THE MAGIC OF CIRO MARCHETTI.

Images speak a thousand words when it comes to the art of Ciro Marchetti. This man's tarot decks weave a spell like no others. The characters are rich, realistic and ready to communicate to the reader. Ciro is a digital graphic designer and has travelled all over the planet teaching and producing imagery that captures a wonderous world of fantasies.

Legacy of the Divine @Ciro Marchetti

Only in solitude do we find ourselves; and in finding ourselves, we find in ourselves,  all our brothers in solitude.

Miguel De Unamuno
Essays and Soliloquies

The Gateway to the Divine Tarot, the accompanying book to the superb deck is like a journey through another alien time where we meet the tarot as a group of characters existing in an ancient civilisation. We journey back to learn the lessons to progress forward. The imagery is based on Waite Rider so we can easily identify with the journey but its been given an alien, terrestrial, planetary type of feel. Even in reading the book we have a slightly cryptic, mystic language to decipher. In fact the book is far from the consciousness of the deck; the images call us and the quotes at the end of the descriptions of the majors are concise with an arrow like wisdom.  Each card is interpreted by a series of readers who we can only identify by initials. Apart from the end quotes for all the cards, the book is not a feature for me.

Legacy of the Divine
@ Ciro Marchetti

   

The cards though are powerful, striking and vibrant. They are also extremely individual.

 Imagine meeting this Queen of Wands? What would your conversation with her be? I love to use the court cards as people that I meet. Whether they be family members or people I work with or socialise. If I have an issue with someone I like to use the court to sort it out. I choose them, and I choose card for me and then decipher how does the story go. I find this a quick way to resolve people's differences. In a reading if someone has a problem with a sibling choose the sibling, choose the client and let them see via the reading how the two court cards would relate. This activity is enormous fun and always reveals in the course of the reading where the differences lie  between the two people. So if I was the Queen of Wands, which we all can be at varying times, I would feel very empowered. If I was meeting the Queen of Wands I would be feeling a need to be on my game. I think she would be a difficult lady to fool.
                 

Legacy of the Divine
@ Ciro Marchetti

Legacy of the Divine
@Ciro Marchetti

 The Minor Arcana  makes me feel like I am walking through alley ways filled with everyday folk especially in the suits of pentacles and cups. I do feel there is a slight inconsistency here with colouring as many decks in the minor arcana journey are all coloured similarly where in this deck cups is blues, green and yellows and the pentacles termed coins are richly green except for the fabulous two of coins image. There is no rule that the minors have to be the same colouring but in this deck I feel disjointed stepping through  the journey. We are jagged at the two of coins, almost like the odd card out in the suit, the two could belong in the wands which are vibrantly red and the least familiar of characters to meet in any alley way. The flow isn't in the journey through the suits, they are all individual, beautifully portrayed images of beings in a streetscape. Each individual is a story unto themselves. I can imagine meeting the three of coins, wandering into his shop or workroom and having a conversation with him.  I feel the sorrow and the grief of the five of cups and know that her pain engulfs her. Marchetti's characters are so easy to engage but they don't flow easily from one card to the next. The suit of the swords is blue and in this suit the imagery becomes more fantastical and less realistic but none the less engaging. The swords take us out into the cosmos which makes me wonder whether Marchetti sees the mental world full of mystical, otherworldly concepts. The wands abstract further away into magicians, dragons and lights in the cosmos. The astrology of these cards is present in some of them and hidden in others. I really love the images of this minor arcana but I feel it is inconsistent. The astrology is an undercurrent in the cards, the imagery is very realistic as with the five of cups and totally cosmic with the eight of swords as if our identity of what the deck is portraying is convoluted.  I believe Ciro Marchetti is a master of images but not necessarily a master of the Tarot at least at the stage of this deck production.

 EEK  DO I DARE SAY SUCH A THING?

I rarely meet a deck that thrills me in every section. 

We know there are three sections in a tarot;

 Major Arcana, Minor Arcana, Court Cards. 

This deck to me presents seventy eight individuals but it lacks the cohesion that makes a tarot deck balance and flow. 

When I work this deck I feel I could be working in three decks at the same time.

The mood characters which are my favourites.

The fantastical, alien otherworldly characters.

The big face characters mostly found in the court but they do drop in to the suits from time to time.  

Legacy of the Divine
@Ciro Marchetti

Legacy of the Divine
@Ciro Marchetti

Ciro Marchetti is a prize winning digital artist.
We can see why in his amazing Tarots of which he has produced many.
The images make us engage deeply with their beauty.

Ciro Marchetti has produced many tarot, oracle and lenormand decks.

OF INTEREST.

Decks by Ciro Marchetti
1.The Gilded Tarot
2.The Tarot of Dreams
3.The Tarot of Divine Legacy
4.Oracle of Visions
5.The Gilded Royale Tarot
6.Gilded Reverie Lenormand
7.Fin de Siécle
8.Tarot Decoratif
9.Tarot de Luxe

https://www.ciromarchetti.com - to see all the wonderful art work and various other items by Ciro Marchetti