of room for intuition, imagination, flights of fancy. None of the cards illustrates a specific story in any length (there IS one that shows a young woman encountering a beast very like the one in "Beauty and the Beast) but many of them do allude to various motifs in the Gothic tradition. There is a Frankenstein-type creature, for example, and deathly-pale women, and some pretty spooky houses and castles and, yes, the predominant feeling is one of twilight or the night itself. I can see this deck pointing a lot of people in the direction of Gothic novels ("The Castle of Otranto" by Walpole, "The Mysteries of Udolpho" by Ann Radcliffe, but also later, Victorian Gothic work (Poe, etc) and indeed, modern fiction by, among others, Anne Rice.)
So who would enjoy this deck ? Anyone who has ever shuddered or shivered at a Gothic story, whether in the pages of a book or on a screen. And people wishing to explore their darker, shadow side in a serious, non-gimmicky way. I suspect the beginner at tarot would find the darker meanings/reversals rather confusing and not a particularly helpful template for other decks. This is not a criticism, just a recognition that this is a rather sophisticated deck-something to progress towards if the beginner wishes.
Also, if you are a writer or artist who works with the fantastic, the irrational, magic realism, etc. you might find this deck very useful as a launch-pad for creative projects, whether or not you wish to use it as tarot per se. I'm a poet and must say I am finding it very helpful in this respect.
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