Margarete Petersen Tarot

Mind Body & Soul Ezine Card Review: Margarete Petersen Tarot by Margarete Petersen, published by AGM Urania, £29.99 Pack contains 78 tarot cards and explanatory leaflet. In English and German language versions. 
Card size: 14.8 x 10.2 x 3.6cm and therefore larger than the average tarot card, these cards are based on 78 individual dream-like paintings by Margarete Petersen, the artist and creator of this distinguished and novel deck. 



Ms Petersen lived in Bavaria, the Italian part of Switzerland and is now residing in Berlin. Her paintings are fairly surrealistic but colourful, creative with unusual motifs. Each card bears a number and a title as well as an artwork related to the tarot card. Some of the Major Arcana have been awarded new titles, such as 'Magic', 'The Crone', 'Trial', 'Mediatrix' and 'Renewal'. The four suits represent Earth, Air, Fire and Water and are given titles of coins, feathers, flames and cups and have different colouring. Court cards bear the titles, 'Mother', 'Father', 'Daughter' and 'Son', the pip cards are titled and numbered. Each of the Majors carry a poem to enhance the understanding of the energy. There is information in the booklet about how the deck was created and at the back there is a section about using the cards for oneself or for others. No meanings were offered in the booklet for inverted (upside-down) cards so presumably the deck is to be used only for upright meanings; the card backs are not easily recognisably when inverted except by someone familiar with the deck. I think this tarot is for the experienced enthusiast, someone who is 'arty', stylish with a flair for the modern.

Card chosen here as a sample is titled 'Wheel of Life' with a prose poem: Revolving, not standing still, no beginning, no end. Revolving you can't escape. Revolving - holding on to happiness, Holding on to suffering. Lost in the magnetic field of revolving. Round and round you go, wondering why nothing is resolved. When the blindness of love thaws, you regain your sight. Subtle shifts in orbit. You'll find the answer by the river.  The Wheel of Fortune is the Wheel of Life. Within its adventure, serendipity and unknown twists and turns, there is also that which is known and that which is predictable.  

 

The Crone. She is an aging woman, passed her prime of life and over her menopause. She is an old traveller through life and is now on a dedicated spiritual journey as she prepares for what lies ahead in silence and alone. She is listening to the voice of the heart - to emotions and feelings as she moves closer to her need to understand the world and become a wise woman, at last! The card depicts the energy of darkness, as in the darkness the seed germinates, and the sleeper dreams of revelations. The incubation creates ‘catharsis’, a breakthrough of enlightenment. 

Reviewer: Wendy Stokes: www.wendystokes.co.uk