Customer Reviews

The Rohrig Tarot Book

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have never seen such a colorful and exciting deck of tarot cards, and I have looked at a lot of them. This set is completely attractive to a younger crowd of tarot readers and has more symbolism in current times than many of the older tarot cards. If you have an interest in tarot, you have to check out this deck.

I was skeptikal when I first received this deck a year ago as a gift from a friend; but the very first time i shuffled it the cards literally came to life in my hands! They have such a presence about them, a life of their own. Very powerful cards!
Vibrant colors, images that you can get lost in for hours, and a very alluring energy.

I am very possessive of this deck. I only use it to do readings for myself, and to do Tarot Spells with. It's one of the very few i keep just for me! I thought for sure this would be a mediocre deck at best, boy was i wrong!!

I originally purchased the cards first. However, whenever I did a spread, I didn't know how to interpret it. This book has been an essential tool and now my friends, family, and co-workers have asked me to do card readings for them.

Thank you.

As I said in my review of the Rohrig, this highly sensual, sexual deck has a lot of subtle differences from the Thoth or the Rider. This companion book will help you navigate these shifts flawlessly, providing deeper insight whenever you are doing a serious tarot reading.

Carl's (fairly traditional) cyclic interpritation of the Major Arcana is quite beautiful. I've seen the theory stated many times, but never with quite the same impact as this book had.

A must read for anyone who wants to take their reading of the Rohrig to a higher level.

"Certainly anyone who is seeking spiritual understanding has heard of the tarot. But what is it? Perhaps the tarot is best described as an initiation into a secret metaphorical language-a language that leads each of us to our own spiritual center." - From the Rohrig Tarot Book

Aesthetically speaking, the Rohrig tarot deck is the most beautifully captivating deck I've seen. In fact, this deck contains some of my favorite tarot images-especially The Fool, Magus, High Priestess, Hermit, and the Court Cards. At first glance, you may think you're looking at a collage deck, especially with images and writing superimposed on torn notebook paper. Upon closer inspection, however, you realize that German artist Carl-W Rohrig has painted each of the vibrant images. Sensuous lines (and bodies), hues of electric blues, starscapes, photo-realism, and stunning visual metaphors grace this sumptuous deck. Another intriguing aspect of the Rohrig tarot is the artist's inclusion of sketches and writing on the cards-mostly on lined notebook paper renderings, but also on the component images themselves.

For example, on the headdress of the Knight of Swords, Rohrig has written-in both English and German-words like passion, flexible, ambition, straightness, thinking, aims, concerning. On the Magus card, the upper part of the Magician's head gives way to a star-lit sky, with a bright super nova at the center. Rohrig has superimposed writings and sketches on the body of the Magus, which include a drawing of a winged foot (Mercury), sketches of lemniscates (the infinity symbol that's above the Magician in RWS decks) and the German words for communication, flexibility, and geniality.

The writings and sketches themselves are an added source for intuitive information, but so are the visual metaphors that Rohrig employs. For example, a large, round eggshell-hued sphere is superimposed on the belly of a naked woman on the Princess of Disks card. With the Judgment card, a trumpet mouthpiece floats below a woman's chin, symbolic of the horn blown on the traditional Judgment card. In fact, a sketch resembling the RWS card is on the lower left of the image.

The cards are quite large, measuring approximately 6 ½ by 3 ½ inches. The backs are non-reversible, but depict a surreal water/spacescapes of blues, violet, and silver-with hints of black, hot pink, and black. The card attributions follow traditional renderings and each of the Major Arcana cards depicts a Hebrew letter, astrological glyph, and rune symbol. These are explained in the Rohrig Tarot Book, but not in the L(ittle) W(hite) B(ook) that accompanies the deck. The LWB is eleven pages and provides key words and phrases for each of the cards. Both the LWB and the Rohrig Tarot Book provide three spreads and an explanation: The Cross, The Seven Cards, and the Partner Spread.

Disks, Swords, Cups, and Wands comprise the Minor Arcana, with the Court titles following the Princess, Prince, Queen, and Knight tradition. At the top of each fully illustrated Minor Arcana card, the suit name is displayed in light gray, almost like a shadow, while the keyword is superimposed in dark black. This could present some difficulty for those new to Tarot or beginning readers, because, at times, the suit isn't obvious-especially with the Cups.

If you're not sure you'd like to work with the Rohrig Tarot, you could always purchase the Rohrig Tarot Book, a 160-page companion book that reproduces each card in full-color on its glossy pages. The only thing missing from the card images in the book are the borders, which include the card title/keyword at top. In the companion book, Francesca Marzano-Fritz provides a thorough treatment of the Majors. Her insights are sharp, accessible, and profound. However, only key phrases are included for the Minors and Courts.

If you're a fan of artist Salvador Dali or collage decks in general, I'd be very surprised if you weren't seduced and enamored by the Rohrig Tarot. Surrealistic and symbolic, this deck captures the senses and stimulates the imagination. It's probably not a good working deck for those new to the tarot, but the Rohrig Tarot is a must-have for those who collect art decks. Personally, this deck doesn't work well for me in terms of readings, however, I've found the cards to be fantastic for contemplation-and I can see how they'd work great for journaling, as well.

(To see 9 images from the Rohrig Tarot, visit the Reviews--Decks section at JanetBoyer.com)

This book is an outstanding companion to the visually compelling deck. I highly recomend both, as long as you like a little of the modern (very German, very 20th century) mixed in with the very old.

I've owned the evocative Rohrig Tarot deck for years now, but much like the Thoth deck its' overloaded with imagry until you get your hands on an in depth book. And here at last (for me) is the book!
The major arcana are really what is covered in the book, both the flow from card to card as well as the symbology. The actions of the people portrayed on the cards is detailed with motivations and backgrounds of their correspondences or mythologies. For the most part these cards are given 2 pages of text and then a full color copy of the card that is just shy of the decks original size.
However the minor arcana get short shrift. Court Cards get an average of three lines of description, and the others a bit shy of two lines. Yet these pictures are no less complex than the major arcana and are such a departure from other decks that I will feel as if I've missed things in them for a long time to come.
Get the book, and then write the 2nd half of it for yourself.

I have both the Thoth Tarot and Rohrig Tarot with me as my most favorite cards of all among tarot cards. The Rohrig Tarot in particular is a more clearer and readable version of the Thoth Tarot Deck. The images are spectacular, beautifully illustrated, and clues to RWS Tarot were written all over. It's a must-have set of deck for all Tarot readers most especially for beginners. When you have the cards, you will also need the book in order to get more familiar with the meanings of the symbols used.

I have had this deck for a while and lost the "cheat sheet" it came with. I don't remember ever reading something like this with my deck. It's informative and gives some pretty good in site into the cards. However, I think some of the text isn't exactly the same as the information included in my desk. But, I could be crazy.

Keep in mind, this book ONLY talks about the major in any depth. It has pictures of the minor with three or four words describing the card.