Eclectic Tarot

Eclectic Tarot
Josef Machynka, 1986

This deck of 78 colorful cards was printed in 1986 by Piatnik Vienna. The Eclectic Tarot is so named because the artist included a diverse mix of Tarot traditions into the card designs. At the same time, his intent was to “make no changes that are not justified by tradition and source material, and to pursue the goal of clarifying the symbology.”

While Machynka has added plenty of artistic and symbolic touches to his Trumps, his underlying designs show connections with older Italian decks. Cards such as The Star and The Sun below show compositions which have similarities to decks such as the Soprafino Tarot. There are also influences from the Waite-Smith deck, as well as from ’Egyptian style’ decks such as the designs by Wegener. I think this deck is compelling, in fact, because it combines these various traditions without straying too far from classical Tarot imagery.

Reading his Preface in the little booklet, it is clear that the artist has a deep respect for the classic decks, and that he finds that many modern decks have “little or nothing to do with the historical tradition, although certain features in the symbology and the heirarchy of the cards have remained consistent.” He therefore explains that his images were not originally created to add yet another deck to those already published, but were a personal expression of his own studies. Eventually he decided, having put so many years into the work, that the cards might have a wider appeal.

One system underlying this deck is that of Pythagorean mathematics, which Machynka says he has laced into the images in subtle ways. He also references the work of Papus and the formula of the Tetragrammaton. Other influences include the Hebrew Kabbalah and Egyptian symbolism. The three pip cards above are nice examples of how he has woven these complex philosophies into otherwise straightforward designs. The connections are there for us to discover on our own, the booklet containing only brief analysis of the Majors and simple divinatory meanings for the Minors.

The illustrations are detailed and use vivid colors. For some reason, the proportions and expressions in the court cards appear somewhat naive when compared to the Trumps. The Knight of Coins is a typical example. All of the Trumps, in fact, have a greater degree of detail than the minor arcana. This may reflect the possibility that the artist spent less time with them than he did with the major arcana, or that the original illustrations for the majors may be larger than those for the minors. The Trumps are in fact very beautiful, the figures are elegant and the scenery is detailed. Trump XIII above is one of the more beautiful versions of Death I can think of.

Review by Mark Filipas, 4/13/00