Legacy Of The Divine

Legacy of the Divine Tarot
Ciro Marchetti (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2009)

Review
Is that distant beeping sound my Pretentious Twaddle detector going off? Difficult to say.

The black borders on both the front and back of all the cards set off the glowing colours, but does lend a rather oppressive air to the whole deck. Generally I'm not a fan of black borders on tarot decks- sure, it looks dramatic, but it can often upset the nervous by making every card look scarier than it actually is.

This unsettling effect is especially prominent on the Knight cards. Instead of people, we have a series dramatic helms (there's altogether too many horns and spikes for them to be called helmets) with blank eye-holes starting out at us. It's unnecessarily dehumanising, but exceptionally well-rendered.

Still, there's some lovely little touches all the way through. For example, The Hierophant is now Faith, show a Buddhist priest, a Rabbi, an Imam and a Cardinal all apparently at prayer. Yes, it's still of elderly patriarchs, but it's a particularly warm and embracing take on the card.

Hmm. I've just read the book that accompanies this deck. The first part of this book is actually a novella, of all things.I'm currently torn between wondering if this is a unexpected gift, or a Premier League piece of self-indulgence.

In fact, torn is how I feel about this deck generally. I think everyone is going to have to decide whether they consider it beautiful, or merely an exercise in egotism.