The Cartomancer December 2016 Issue

This magazine just keeps getting better. The latest issue has several articles that especially intrigued me.

In the Tarot Art section, Monica Bodirsky’s Lucky Lenormand deck caught my eye. Its swirling, free form watercolor background appeals to me since I adore abstract art. Bodirsky appears twice more. Bonnie Cehovet reviewed her deck, then Bodirsky contributed an article on cartomancy, the proliferation of Lenormand decks, and the role imagery plays in a reading.

Andrew McGregor’s 90-Question deck, featured in the Tarot Art section, supplies very thoughtful questions enhanced by evocative black and white images. I like using these cards with black and white decks.

In the past two issues, Eric K. Lerner discussed the historical background to switching the Justice and Strength cards from the Tarot de Marseille to the Waite Smith order. In his third article, he explains how this switch can affect your readings, especially when using numerology-based techniques, like computing the soul card from the birth date.

Cherry Gilchrist, author of Tarot Triumphs, cites documentary evidence showing that the Hanged Man could be an acrobat or rope dancer rather than a traitor hung in effigy. This very exciting because in some ways the Hanged Man does not look like a traditional medieval shame painting.

Ste McCabe loves Tarot de Marseille and Waite Smith decks equally. He shows the same two-card reading with both decks, talks about their differences, then suggests we use both decks in the same spread!

Christiana Gaudet’s article on feminist tarot flashed me back to the 1980s when, along with Christiana, I discovered radical feminism and the Motherpeace and Daughters of the Moon decks. Since then we’ve evolved from replacing the patriarchy with a matriarchy, to decks that are more balanced and inclusive. Gaudet gives many deck examples.

My contributions: a review of Saleire’s modern take-off on the Visconti-Sforza deck; and an homage to Etteilla who invented modern tarot reading practices nearly 250 years ago.

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