PUBLISHER: THE MIT PRESS | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Tarot cards in the modern age have mostly become a way of presenting art in a specifically themed way. Each card has a meaning and combined they can be used to describe the human experience. These days, tarot sets tend to be designed to tell stories or communicate ideas, rather than a way of pretending to tell the future. Case in point, MIT Press’ new deck, the Women of Science Tarot.
This is not a deck of cards intended to convince the gullible that you have supernatural powers. Instead, it uses the broad themes of the Tarot to make the user aware of many of the women who have shaped the world using the power of science. The traditional suits of cups, wands, coins and swords have been replaced with Nano, Micro, Macro and Astro. This allows the set to cover a broad field of science innovators without getting bogged down in specific disciplines. It also purges the deck of anything even remotely occult.
Each minor arcana card features an illustration of a significant innovator as well as their name. The style is a little samey; the artist attempts to capture the person’s achievements whilst making it still look like a playing card. The result is a little bland, but interesting nonetheless. It’s more informative than inspirational. This makes for a great teaching tool but not a very good Tarot set.
The major arcana cards are a little more esoteric; The Wheel of Fortune is an illustration of the Large Hadron Collider. The Wheel is about uncertainty, and so this card represents our search for the Higgs Boson particle. The Fool card, which is all about bold choices and unpredictable outcomes is represented here by a depiction of evolution, and so on. These are clever choices and underline the use of Tarot as a tool for description rather mysticism.
Overall this is a cleverly designed deck of cards. It looks a bit too much like a fun science text book rather than a Tarot set at times, but overall this is a perfect gift for the spooky scientist in your life.
