Divine Deco Tarot

Divine Deco Tarot

Changes in majors: traditional names

Suit names: Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles 

Court cards: Page, Knight, Queen, King

Extra cards: no extra cards 

The Divine Deco Tarot was published by the Albanian artist Greta O. Egy in 2023. It is borderless, and the card titles of the Majors are inserted into a simple banner at the bottom of the card. The Roman numerals for the Majors and Minors are printed in an unobtrusive colour at the top of the cards, and there are no suit names on the Minors. Since the suit symbols feature prominently on the cards, you won’t miss them.

The card and suit names are traditional, and the deck follows the RWS system (Strength is VIII and Justice is IX). If you know the RWS core meanings of the cards, you can read with this deck right out of the (very simple carton tuck) box.

Since the cards are borderless and many cards feature dancers on stage, the cards connect well and have a flow between them that makes them easy to read in a narrative style.

All cards depict dancers in intricate and dynamic poses, so this deck gives off a sense of movement and drama. It’s drawn in a clear, graphic Art Deco style with thin contour lines in various colours.

The artist uses abstract graphic backgrounds with geometrical patterns. She also uses a lot of Balkan-inspired folklore patterns that remind me of textile folk art.

The colours are strong, but muted. They are not completely saturated like primary colours, but hues of blue, turquoise, mustard, pink, purple and brown. The artist uses strong contrast between bright and dark, warm and cold, saturated and muted colours to great effect. Some cards are quite sombre, which may make it difficult to see details at first; others are bright and energetic, but each card conveys a lot of emotion.

Each card is composed beautifully, often in balanced asymmetry that leads the eye from the dancer to the suit symbols and back again to the dancer. If you look at the card longer, you can easily imagine a whole scene being acted out, translating the well-known RWS images into the language of music, stage design and dance movements.

Some cards feature only one dancer acting out a feeling, others show couples or groups of people interacting with each other. Additional elements like flowers, animals and abstract patterns underline the mood of each card.

The whole deck looks to me like an homage to the Ballets Russes, the legendary dance troupe founded by the impresario Dhiagilev in the early 1900s that took the world by storm. Its aesthetic influenced fashion, interior design and the world of ballet and theatre until today, and the names of its principal dancers became legends, like Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova and Tamara Karsavina.

The artist Leon Bakst, who was responsible for the stage design and costumes of the Ballets Russes, seems to have inspired the artist of the Divine Deco Tarot. The Russian artist Ivan Bilibin, who also worked for Dhiagilev, used Russian folklore motifs and borders in his art. I admire both Bakst and Bilibin, so this deck is right up my alley.

It’s a beautiful deck that feels luxurious despite its simple presentation (no booklet, a no-frills tuckbox and basic cardstock). It shuffles well, the size is perfect, and for me, it’s a solid reading deck. If you love dance and are as fascinated by the world of the Ballets Russe as I am, this fusion of “high art” and folklore, you may like this deck.