Friday 7 January 2022

Tarot: Looking at the HR Giger / Baphomet Tarot Deck

I'm a collector of tarot decks, so when I saw a copy of the out-of-print HR Giger Tarot on Oxfam online, I decided to spend some Christmas money. It wasn't cheap, but it was less than I could find it elsewhere, and all the money went to a charity I support.

Sometimes called the Baphomet Deck, the horned one is depicted on two of the cards, including Alchemy, which takes the place of Temperance. As you might expect if you know even a tiny bit about the artist, the cards are disturbing. They are only the major arcana, and all the images are repurposed from earlier work, but I don't think that matters. 

As soon as my purchase arrived, I looked at the cards and picked one as a reading for myself, then looked it up in the book that comes with the set. I then read what others have said about the deck. Generally, comments seem to be that it is worth owning if you're a fan of Giger, but also because the book is really insightful. It's written by the occultist Akron who earlier worked on The Crowley Tarot for US Games Systems. Interestingly, I was also gifted a Crowley Thoth deck for Christmas, filling a gap in essential decks on my shelf.

The Giger/Baphomet deck isn't one I'm ever likely to use for routine readings. Most of the reviews and comments I've read say the same thing. It's more designed for shadow work - looking at things we fear within ourselves in an attempt to work with them rather than ignore them. I won't tell you what card I picked for myself. I'm happy to share my readings for the world, but not my personal insights, especially using a deck like this. I will say it was exactly right for me and clarified my sense of purpose when tackling my goals in the year ahead.

1 comment:

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