Destiny, synchronicity or whatever else the reason, it came that I, within a few weeks, received two tarot
decks devoted to the lives of Gay people. One, "Gay Tarot" came from Catholic Italy and one "Brotherhood
Tarot" from the stronghold of the Gay or "Radical Faeries" community in San Diego, California. So wide apart
in origin and such different decks.
The "Brotherhood Tarot" was sent to me by its creator and publisher Pipa, who mentioned that Stuart R. Kaplan
of US Games Inc. recommended him to do so. Taking into consideration that the majority of my reviews of decks
from US Games are not overwhelmingly positive, I am still wondering, how it came to that.
The declared purpose was to invent "...a tarot deck that would speak to the spiritual nature of gay men". The
"Brotherhood Tarot" is based upon digitally manipulated color photographs by Patric Stillman. The
manipulation can, for example, be that a highlight is laid in here and there, a halo or shining rainbow
colors added, or skin colors changed from tanned to green. Compared to present day standards, the computer
manipulation is not convincing. We are right in sunny California in the middle of an out-of-door scenery in
company with men, exclusively men. While the Italian "Gay Tarot" gave us a few glimpses of the female gender,
these guys here have eliminated women completely. "They are out of the picture; we are men and we are happy about
that, we are ourselves, we are the world. We are all ages - except young -, some of us are in leather,
many have tattoos, some are meditative, some play with weapons and fire, some shout, some fight. We are
having fun and we want to expose it", could the manifesto be.
Even less than in the Italian "Gay Tarot" the traditional suits of the tarot play only a minor part, if a
part at all. This is just a series of 78 pictures. The page of Swords carries an axe, while the 6 of Swords
has a staff. Confused? Most major arcana cards could just as well be number cards and vice versa. In a
promotional paper, the editor states that, for example, the suit of Cups retells the story of Zeus's desire
for Ganymedes. That story and others will be told in a book published later on. However, the book is not
here yet, and if there are stories told, it is not obvious from the cards themselves. That the deck follows
the structure of the so-called "Rider-Waite" is not obvious to me. Not that I would prefer it did so, but
the creators state, that it does.
When people make it a virtue to expose their sexual preferences, the question "What about eroticism in this
deck" could justly be asked. Well, I am not the one to answer to what extent this deck has an explicit
build-in sexuality, that may appeal to someone. Personally, I find the nakedness exposed on some cards more
laughable than anything else. Many have been tempted to create a photographic tarot but, with a few
exceptions, they have not succeeded. It takes more than just dressing up a couple of amateur actors and then
going outside shooting.
Destiny, synchronicity or whatever else the reason, it came that I, within a few weeks, received two tarot
decks devoted to the lives of Gay people. One, "Gay Tarot" came from Catholic Italy and one "Brotherhood
Tarot" from the stronghold of the Gay or "Radical Faeries" community in San Diego, California. So wide apart
in origin and such different decks.
The declared purpose was to invent "...a tarot deck that would speak to the spiritual nature of gay men". The
"Brotherhood Tarot" is based upon digitally manipulated color photographs by Patric Stillman. The
manipulation can, for example, be that a highlight is laid in here and there, a halo or shining rainbow
colors added, or skin colors changed from tanned to green. Compared to present day standards, the computer
manipulation is not convincing. We are right in sunny California in the middle of an out-of-door scenery in
company with men, exclusively men. While the Italian "Gay Tarot" gave us a few glimpses of the female gender,
these guys here have eliminated women completely. "They are out of the picture; we are men and we are happy about
that, we are ourselves, we are the world. We are all ages - except young -, some of us are in leather,
many have tattoos, some are meditative, some play with weapons and fire, some shout, some fight. We are
having fun and we want to expose it", could the manifesto be.
Even less than in the Italian "Gay Tarot" the traditional suits of the tarot play only a minor part, if a
part at all. This is just a series of 78 pictures. The page of Swords carries an axe, while the 6 of Swords
has a staff. Confused? Most major arcana cards could just as well be number cards and vice versa. In a
promotional paper, the editor states that, for example, the suit of Cups retells the story of Zeus's desire
for Ganymedes. That story and others will be told in a book published later on. However, the book is not
here yet, and if there are stories told, it is not obvious from the cards themselves. That the deck follows
the structure of the so-called "Rider-Waite" is not obvious to me. Not that I would prefer it did so, but
the creators state, that it does.
When people make it a virtue to expose their sexual preferences, the question "What about eroticism in this
deck" could justly be asked. Well, I am not the one to answer to what extent this deck has an explicit
build-in sexuality, that may appeal to someone. Personally, I find the nakedness exposed on some cards more
laughable than anything else. Many have been tempted to create a photographic tarot but, with a few
exceptions, they have not succeeded. It takes more than just dressing up a couple of amateur actors and then
going outside shooting.