Golden Tarot of Marseille

This is the most beautiful Marseille deck I have ever seen. It has the traditional palette of vivid primary colors (red, yellow, and blue), but the original designs now shimmer with golden foil backgrounds. Photos don't do justice to these sparkling, reflective cards. They have warm, comforting, and playful energy. The booklet within says, "What you are holding in your hand is the deck of Marseille Tarot drawn in 1751 by Claude Burdel, to which a new colouring and modern gilding has been added to make it even more evocative and capable of stimulating intuition and the imagination." I'm considering buying a second deck at some point because I'm not sure how well the golden foil will handle long-term wear from shuffling. I recommend this deck to anyone who is interested in the history of Tarot and looking to explore symbolism that predates the Rider-Waite. If you are not familiar with Marseille and usually read with decks based on Rider-Waite, keep in mind this is a pip deck, meaning that the Minor Arcana (with the exception of the court cards, of course) does not depict people; only chalices, coins, wands, and swords, like a deck of playing cards. This deck would make an ideal gift for a tarot enthusiast or someone doing professional readings because they are stunningly gorgeous.

This is a fantastic Tarot of Marseille deck! The colors are vivid and the artistic quality of the cards are in my opinion greatly enhanced by being printed on gold foil card stock. These are the larger sized tarot cards; so the legibility of the images are great and they also have a nice tactile quality. They are easy to shuffle and work with. I acquired this deck together with the Golden Art Nouveau Tarot deck, also produced by Lo Scarabeo, Torino. Both are wonderful in their own right. The booklets that come with each deck are pretty limited in terms of explanation; so, novices need to look for other references to augment the skimpy content.

I completely love this tarot deck. It is beautiful and I have a strong connection to it. When I feel lost in the world I can take it out, shuffle it, and pull a card that is spot on. It's like a friend or therapist that knows who I am and gives good insight and advice as to how I can proceed. The pamphlet included is very incisive and gives a clear guide to navigate the deck for a beginner like me. I bought it for readings and it has never let me down. There is true magick in it.

Hermoso! La mejor calidad !

I collect tarot deck and only use one or two and leave the others in order for display and reference purposes. After saying that, when I received the Golden Tarot of Marseille deck and started studying them I just had to shuffle them and play because they are just so inviting and shiny. A good intermediate set of cards. All the titles are in French so either know how to read French or have a good idea of which cards are what. The minor arcana is depicted by pip cards rather than the scenes that decks like Rider-Waite include.

I was a little skeptical about this one, but it turned out to be really nice. First, it’s Tarot de Marseille, which you already have an opinion on. (If you don’t, you can read my reviews of the Ben-Dov CBD and current two Oswald Wirth decks.) So let’s go straight to why I like this Lo Scarabeo deck. Wirth’s deck is very much a fin de siècle product of Levi’s French esoteric tradition, while Ben-Dov’s CBD is a “cleaned up” version of the Conver deck of 1760. The deck under review, however, is Claude Burdel’s deck pretty much as it appeared in 1751–at least as far as the line art goes. Unlike the Ben-Dov CBD deck, it has not been cleaned up or the faces prettied-up for a modern audience. Figures are crudely rendered by modern standards, but are the more charming for it, and have lost none of their power. What makes this deck remarkable, of course, is the gold. The Golden Tarot of Marseille is shiny like bright gold leaf. It is a rich-looking deck that is quite eye-catching. Hold a card up and it catches the light and flashes. Now, this might sound a bit tacky, but it it works. It looks impressive—rich (that word again). Hold up an individual card and enter into glittering meditation. I’m not sure of the manufacturing method, but the result is a robust, shiny metallic background that is cleanly separated from the lines and colors of the images. (Some illustration elements are also done in gold where appropriate.) Lo Scarabeo has even added tiny embossed dots to the background to give a little texture and almost a subtle three dimensional appearance. What’s more, there is no sense that the gold is delicate and in danger of flaking off. Now, compared to more conventionally-printed decks, such shiny gold can render the details of the artwork less bold, depending on how the light strikes the cards. The lines are clean, as are the bright, limited colors. Nonetheless, it is very different from other TDM decks where the cards look the same regardless of lighting. I enjoy how the light plays across a card, sometimes changing it in the twinkling of an eye. However, given that it is not only the background, but often some of the design elements, it can be too much of a good thing. And I’m not quite sure how well it works with an 18th century deck. True, in comparison my go-to Ben-Dov CBD deck is looking a bit tame, and certainly not like a treasure filched from a museum. But I would not want the Golden Tarot de Marseille as my only TDM deck. (As if just one were enough anyway.) Yes, “Golden” decks are a publishing gimmick, That doesn’t have to be a bad thing. But they do have to “read” easily. For comparison, of four “golden” decks of mine, I have to put this third. I do like the 22 oversized Golden Wirth Tarot Grand Trumps by Lo Scarabeo best. The subtle mosaic-like effect is both more visually interesting and easier on the eyes—definitely not “glitter.” I also like their Golden Art Nouveau Tarot, a faithful Rider-Waite-Smith interpretation whose more limited use of a different gold technique is literally less flashy than the deck under review. Last would be the full Oswald Wirth Tarot by U.S. Games that has a much duller gold background and some really uninspired non-Wirth pips. (To avoid confusion, please note that in June 2121 the Symbolic Golden Tarot of Wirth is due out by Lo Scarabeo—another “golden” deck, with, according to the advertising, “carefully researched pips” based on Wirth’s “tetrad” system.) For me, this is probably more of a three-star deck, but it is attractive and well-made. It is just a bit too dependent on how the light hits it to be a 100% reliable reader for me. But if you prefer smaller positional spreads rather than more open readings, or just like shiny objects, this could be a five-star deck for the TdM fancier.

Hermoso. Buena calidad

This beautiful deck has become my favorite for just looking at. I have a small collection of Tarot decks. I'm not a practitioner, I just use them occasionally for my personal satisfaction. Mostly I got them because they are Marseille but no less reason for their beauty. It's not hard to fool myself into thinking I paid a great deal more for them. The deck would be an awesome gift for someone interested in the Tarot. Personally, they're too nice to use often. I have other decks for that. Recommended.

Está hermoso; brilla increíble y de muy buena calidad

クロードバーデル版の背景などを金色にしたものです。箔押しみたいに細かな模様が付いているおかげで、表面に起伏があり、滑りすぎず感触が良いです。イタリア製でした。 背景だけでなく、人物やコインなどに金色が使われていて、少し見づらいと感じたので、星一つ減らしました。

Magnifique. Les arcanes sont dorées métalliques c'est très beau ! Je recommande cet tarot !

El tarot más bonito que he tenido, calidad 10/10

This Golden Marseille Tarot deck far exceeded my expectations. The gold embossing is gorgeous. The cards are made in Italy, and exude an air of quality. I bought this deck for my wife's birthday, and she loves it. Shipping was efficient, and the cards arrived within the specified time period.