3.0/7.0
Hello all and welcome to episode 24 of The Wytch Files! This month I have a review of the novel The Fortune Teller written by Gwendolyn Womack. The novel focuses on an ancient tarot deck and the ancient family of female seers who use the deck for prophecy. I thought it would be interesting and fun to include a brief history of the tarot along with the review because I'm a nerd for all things divination. The episode as a whole is very long so I have split it up into two parts for easier listening. This is part 1 of the episode and part 2 should be up in a few short weeks (maybe sooner) as episode 25.
In the episode, I mention three Visconti group tarot decks and beautiful reproductions of these decks can be purchased today. U.S. Games Systems, Inc. has beautiful reproductions of the Visconti-Sforza tarot and the Cary-Yale Visconti deck which you can purchase directly from them, at a local occult/card shop or on Amazon. If you are on a budget and would like to get a cheaper but still beautiful version of the Visconti-Sforza or if you just need a study deck, I recommend The Golden Tarot by Mary Packard which also comes with a book that provides a bit of historical background.
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| Cards from Visconti-Sforza tarot deck |
Maestro Osvaldo Menegazzi, the artistic powerhouse behind the tarot shop Il Meneghello in Milan, Italy, has created gorgeous, hand-made, quality reproductions of both the Visconti-Sforza and the Cary-Yale Visconti (a/k/a Visconti Di Modrone). These are beautiful, quality limited editions with small print runs which are more expensive. If you are in the U.S.A., you can purchase the decks (provided they are not sold out) from CollecTarot & Books which sells unique and vintage tarot cards. They are located in Colorado so it is a great way for U.S. customers who want to purchase Il Meneghello decks to save on shipping. If you are located in Europe, a great site to purchase Il Meneghello decks is at Tarot BG.
I also mention Robert M. Place in the episode who is an artist, writer, tarot historian, tarot/occult teacher and deck creator. His books and website were an invaluable resource for me when putting together this episode and I want to thank him wholeheartedly! Not to mention that his tarot, Lenormand and playing card decks are phenomenal and are enhanced by his gorgeous artwork!
Mary K. Greer is another tarot teacher and historian that I turn to time and time again. Her blog was another great resource for me when putting together the history of the tarot. Her tarot books and blogs are great learning resources for cartomancy as well.
Other great tarot historians to check out are: Sir Michael Dummett and Ronald Decker, Paul Huson, Thierry Paul and Stuart R. Kaplan among others. If you have an interest in the history of the tarot be sure to check out their books. In terms of websites, Tarot Heritage is a great historical resource for tarot cards.
The great Egyptian goddess Wadjet is mentioned in the episode and Edward P. Butler's blog Henadology has a great blog post on the goddess. The Kemet Orthodoxy has a short write up about Wadjet written by Reverend Tamara Siuda. Livius.org has a short article on the god Ammon and a brief account of Alexander the Great's visit to the Oracle of Siwa.
I want to thank you all in advance for checking out these show notes and if you haven't already done so, please listen to the episode on your favorite podcast application, who knows, you may discover a wee passion for that most ancient art of card divination!
The music for this episode was provided by Free Music Archive. The featured songs are "Peneceresi Yola Kersi" by Torku, Nomads of the Silk Road, "Goldenshteyn" by Rozsa, "Avareh" by Mamak Khadem and Charles Camille Saint-Saens' "Le Carnaval des Animaux- XII Fossile" played by Aitua.
Theme music X-Files Theme Parody by Mallon Khan.
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