Synopses & Reviews
The Haindl Tarot is a rare mix of high art, Tarot esoteric tradition, and worldwide spirituality. Its striking beauty and deep tradition have already made it one of the most popular and respected decks of the modern Tarot tradition. The 22 Major Arcana cards are lush and powerful as they portray Haindl's great lesson of dedication to the Earth. Each card contains symbols from astrololgy, the Kabbalah, and the Germanic Runes.
The four suits of the "Minor Arcana' reflect the wisdom of the entire world, for Hermann Haindl has based each suit on the spiritual and artistic traditions of cultures from around the planet. Swords are Egyptian, Wands are Indian, Cups are European, and Stones (Pentacles in older decks) are Native American.
The book for The Minor Arcana explains all these symbolic structures and how they fit together. It explores recurrent symbols and the different ways they manifest in individual cards. The divinatory meanings for each card clearly indicate how they work when they appear in actual readings that we do with the cards.
The Minor Arcana actually consists of two parts, the numbered cards in each suit -- Ace through 10 -- and the four "Court" cards. In Tarot tradition these are King, Queen, Knight, and Page. Haindl has changed these to Mother, Father, Daughter, and Son, and has used these cards to represent a panorama of the Gods and Goddesses from different cultures. Rachel Pollack not only explains who these Gods are, but also how we can use the Haindl cards to invoke them in our own lives.
To write about these remarkable cards, Rachel Pollack traveled to Germany and spent weeks living with Hermann Haindl and his wife, Erica. Together, they went over everycard, its symbolism, its inner levels, its esoteric history. The result is a book countless admirers of the Haindl Tarot have described as "indispensable" to a full knowledge and use of the deck. Rachel describes each card in great detail. She lists each symbol and describes the card's spiritual meaning as well as the way these meanings appear in readings.
The section on readings comprehensively explains how to do Tarot readings, what we can learn from them, and how to interpret the cards. Rachel gives several layouts, or "spreads, " including one developed specifically for the special beauty and wisdom of the Haindl Tarot. Several sample readings demonstrate how a reading can reveal truths and guide us on our spiritual path.