Llewellyn Tarot
Preface of Llewellyn Tarot Companion
... As a young illustrator and author, my first large project was Legend: The Arthurian Tarot, which drew upon the legend of King Arthur and the Dark Age history of Britain. Having traveled the royal road of the tarot once before, I thought it unlikely to pass that way again. Yet, when Llewellyn Publications proposed this tarot as a special project - to draw on the Welsh mythology in deference to the Welsh name of the publishing house - I was given cause to reconsider. In my choice of projects above all other considerations, it has been my aim to reintroduce the old, lesser-known legends to a wider audience and thus contribute in my own small way to their future health as "living legends." When done with care and in good faith the marriage of a tarot deck and mythology can benefit both traditions. I am honoured to have been asked to create a commemorative work to bear the name of it's publishing house, Llewellyn, and am most pleased to be in service of the Welsh red dragon.
The medieval world of the Welsh, particularly in the Mabinogion, is a very real, tactile, even rustic, with an Otherworld that overlaps and infringes on reality's borders. Poetic by rarely sentimental, the mortals anticipate and brace themselves for testing encounters with Otherworld's shadow. To live within the reach of the supernatural is seen as natural, and sometimes a blessing and sometimes a hazard. This mystic realism is, I feel, one of early Celtic literature's most appealing qualities. It is not fantasy but organic reality, seen on occasion through an imaginative lens - in the same manner and beauty as the artistic tradition of the tarot.
Anna-Marie Ferguson ~ Llewellyn Tarot Companion
Reviews & Articles
- Reviews of Llewellyn Tarot
- An Interview with Anna-Marie Ferguson (New Worlds - Sept. 2006)
- The Welsh Roots of the Llewellyn Tarot (New Worlds - Sept. 2006)
Available At...
- Your local or online bookstore...
- Llewellyn Worldwide
Llewellyn Tarot (Boxed Set)
- ISBN #0-7387-0299-4
- 78 card full colour deck
- 288 page full size book
- Golden brocade beaded bag
