Tarot and Divination Cards: A Visual Archive

by Laetitia Barbier

A stunning visual history of tarot

Used for self-exploration or divination, tarot has, for more than 500 years, been the most popular and accessible of all esoteric tools, looming large in today’s mainstream culture. Why? Because the cards are inexpensive and easy to carry—a perfect traveling companion and, therefore, an invitation to a journey inward and out.

Humans are drawn to playing games and feel driven to find meaning in the chaos of paradoxical signs. The vivid iconography of the “Arcanas” speak to us like no other language, moving us to the core, weaving through each card a universal story, a metaphorical pathway of transformation.

This 400-page book presents—for the first time—a close look at 500 years of figurative card decks created or used for fortune telling, divinations, and oracle purposes, and explores, one card at the time, their iconographic roots at the crossroads of the medieval imaginarium, Western esoteric wisdom, folklore, and also contemporary art and pop culture. With hundreds of images drawn from more than 100 decks, rarely published and often forgotten in library archives, this book offers the first visual history of tarot.

Genres: Tarot, Art, Nonfiction, Occult, Magic, Witchcraft, Divination

400 pages, Hardcover

First published December 14, 2021

Reviews

[daemyra, the realm's delight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another beautiful tarot book for the coffee table. It’s not perfect, but the essays are up-to-date with current tarot thinking.

Knocked off a star tho because for me, was hoping for more of a theme to the visual history of tarot beyond the author’s personal preferences. The tarot cards shown are beautiful but lack a more compelling structure, in my perspective.

[Queer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn’t really cover Rider Waite variants.

[Chris Browning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Because of my very rigid religious upbringing I get a frisson of danger just seeing the book on my to read pile, and I have to say that’s probably one of the reasons why it’s taken me so long to finish this. Because part of me still worries I’m basically sealing my hellish fate just by owning the thing. The other reason is that it’s absolutely bloody gorgeous, a feast for the eyes that’s a lot to take in and so demands slow and careful reading. I can’t claim to understand even half of the text, but it’s beautifully evocative and the whole book balances classic and strange older tarots with more modern and unusual variations. A truly fascinating book

[Jonathan Frederick Walz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall quite good, interesting,and useful...but the project needed a copy-editor.Which makes me sad, because it could've been a 5 1/2 star book, but ...

[Penny Wright · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pictures were neat, but the writing was really lacking. This is written by an art historian, and it's pretentious as heck. I barely made it through the introduction before rolling my eyes.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful art. I wanted more history. I think there’s a historical work out there to be written with these pretty of pictures.

[Roberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book

This is an astonishing book...full of beautiful images and very accurate information for interpretation and analyses.
Brilliant and very well integrated. Very good collection of decks images on tarot and other decks.

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art is beautiful. However... I don't know. It's not bad for what it is, but I think it's kind of a... missed opportunity.