#tarock

FRUiTS 158

"Defregger Schutzhaus, Venediger Tirol, 3000 M."

Card from a Tarock deck issued by Ferd. Piatnik & Söhne, Vienna, 1889.

Alright so a few disclaimers before we get to the matter:

I'm focusing on gaming tarot decks as that's what I know most closely. Three from the following five decks are sometimes used for divination, but I own them for gaming purposes. The Swiss deck is actually a translation made in mind with divination (what with the wands and pentacles), but the Swiss use their originals for playing.

Because tarot decks are pretty big, especially in their full card count, and I want you to be able to zoom in without issue, I will be focusing on the trump cards + the fool, in divination known as the Major Arcana. On top of that, I'm focusing on the entirety of the trumps rather than singling out designs I like because the cards are all gorgeous and I don't want to cause the Tarot-jan war.

other than my no1, the order is pretty much arbitrary.

So without further ado, my top 5 sets of tarot trumps!

Number 1 - Industrie und Glück Tarock

I'm totally biased towards this one because it's the first gaming tarot deck I got, the trumps in this picture are from a deck I've had for two years now (though had little occasion to use them :'3), and I got them for a game reconstruction project I undertook those two years back. It's used in much of central Europe, notably Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia. They're also used in one metropolitan area in Silesia, Poland. The game I mentioned reconstructing was also a Polish tarock game.

The rest of this deck consists of 32 french suited (♥♦♣♠) cards - King, Queen, Cavalier, Jack, and then the pips are split by suit - red suits get Ace, 2, 3, 4 while black suits get 10, 9, 8, 7.

In games played with this deck, the Fool (the single card on the far left) is actually a trump.

Number 2 - Tarot Nouveau

Tarot Nouveau is the formal name of the tarot deck used in France and Denmark for their national tarot games - French Tarot and Grosstarock/Danish Tarok respectively. This is the second deck I ever got and due to its indices both on the trumps and suited cards (which similarly to Industrie und Glueck, are french suited, but this time it's a full deck with pips 10-1. The ranking of the pips depends on the game - in Danish tarok reds go in reverse order because that's the older way of ranking them) it saw the most of use and was the deck I use most often to introduce people to tarot games, with tremendous success!

In games played with this deck, the fool is generally the "excuse card", and not a trump. What that means is that you can play it anytime to excuse yourself from following suit. You won't lose the fool, but you will also not win the trick.

It's one of the most easily available decks, search for French Tarot or Jeu de Tarot and you should be able to find it.

Number 3 - Swiss 1JJ Tarot

Oh hey that's me :D

For this deck I went ahead and included examples of the face cards because this deck is just so gorgeous.

Like I mentioned in the disclaimers, despite the translation, this deck is 100% a gaming deck. French and German versions are possible to find in Switzerland, and there's one organisation that publishes it in Rumansch!

You may notice that these trumps are pretty much the same as in divinatory tarot (even setting the translation aside - the magician is never called that in the french and german versions of the deck for example), and that's because divinatory tarot took its design from playing cards. 1JJ is a variation on Tarot de Marseilles (also a gaming tarot used in piemont under the name of tarocco piemontese) and the name comes from a product code which refers to the fact that instead of papess and pope it has Juno and Jupiter.

This deck is used for the games of Troggu and Troccas, the former being a very good introductory point. In those games, the fool has a use in between the two uses I mentioned in the previous two entries.

Number 4 - Tarocco Bolognese

The tarot deck of Bologna, used to play one of the oldest games in Europe. Excuse the sudden change in the ordering of the cards, I only realised my mistake once I was done taking the pictures.

There are a few notable things about this deck - a number of trumps + the fool are unnumbered, and those cards have some sort of importance. On top of that, the numbering starts at 0 (the fool isn't the 0 because it's not a trump), so the Begato (=magician) is at 0, the angel (=judgement but here it's the highest card, I'll get to that) is at 20.

So the first five cards are all unnumbered - the first one is Begato (=magician), then instead of the papess, empress, emperor, pope there are the four so-called moors, which are all equal to each other in rank.

Then the top four trumps are of course the moon, the sun, the world and the angel (=judgement). "but hey, isn't the world the highest card?" outside of italy and in divination? yes! But in Italy, where tarot originates from, the two top trumps are generally ranked in "reverse", to the point that even when playing with the tarocco piemontese deck, which numbers the trumps from 0 (the fool, which is so jarring to me it shouldn't have a number why does it have a number) to 21 (the world), they still put the angel (20) above the world.

This deck is generally only used to play tarocchini (little tarots) - ottocento, millone, quattro scartate (800, 1000, four deals), because the presence of the four moors makes it difficult if impossible to play other games.

Number 5 - Tarocco Siciliano

Another Italian deck! This one is sadly slowly dying out, being made by only one manufacturer, Modiano, while others are seemingly not interested in making it. It's still occasionally used in Sicily, though often people substitute it with the tarocco piemontese deck.

This deck has a few curiosities not found elsewhere, which are in some ways holdovers from another tarot game once played in many parts of Italy, including Sicily, but which is now extinct.

First is the Trump no 0, the Miseria (misery), ranking below the 1, i picciotti (the boys =magician). Then there's the lack of the papess and the pope. In their place we get two new trumps, held over from Minchiate, the game I mentioned earlier. The first is Constancy (4), theo ther is the Ship (14). We also lose the devil (presumably in favour of the miseria). The order is also a bit different - the virtues (constancy, temperance, strength and justice) are right after the emperor, pushing the lovers right next to the chariot.

Another novelty is that the tower isn't having a bad time, it's the only intact tower in tarot.

The world is "replaced" by Atlas, the sky-bearing titan of Greek myth. Though sicilians just call it la palla, the ball. And in place of the angel we get another instance of Jove.

The fool in this deck is also often called the Fugitive: u fujutu, il fuggitivo.

This deck is also the last vestige of portuguese suits in Europe - they survive regionally in Japan too, but originally they were used in Portugal and parts of italy, notably Tarocco Siciliano and Minchiate. Portuguese suits are simply latin suits (clubs, swords, cups, coins) but drawn in a specific way.

✨twin flame readings✨

so aside from the soulmate readings i’ve decided to also do twin flame readings because both topics are ones i’m familiar and have experience working with!

the topic of twin flames by itself is very broad and many have varying opinions on it; a lot of people don’t particularly like the fact that the general definition of twin flames is that there are two people who possess halves of the same soul, BUT. while i do partially agree with that definition, i don’t view it as a bad thing at all which is why i’m doing twin flame readings alongside the soulmate readings (check my blog out for the post with info on the soulmate ones). for any questions regarding how i view soulmates vs twin flames, feel free to DM me!

NOTE: some twin flame relationships are not meant to last; the connection between Twins is one filled with a lot of intensity because of their mirrored qualities and high emotional states and therefore sometimes only serve as passing lessons. because of this, the 7th card in this spread may not point towards the union lasting. HOWEVER, i believe that if you’re willing to put in hard work and communicate with your Twin, anything is possible.

what you’ll receive is a document with each card pictured along with keywords and other things that stand out to me while doing the reading; i will use gender-neutral pronouns and terms in regards to the person unless i get overwhelmingly male or female vibes (i’m non-binary myself so i take much care to not assign gendered terms where it may not be needed) and can describe it as detailed or simple as you wish.

ANTIQUE TAROT CARDS

 Deck of " Industrie und Gluck"  or " Rural Scenes"  tarot cards manufactured by Ferd. Piatnick & Sohne, Vienna. Circa 1910. The Trumps feature rural scenes and costumes from different regions showing a different scene at each end. Trump II (second row) shows a crowned eagle with a sword and sceptre clasped in one claw, perched on a rock bearing the legend "Industrie und Glück". The Ace of Hearts shows t Austrian tax stamp, or 'kartenstempel', showing a two-headed eagle, which was used at that time. 

Item No. CL8

Dimensions. 4 1/2" x 2 5/8" approx.

SOLD

504.581.3733 / t