Tarot

[poliphilo]

We've just placed an order for some Rider Waite Tarot cards. My daughter is writing this cracking book on Tarot and I've got a partial draft copy and want to be doing the exercises she suggests. We used to have lots of packs but they got lent and given away (which amounts to the same thing) and all we seem to have left- that I can access- is a set of the Mythics which resonated with me once upon a time- but I took them out and looked at them and thought, "No, this ain't me any more" and, as my daughter says, you've got to trust your intuition.

The Rider Waite are the great originals, the first  widely circulated esoteric pack- the fons et origo of all the rest. Also they're Edwardian and so am I (take that however you like- I'm not sure I can explain). The only alternative I'd be happy with would be the Tarot de Marseilles- for that authentic late medieval vibe, only the minor arcana doen't have pictures, just pips- and I can't read them- they're just pips as far as I'm concerned- and I'd have to have a book at my elbow- and that would fuck with my intuition...