Arcus Arcanum Deck Review

Arcus Arcanum Tarot

Deck review by Floris Wijers

The Arcus Arcanum Tarot is the product of a happy and mutually stimulating

collaboration of Günter Hager and Hansrudi Wäscher. The first is a German

who was responsible for starting the project and who conceived this deck

and wrote a book about it as well. Hansrudi Wäscher is a Swiss comic strip

illustator whose career goes back as long as the early fifties!

Freely translated 'Arcus Arcanum' means 'Bow of secrets' or 'Mysterious

bow'. "Just as the bow is the connection of two poles or sides, tarot makes

it possible to connect the unconscious with the conscious". The booklet

that comes with the deck is larger than most and does not have the usual

tiny print that almost calls for a magnifying glass to work through it.

Luckily in this case, because the contents are more than worthwhile. The

symbolism and scenes are described in a very down-to-earth manner, as are

the meanings of the cards. This Tarot was not intended to use with reversed

card meanings, but this shouldn't prevent anybody from doing so all the

same. After the description of the Major Arcana, two spreads with sample

readings are presented: 'The Tau cross' (sweet and simple) and the

'Sequence of questions' spread that I find rather cumbersome, but may

appeal to others. The booklet continues with the minors and gives the

Celtic Cross at the end.

This deck has inspired a group of young German artists to produce a musical

based on some of the Arcus Arcanum characters. More information about this

unusual musical can be found on

http://members.aol.com/Tarotmusik/index.htm

Art

The designer of the cards is a well-known comic strip illustrator. Maybe

therefore the images are all lively and the characters very well defined.

Dress and settings are medieval. What is most striking is the imagery on

the minors, that has been achieved with both insight and great creativity.

Moreover, the use of colour is consistent and supports the element

attributed to each suit; red, yellow and oranges for Wands (fire), blue,

turquoise and light green for Cups (water), brown and dark green for Disks

(earth) and grey, purple and dark blue for Swords (air). The pictures were

first drawn with pencil and black ink and then painted with bright but not

bold colour. The execution is brilliant.

Major Arcana

The scenery and symbolism on the Major Arcana cards are traditional for the

most. Cards have slim white borders and a simple rectangle center bottom

with roman numeral and the name of the card on it. Strength is eleven,

Justice eight (as opposed to Waite and his 'followers' but faithful to the

more traditional order - but what is traditional. The oldest cards did not

have numbers on them at all). Some remarkable cards are:

The Fool. A young guy is cheerfully striding towards a cliffend, looking

over his shoulder and not seeing the abyss. Tied to the rod over his

shoulder a bunch of flowers with butterflies around it and his knapsack.

Not a dog, but a black cat is accompanying him. It's not scratching his

leg, but is standing in front of him and looks up to the Fool. It can be

interpreted that the cat is trying to warn the Fool not to fall (as the

booklet wants us to believe), but personally I think the cat is checking if

the Fool is following him and he's kind of looking forward to the ride. In

the distance a rainbow, a waterfall and a castle.

The Lovers card is far from traditional but shows us love, partnership,

upcoming encounters and the choices involved with all of these. Actually

all the themes comprised in traditional pictures, too, but the scene is

different. We're looking at a crossroad. A man and woman, hand in hand, are

arriving and at the same time from the left another woman, and from the

right another man is approaching. They're inevitably going to meet in the

center because they're all heading each other's way. But what is happening

from there?

The Hermit card features a lamp in his hand, but also an hour-glass on it's

side on the ground. The hour-glass actually was the Hermit's original

attribute and not the lamp. The hour-glass on it's side, as in this deck,

is a very dramatic symbol though: Time has lost its importance, has come to

a standstill. The Hermit stepped out of the normal daily routine and

'regular' time is not relevant here.

The moon is unusual because it features a human being (a lady dressed in

white - moon goddess?) who invites us to continue down the road.

The world is a beautiful picture of a woman dancing while a green

ourobouros (snake biting his own tail) circles around her. The four usual

symbols - lion, bull, eagle and human or angel, are hovering around her.

Each of these carries a suit symbol. Purists of Tarot or astrology will

notice that the attributions here are not in line. The eagle is carrying a

sword (air) in his claws, but the eagle is the transformed (or sublimated)

form of scorpio; a water sign. And the man holding a cup stands for

aquarius the water bearer but, admittedly quite confusing, aquarius is an

air sign. Thus, from an astrological point of view the suits are not placed

in the right hands. But then again; it's from a historical point of view

quite arbitrary that 'once upon a time' the desert dweller scorpio was

assigned the element of water and the waterbearer aquarius air.

Court Cards

These are very traditional. Kings and Queens on thrones, knights on horses

and children for pages . Even the colour of their hair follows the old-time

catagorization; sword people black hair, disks brown, cups are blond and

wands red. All carry the symbol of their suit.

Minor Arcana

The minors are the most interesting part of the Arcus Arcanum Tarot. The

'pip' cards have pictures, but these are not the usual Rider-Waite ones.

The meanings are very much in line though and the surprising thing is that

the scenes illustrate these meanings well.

There are only a few small differences from usual meanings but they are

well explained and blend in with the rest of the suit.

Personal evaluation

The Arcus Arcanum Tarot is definately one of my favourite decks, if not my

number one. It has appealing art and powerful imagery on both the Major and

Minor Arcana cards. I have found the images on the Minors in many cases

even more evocative than those of the Rider-Waite. When I first got

acquinted with this deck (which was relatively long after I got to know the

Rider-Waite and its many clones like the Hanson-Roberts and the

Morgan-Greer), I had the feeling I suddenly better understood some of the

art of the good ol' Rider-Waite because of the lucidity of the Arcus

Arcanum Tarot.

The deck combines many aspects: It has good art, it's playful and serious

at the same time and it's not pretentious or conceited. It conveys a very

clear understanding of the Tarot. This is a deck that means a lot to me

personally.

Publishing data:

Arcus Arcanum Tarot

First Published in 1986 by AGMüller, Neuhausen, Switzerland (in a German

and an English edition).

Conceived by Günter Hager and painted by Hansrudi Wäscher.

Book by Günter Hager, "Tarot - Wege zum Leben" (Tarot - way of life),

Urania Verlag AG (dept. of AGMüller, Neuhausen, Switzerland).

Both the deck and book are readily available throughout Europe. The items

are either sold seperately or in a deck/book set. In the United States the

deck is distributed by US Games Systems Inc. I am not sure if the book is

available in the US at all, since I have never seen it advertised there.

Floris Wijers, The Netherlands

e-mail: floris@euronet.nl