The Ring Cycle Tarot

There has, of course, been, what seems, an endless number of differingly themed tarot decks. It would be easy to blame the the occult revival of the  Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
 for this, but only a quick glance at the history of the tarot deck (or should that be decks?) would show that it has always been so. In more recent times, there have been many such decks based on "popular" culture - both officially and unofficially.  For example The Star Wars Tarot and at least two Lord Of The Rings themed tarot decks. It may come as some surprise then, given the esoteric interpretations given to the Ring, at least since the early days of the Theosophical Society, that there has, until now, been no Ring cycle themed tarot deck.  

Well, Allegra Printz, a graduate of The Boston Museum School of Fine Arts,  a professional artist, classical music lover, tarot enthusiast, and student of metaphysics, is about to to correct this oversight. His deck, and explanatory book,  based upon Rackham’s Ring illustrations will be released internationally in May this year. What follows below is the publishers description. 

This beautiful 78-card Tarot deck, adapted from the illustrations of Arthur Rackham, interprets Richard Wagner’s four-part opera, The Ring of the Nibelung, which traces the mythic tale of a golden ring of unlimited power plagued by a deadly curse, loose in the world of the Old Norse and Germanic gods. An End Time prophecy infuses the epic story with thought-provoking, contemporary resonance. The four elemental Tarot suits in this powerful divination tool are realized from four Ring Cycle races: Gods (Fire/Wands), demi-god Walsungs (Water/Cups), human Gibichungs (Air/Swords), and dwarf Nibelungs (Earth/Disks/Pentacles). The accompanying book explores divinatory meanings, lensed partly through the feminine and esoteric, and also delves into The Ring of the Nibelung’s characters, plot, themes, and unique music, which would inspire J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth novels decades later. This deck remains true to the spirit of Wagner, Rackham, and the Tarot, demonstrating useful contemporary insight into all three of these timeless arts.

Size: 11 3/4″ x 6″ x 1 7/8″ | 78 art cards | 256 pp
ISBN13: 9780764348174 | Binding: box set

Allegra Printz, a graduate of The Boston Museum School of Fine Arts, is a professional artist, classical music lover, tarot enthusiast, and student of metaphysics. A fan of both Wagner’s Ring and Rackham’s Ring illustrations for many years, she was creatively inspired to meld them together into a distinctive tarot deck upon discerning how the mythic archetypes of Wagner/Rackham and tarot aligned in a naturally magical way. The Ring Cycle Tarot is the culmination of years of thought, study, and “field testing” the cards in numerous readings.