Hieronymus Bosch Tarot

Creative homage to surreal art

I count the half hour I stood before Bosch's "Garden of Earthly Delights" in Madrid one of my prime lifetime experiences. And as an amateur tarot reader, when I saw this new deck advertised, I took it as a must purchase. The deck is handsomely designed and feels good in the hand, and the booklet that accompanies it comes with intriguing interpretations of the art and its psychic links to the now-traditional Rider Deck. Purchasers should be aware that McHenry takes great liberties in fabricating new suits and in renaming (and radically reinterpreting) the trumps in the Major Arcana. But some of these feel inspired to me: I find "Female Terror" (replacing the Priestess or Female Pope) an immensely powerful Major Trump card. And new suits featuring birds, berries, and books all seem fruitful ways of exploring the spiritual world. I'm less happy with the restructuring of suits to include only court cards (adding a baron and prince to the traditional four). Readers will need to reserve extra time to internalize all the new ideas mapped out in this deck before trying to use them. But I expect this to be a fruitful challenge.