Quantum Tarot: A Tarot of New Physics [With 78 Card Deck] [Paperback]

The Quantum Tarot blends astronomical imagery, scientific theory and Tarot symbolism in a visually and theoretically breathtaking presentation reminiscent of the Voyager Tarot. In its time, the Voyager broke new ground with its photocollage style, in many cases incorporating astronomical photography with tarot symbolism. The Quantum takes that idea to a whole new level: just as the Hubble images used in the Quantum are a technological leap beyond what were available at the time the Voyager was created, the Quantum Tarot is an artistic jump into a world that the Voyager could only glimpse. Moreover, while I am not ordinarily a fan of Rider-Waite style decks, the Quantum Tarot adds an entirely new dimension -- well, maybe several of them -- to the style that makes the Rider-Waite-ness fade into the background. This is not the same old Tarot in new clothes; this is an entirely new world, entered by way of the Tarot.

That new world is the world of theoretical physics. Physics is the science of how things work, and as our understanding of the world grew beyond dropping things from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, so the theories that tie our observations of things into explanations of how they work grew in complexity. It became apparent that the theories that explain how very large things like planets and galaxies work, were on a collision course with the theories that explain how very small things like atoms work. Both sets of theories couldn't be true, and yet both seem to be. Even worse, it became obvious that all of these theories were incompatible in very basic ways with the theories that explain how ordinary things like clocks and bicycles work. While these new theories have given birth to a whole new world of technology, there remains the nagging problem of explaining how all of these things could possible work together, or even, in some cases, how they can work at all.

The Quantum Tarot takes us on a journey of this strange world of apparent contradictions and inconsistencies. Each card represents some theory, idea or object from the world of theoretical physics. Illustrated with a combination of astronomical imagery and Tarot symbolism, the cards invite one to expand one's understanding of the Tarot by considering how the Tarot symbol relates to some idea in physics. Maybe the other way around, too -- how these often disconnected concepts in physics might relate to a deeper understanding of things through Tarot symbolism. And this is where it starts to get interesting.

Take card XVII -- in the traditional Tarot, the Star; in the Quantum Tarot, String Theory. String theory is an attempt to reconcile the incompatibilities of quantum mechanics and relativity. That has been the dream of physicists for decades: to find a way of combining these two apparently un-combinable theories into a grand Theory of Everything, that would provide some basic explanatory framework of how everything, at bottom, large or small, works. It's been rough going, and it isn't there yet. Maybe it will never happen; there are reasons to suspect the Universe might not be reducible to a single explanatory framework. But the attempt has produced some interesting insights, not the least of which is, at a very basic level, the world is very different from what "common sense" tells us it is. That's a good thing, as common sense is more often a blinder to truth than a way of finding it.

This Tarot is in many ways its own mimic of string theory: it is an attempt to reconcile two things -- science and mysticism -- widely held to be incompatible and contradictory, into a unified framework of ideas. Now this is something I have always believed: that science, mysticism, and add to that philosophy, are convergent disciplines. I do not mean that any of those disciplines is reducible to any of the others -- that, for example, mysticism, or the Tarot as a form thereof, can be explained in terms of psychology, or that science ultimately reduces to logic (sorry Mr. Spock). What I do mean is that as our understanding of all of those disciplines advances, they become more similar than they are different, and each gives important insights as to how the others work. It would appear, for example, that the Uncertainty Principle, which has led some physicists to suggest a "participatory universe", is really the same principle, viewed through the lens of science, as sympathetic magick and its seasonal rituals, viewed from the standpoint of the nature mystic. QM and relativity shed a lot of light on how magick might work, and many physicists have noticed similarities between ideas in physics and mysticism -- books have been written on the Tao of this and the Zen of that. My guess is that the Theory of Everything, if there is such a thing, will ultimately look like some combination of ideas from these different disciplines, a twisted superstring in its own right, vibrating in every dimension of human thought.

To be sure, this isn't the easiest path to tread. If you'd rather meet a charmed quark than a strange one, and you assume a boson has bright red hair and wears a clown suit, you may be heading for rough waters here. I must say that the images on the cards aren't highly intuitive; while you certainly can read these as ordinary Tarot cards, you won't get the full measure of their wisdom without reading, and understanding, what the accompanying book has to say about them. The book is very good; its summaries of the scientific theories are excellent, but admittedly may be beyond those who have no interest or background in the subject. The Tarot of Everything might not be the Tarot for Everyone, but then again, what Tarot is? By drawing the reader into the parallel universe of theoretical physics, this Tarot challenges the reader to get beyond the repetitive and entrenched "meanings" of the cards, and enter a dimension in which the absolutes are uncertain, and the less believable something is, the more likely it is to be true.

As a collector of Tarot decks, I usually guage them by the feeling I get when I first open them and hold them in my hands; if there's that immediate feeling of connectedness, I know I've made a good choice. And this one is right at the top.

I was initially interested in the concept of this deck: A Tarot of New Physics, and as a spiritual person who despises religious dogma, and a science junkie to boot, the idea of drawing the beauty and grandeur of the cosmos into the mysterious world of the Tarot, was too intriguing to pass up.

When I first opened the deck and began flipping through the cards, I was at once drawn to and awestruck by the images of the deck; resplendent cosmic vistas, interlaced with imagery from the traditional Tarot. It stirred a sense of the universal connectedness of all things in what we know and understand as the Universe at this point in our development as human beings. But it also evoked a sense of wonder and the possibility of the things we don't yet know about ourselves or our existence, the things we've yet to unlock or discover about who we are or what our place is on the cosmic stage.

On the practical side, the deck is a tad bigger than a standard Tarot deck, thus making shuffling a little difficult at first; but once you stretch your digits a bit, the deck has a pleasant feel to it. There's a nice matte finish to the cards that gives them a solid, grounded feel, so they're not going to go slip-sliding all over the place when you shuffle. The edges of the cards are gilded in a beautiful silver finish that adds a sense of opulence to the deck and adds to the overall beauty of it.

In short, this is a truly gorgeous deck that inspires at first sight. I love this deck and I think I will be working with it for many years to come. Highly recommended!

Quantum Tarot: A Tarot of New Physics

Buy this deck...you will not be disappointed!

Since the first visuals were available for this deck I have been waiting for its release and I am not disappointed. My first viewing of the deck was sitting with the evening sun coming through the window, sharing a good glass of Australian Shiraz with a friend and listening to the music of Blackmore's Night -- Castles & Dreams. Blackmore's Night -- Castles & Dreams
The cards are beautiful and it will take many viewings to see and all of the images as there are the readily visible and the more subtle that come from contemplation. Thank you Kay and Chris for your work!