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From: selk@quads.uchicago.edu (lori ann selke)
Subject: Re: JKarlin: The Haindl Deck, a review
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Date: Mon, 23 Oct 1995 18:30:05 GMT
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In article <461pft$klv@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>,
Saileran <tmmurray@silver.ucs.indiana.edu> wrote:


>	A good point, but MY understanding of the Haindl Tarot is that 
>Haindl designed the deck and Pollack only made a subjective interpretation. 

Well, FWIW, Rachel Pollack claims, in _The New Tarot_, that she
based her interpretation of the Haindl deck in part at least on long
cpnverstaions with the artist and his wife.  So it's not like her 
interpretations of the Dali deck, which are based *only* on
the information contained in the cards themselves.  (And
which may be why her commentary on said Dali deck seems
so thin.)

I don't think this fact (presuming it's true; I think it is, but
I know anybody can lie, or exaggerate) invalidates some
of the more substantiative criticisms of the deck itself
that have been made here.  But maybe that's just because
I've hated the Haindl deck ever since I first laid eyes upon it...
and talking about how the Fool wears the sacred colors of the 
Lakota Nation in his motley (as Pollack does in _The New Tarot_),
or whatnot, doesn't change the fact that, if nothing
else and as Jess mentioned, the art itself is very muddy
and "dreary".  There are some cards that I presonally like
(like the Tower, and the Wheel of Fortune), and some
cards whose imagery provide some interesting/useful insights
(the arrangement of tools on the Magician, the woman wrestling
a *snake* on Strength), but it's most definitely not a deck I'd 
ever consider using regularly.

I'd be interested, btw, in people's comments of Pollack's
other Tarot writings; I've read the first volume of 78
Degrees of Wisdom, but it didn't seem to say anything
to me that I already didn't know. (Which doesn't make
it either a bad or a good book, mind you.) What
do other people think?



Lori




