Arthurian

Published by Aquarian Press in 1991, this is the deck most readers mean by the Arthurian Tarot: Caitlin and John Matthews's Hallowquest system, with Miranda Gray's paintings carrying Merlin, Morgan and Arthur across a full seventy-eight cards. The archive's reviewer first met it inside a Rachel Pollack book and hunted eighteen months for a copy, which captures the standing it earned. The Matthews built it as a working system, the legends mapped onto the deck's whole structure with a scholar's care rather than sprinkled over the majors. It pairs naturally with John Matthews's later Camelot Oracle in this catalog: same sources, different instrument, the tarot for structured work and the oracle for narrative draws. It suits readers of the Matter of Britain who want the full tarot machinery, students of the Matthews's considerable Arthurian corpus, and anyone who prefers their legend systematized rather than illustrated. Casual Arthur fans may find Hallowquest's depth more commitment than they wanted.