How The Unknown Wild Tarot Was Released?

The Wild Unknown Tarot is a series of four oracle decks created by artist and author Kim Krans. The iconic imagery of TWU Tarot was hand drawn and self-published in 2012. As its global popularity continued to rise, the deck and guidebook were released with Harper Collins in 2016, landing on the NY Times Bestseller’s list. The Wild Unknown Tarot deck is a popular choice among tarot enthusiasts due to its unique and captivating artwork, featuring subtle, powerful use of color, and striking designs for each arcana.

The Major Arcana cards (also known as Trump cards) form the basis of the Tarot deck and consist of 21 numbered cards. The Wild Unknown Tarot deck is a modern and visually stunning interpretation of traditional tarot cards, with images of wild animals and mystical visions that have expanded to include zodiac prints, jewelry, and even a kids’ deck.

Krans’ mystical vision has expanded to include zodiac prints, jewelry, and even a kids’ deck. The calm, grounded approach to Tarot has been the reason for its popularity. The Wild Unknown Tarot is a 78-card deck with simple but intuitive illustrations based on the animal kingdom and natural world. It was an incredibly popular independent deck when it was published in 2012, and happily is now widely available in a box set that includes the 78 cards and a guidebook.

A compact, portable version of Kim Krans’ blockbuster New York Times bestselling tarot deck and guidebook, designed by Kim herself, retains the mystery, glamour, and allure that made her original deck so popular. The boxed set retains the mystery, glamour, and allure that made her original deck so popular.

What is the oldest deck in the world?

From 1418 to 1450, professional card makers in Ulm, Nuremberg, and Augsburg created printed decks, with playing cards competing with devotional images as the most common uses for woodcuts. Early woodcuts were colored after printing, either by hand or stencils. The Flemish Hunting Deck, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the oldest complete set of ordinary playing cards made in Europe from the 15th century.

As cards spread from Italy to Germanic countries, Latin suits were replaced with the suits of leaves, hearts, bells, and acorns. France initially used Latin-suited cards, but around 1480, French card manufacturers simplified versions of German suit symbols. This resulted in the French suits of trèfles (clovers), carreaux (tiles), cœurs (hearts), and piques (pikes). The names pique and spade may have derived from the sword (spade) of the Italian suits.

In the late 14th century, Europeans changed the Mamluk court cards to represent European royalty and attendants. The earliest courts were originally a seated “king”, an upper marshal holding his suit symbol up, and a lower marshal holding it down. The Ober and Unter cards still found today in German and Swiss playing cards were replaced by the “Knight” and “Fante” or “Sota” before 1390, possibly to make the cards more visually distinguishable.

What is the No 1 Tarot card?

The Magician, also known as The Magus or The Juggler, is the first trump or Major Arcana card in traditional tarot decks, used for game playing and divination. In the occult context, the trump cards are recontextualized as the Major Arcana and given complex esoteric meaning. In this context, the Magician is interpreted as the first numbered and second total card of the Major Arcana, succeeding the Fool. In French, Le Bateleur, also known as “the mountebank” or “sleight of hand artist”, is a practitioner of stage magic.

In Italian tradition, he is called Il Bagatto or Il Bagatello. The Mantegna Tarocchi image of the Magician is labeled Artixano, the Artisan, and is the second lowest in the series. 18th-century woodcuts of the Magician reflect earlier iconic representations and can be compared to free artistic renditions in 15th-century hand-painted tarots.

What is the No 1 tarot card?

The Magician, also known as The Magus or The Juggler, is the first trump or Major Arcana card in traditional tarot decks, used for game playing and divination. In the occult context, the trump cards are recontextualized as the Major Arcana and given complex esoteric meaning. In this context, the Magician is interpreted as the first numbered and second total card of the Major Arcana, succeeding the Fool. In French, Le Bateleur, also known as “the mountebank” or “sleight of hand artist”, is a practitioner of stage magic.

In Italian tradition, he is called Il Bagatto or Il Bagatello. The Mantegna Tarocchi image of the Magician is labeled Artixano, the Artisan, and is the second lowest in the series. 18th-century woodcuts of the Magician reflect earlier iconic representations and can be compared to free artistic renditions in 15th-century hand-painted tarots.

How was tarot developed?

Tarot decks were invented in Italy in the 1430s, adding a fifth suit of 21 specially illustrated cards called trionfi (“triumphs”) and an odd card called il matto (“the fool”). These cards bore Italian suitmarks and belonged to an experimental period of card design when queens were often added to the series of court cards previously consisting of only a king and two male figures. In standard cards, the four figures were subsequently reduced to three again by suppressing the queen, except in French cards, which suppressed the cavalier (knight).

The trionfi each bore a different allegorical illustration instead of a common suitmark, possibly representing characters in medieval reenactments of Roman triumphal processions. They were originally unnumbered, so it was necessary to remember their order. When added to the pack, trionfi functioned as a suit superior in power to the other four, acting as a suit of triumphs or “trumps”.

Which is the strongest tarot card?

The Fool is a card in tarot games, not part of the Major Arcana. In most games, the Fool is independent of both plain suit cards and trump cards, and does not belong to either category. Tarot decks originally made for game playing do not assign a number to the Fool indicating its rank in the suit of trumps. The Fool is one of the most valuable cards in almost all tarot games.

In tarot games originating from Italy and France, the Fool has a unique role, sometimes called “the Excuse”. In these games, the player excuses the player from following suit or playing a trump. At the end of the trick, the player takes back the Fool and adds it to their trick pile, giving the trick’s winner the least valuable card from that same pile. If there are no cards to give in exchange, the Fool is worth one point less and an extra point is given to the trick-taker.

In a minor variant option of French tarot, a player dealt trump 1 but with no other trumps or the Fool can make trump 1 behave the same as the Fool. In official tournament rules, a player in this situation must declare their hand and force a redeal.

What is the science behind tarot cards?

Tarot cards have been found to have psychological influences, but they can still have beneficial effects on a person’s mental health when used in a therapeutic context. A 2009 study found that regular users of Tarot cards used them as a tool for self-reflection, providing insight into their current life situations and providing comfort during difficult times. They also used Tarot cards as a tool for positive reinforcement, drawing cards intentionally and randomly to provide insights about their own lives.

Some co-researchers kept a card with them until their goals were resolved, claiming that Tarot does not reveal new information but can provide a new perspective on an issue that can influence a plan for a possible course of action.

This study highlights the potential of Tarot as an effective therapeutic tool, despite the foundational psychological effects behind its mainstream use. Further research on the beneficial impacts of Tarot in a therapeutic setting would involve examining a larger number of participants from a wider variety of backgrounds. Regardless of the reason behind a person’s use of Tarot cards, they have maintained a strong presence in society and have the potential to do more than just predict the future.

Is tarot card reading true?

Early French occultists claimed that tarot cards had esoteric links to ancient Egypt, the Kabbalah, Indic Tantra, or the I Ching. However, scholarly research reveals that tarot cards were invented in Italy in the early 15th century for playing games, and there is no evidence of significant use of them for divination until the late 18th century. The belief in the divinatory meaning of the cards is closely associated with a belief in their occult properties, which was propagated by prominent Protestant Christian clerics and Freemasons.

From its uptake as an instrument of divination in 18th-century France, the tarot went on to be used in hermeneutic, magical, mystical, semiotic, and psychological practices. It was used by Romani people when telling fortunes and as a Jungian psychological apparatus for tapping into “absolute knowledge in the unconscious”, a tool for archetypal analysis, and even a tool for facilitating the Jungian process of individuation.

What is the most famous tarot deck?

The Rider Waite Smith Tarot is a popular deck for tarot card reading, first published by the Rider Company in 1909. It was based on the instructions of academic and mystic A. E. Waite and illustrated by Pamela Colman Smith, both members of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The deck has been published in numerous editions and inspired a wide array of variants and imitations. Over 100 million copies circulate across 20 countries.

The images in the deck are simple but feature abundant symbolism. Some imagery remains similar to earlier decks, but overall, the Waite-Smith card designs are substantially different from their predecessors. Christian imagery was removed from some cards and added to others, such as the “Papess” becoming the “High Priestess” and the “Lovers” card resembling naked Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Minor Arcana is illustrated with allegorical scenes by Smith, unlike earlier decks.

Symbols and imagery in the deck were influenced by 19th-century magician and occultist Eliphas Levi and the teachings of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. To accommodate astrological correspondences taught by the Golden Dawn, Waite introduced several innovations to the deck, such as changing the order of the Strength and Justice cards to correspond with Leo and Libra, and based the Lovers card on Italian tarot decks.

What is the oldest extant tarot deck?

The Sola Busca tarot is the earliest 78-card tarot deck, featuring all plain suit cards illustrated and trump card illustrations deviating from classic tarot iconography. Created by an unknown artist in the late 15th century, the deck is notable for its age and quality of artwork, featuring expressive figures engraved with precise contours and shading. The Sola-Busca deck comprises 78 cards, including 21 trumps (trionfi), the Fool (Matte), and 56 suit cards.

The names and illustrations on the trump cards are somewhat idiosyncratic for its time, a trait shared by later French suited tarot decks like the Bourgeois Tarot and the Industrie und Glück Tarock decks.

The characters depicted in the Sola-Busca cards include Nebuchadnezzar and Gaius Marius, the uncle of Julius Caesar. Trump cards loosely follow the rise and fall of the Roman Empire but also include members of the Roman Pantheon such as Bacchus. All characters can be easily linked to their equivalents in standard tarot decks.

What is the world’s oldest tarot deck?

The Visconti-Sforza Tarot, painted in the mid-15th century for the rulers of the Duchy of Milan, is the oldest surviving tarot cards. In 15th century Italy, the set of cards included in tarot packs, including trumps, was consistent, with two main exceptions. Some late 15th century decks, like the Sola Busca tarot and the Boiardo deck, had four suits, a fool, and 21 trumps, but none of the trumps match tarot ones. The Visconti di Mondrone pack, one of the Visconti-Sforza decks, originally had a Dame and a Maid in each suit, along with the standard King, Queen, Knight, and Jack.

The pack also included three trump cards representing the theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. Despite a Dominican preacher’s criticism of the evil inherent in playing cards, no routine condemnations of tarot were found during its early history.

Is tarot becoming popular?

The mainstream popularity of tarot cards is unprecedented, with the timing of this resurgence attributed to the internalisation of meaning and truth in contemporary society. Tarot has over 8 billion views on TikTok, where digital readings have become enormously popular. Luxury brands have also leaned into tarot, with decks created by Armani Casa in 2023 and Dior’s 2021 haute couture collection and short film inspired by it during the pandemic.

The embrace of tarot cards by both luxury and mass market brands reflects their unique position as objects that are vaguely understood by most people while retaining a sense of mystery unless one is “in the know”.

While some brands may seem to have a passing interest in tarot, the rise of tarot should not be dismissed as a product of opportunism. For a growing portion of society, tarot is a foundational part of their identity and a rich source of inspiration for many creatives.