Wednesday, 17 October 2018

Tychonievich's Meditations on a Tarot

The Magician, from a Lord of the Rings Tarot pack I happen to possess 

A very intriguing post from William James Tychonievich (long-serving and frequent commenter on this blog) regarding The Magician card of the Tarot.

2 comments:

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

Thanks for noticing the post, Bruce! I think you were pretty much the first person to read it.

Mithrandir should clearly be the Hermit, I think. The card pictured betrays an excessive focus on the word "Magician" rather than on the actual nature of that card. (The Tarot Magician is always a young man, for one thing, and has nothing of the "wizard" about him.) Who would make a better Tolkienian Magician? I'm not sure. Fëanor perhaps?

Bruce Charlton said...

@William - Indeed. My impression is that the artist of these LotR cards was not genuinely 'inspired' in his work; in the way that Pamela Colman Smith (Rider-Waite) apparently was.