Atlantis

Tarot of Atlantis
Bepi Vigna & Massimo Rotundo (La Scarebo, 2004)

Review
Atlantis sank. This deck endures.

Not least because the first two words of this review are absolutely all you need to know about the subject to appreciate this deck. Or sure, do those who have read their Plato there's little visual rewards, but generally speaking the art is clear and unapologetically inclusive. In fact it's unapologetic about a lot of things.

This is not a deck for the faint-hearted. Ancient life is shown in all its glory- I don't mean the generous portions of male and female nudity, I'm thinking of the orgy happening on the Ten of Cups, or the Knave of Wands sacrificing a goat. But it's not a deck of empty sensationlism either- there's clever, unexpected cards as well. The Lovers are two men wrestling, and Death is a veiled woman weeping for her fallen son.

There's been a fair amount of reseach applied here- The World look a lot like the old T-O maps, like the Hereford Mappa Mundi, and there's a lot of attention paid to robes, pottery and even piles of fruit or childrens' toys, as in the Two of Pentacles. Inevitable, they're mostly Ancient Greek, but with the odd Celtic henge or obelisk and all gently blurred by the fantasy trappings.

For a strictly adult audience this is actually a very good deck, both in terms of reading explicit meaning, or simply seeing how much European sensibilities bring to the art of the Tarot.