The deck that I have chosen for my First Year Seminar class is Brian Williams' "Renaissance Tarot". This edition features the combination of Tarot and mythological references in the illustrations along with a few real famous historical cities in Italy. So why did I choose this deck? I am a proud lover of both art history and mythology, so the fact that I managed to find a tarot deck that really displays my personal interests was amazing. Not surprisingly, I took a class in general art history as well as The Myth Tradition during my senior year of high school. Go figure. I am used to seeing the more medieval version of tarot cards, thus I found my deck to still adhere to my classical tastes but have a new twist on the art. As you might be able to see, each card features a nicely drawn image on the front with references to mythological deities/symbols in the upper corners. The back of the cards all feature a dizzying array of circles with a man and a woman curled up in a yin-yang position. They are also surrounded by animal symbols of the elements: a bird for air (staves), a fish for water (cups), a salamander for fire (swords), and the turtle for earth (coins).
When I picked a random tarot card from my major arcana deck, of course I was given "Il Diavolo". Only I would get that card on the first try.
According to the booklet from the tarot deck, "The Devil, a horned and dragon-winged creature, stands in front of a chained couple. The god Pan and his goat accompany him". The Devil is front and center with the main focus on him and his monstrous appearance, making the card a bit unnerving to look at. In every culture that acknowledges the Devil, he is a figure of temptation, wickedness, and danger, hence, the cards go by the same ideology. The only difference is that Brian Williams wanted to highlight that this card also has a meaning of "[i]mprisonment by baser instincts", and when the card is upside down, it could mean "irresponsible pleasure" or "childish panic". Williams used Pan to emphasize the trickster characteristic that pairs with both the meaning of the card as well as a reference to what the Judeo-Christian version of the Devil is attributed to.
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