Golden Universal
Modern reinterpretation of Rider-Waite with dynamic, contemporary visual style.
by Roberto de Angelis · 1909
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The record
I remember reviewing the original Universal Tarot when it was published a decade ago. It was a new take on the Rider-Waite imagery, pleasingly redrawn by Roberto de Angelis in a more dynamic and less theatrical style and designed to reflect more contemporary thinking. The Golden Universal Tarot has taken those same images of Roberto's, and improved upon them. Gone are the white borders with distracting multilingual titles, and in their place are black borders with decorative gold curlicues and simple numbering. What were naturally coloured skies in the backgrounds are now textured in metallic gold, in radial patterns picked out in small dots. Other elements in each card are also highlighted in gold: the cups in the Two of Cups, the pentacles in the Seven of Pentacles, the moon at the feet of the High Priestess and the cross around her neck. The metallic highlights have been given a deliberately imperfect look in places, with intentional scratches and the odd missing piece, so the cards have an aged rather than brand spanking new look. The 64-page companion booklet is printed in English, Italian, Spanish, French and German and a has a brief chronological history of tarot, an introdu
The cards
