Tarot Emblemata: Decoding Magical Symbolism (83 Full-Color Cards and 176-Page Guidebook)

＂This deck teaches us to look beyond the surface, to engage with a gaze of awe, admiration, and reverence.＂
--Laetitia Barbier, author of Tarot and Divination Cards: A Visual Archive

Tarot Emblemata is a magical and mystical tarot deck based on the 1551 book of emblems by Claude Paradin. Renaissance emblems are intimate illustrations with accompanying mottos that allegorically and symbolically express sentiments, concepts, societal concerns, and parables. These Renaissance emblems are a didactic genre of interpretive art and, within them, author and creator Nitasia Roland has discovered that their enigmatic imagery and ＂mottos＂ correspond dynamically and align perfectly with the seventy cards of the Major and Minor Arcana of the tarot.

Among the many ancient and iconic images this deck portrays--plumes, helmets, swords, gemstone rings, coins, wands, clouds, wreaths, flowers, animals, and trees--Roland sees the evolution of tarot’s wands, swords, cups, and coins, as well as evocative glimmers of the Major Arcana archetypes. Both secular and religious, Renaissance emblems were meant to crystallize virtue or vice and cover every sphere of early modern knowledge: ethics, natural philosophy, politics, science, religion, love, war, and everyday life, very much in the same way that modern tarot imagery provides insight and clarity today.

The Tarot Emblemata deck will help readers expand on their path of embodiment, spiritual gnosis, inspired destiny, and empowerment. The accompanying guidebook presents tarot interpretations and elucidations on the symbolism of the emblems. Tarot Emblemata features a ribbon lift and gilded cards. It is an accessible deck for beginners and those familiar with the Rider-Waite-Smith system, while more experienced readers will enjoy a new and refreshing perspective.

Nitasia Roland is a writer, poet, digital artist, and independent researcher and publisher of esoterica. She has an interdisciplinary master’s degree in English, poetry, printmaking, and design as well as an MFA in creative writing, and she has an extensive background in handmade textiles, book arts, teaching Photoshop, and editing and publishing small-press journals. She practices magic/theurgy and divination and is an avid tarot card reader and astrology enthusiast.