Yeager Tarot of Meditation - Old vs New

I promised to start this thread when my first edition of Yeager's tarot arrived, but life intervened.

The original version of this deck was called The Tarot of Meditation - The Yeager Tarot. It was put out by Credo Company in 1976 and cost $1.00 according to the LWB. (Believeyoume, I paid a lot more than that! ) The Yeager Tarot of Meditation that I have was put out by US Games in 1982. The original was in a brass-colored box that simply says "The Tarot" on it. The USG version has the picture of the Chariot on the front cover and the picture of Strength on the back cover.

The first difference I see is that the original version is 2mm wider and 4mm taller than the USG version. The USG version has more rounded corners than the Credo version. The backs of the cards are exactly the same between the versions.

It looks like USG brightened the colors. The bubbles above and below the pictures look more burnt orange in the original and look like they have a little more yellow added to them in the USG version. The lamination on the USG version is thicker I believe, but the card stock appears to be comparable between the two versions.

The biggest difference between the two decks is that the original deck contained more nudity than the USG version. The cards that had clothing added are:

• Fool has shorts added
• Magician has a loin cloth (?) added
• both Lovers have garlands of something around their waist
• the four guys in the Wheel of Fortune all have bikini briefs added
• Hanged Man has a garland of something added around his waist
• the man and woman in the Devil both have bikini briefs added

I really can't find any rhyme or reason to what was clothed and what wasn't. At first I thought all genitalia were covered, but the woman in Death is naked in both versions. The woman in the Star is also naked in both versions, but that's a fairly standard depiction of that card. So then I thought it was only male genitals that were covered. But the guy on the right's penis is visible in both versions of the Moon. And the penis on the Hermaphrodite on the World is also visible.

Other changes:

• the suit of Swords is more blue in the original version and more purple in the USG version
• a yellow outline was added to the borders of the flowers in the Ace Wands

Other than the changes listed above, the Courts are the same between the two versions.

Rodney

I actually also thought they only covered the male genitalia. Maybe they missed a few? Personally, I think the original version is much more beautiful. Brighter and more crisp. I find the US Games version a bit blurry and it doesn't do the art justice like the original does. Just my opinion.

I like the original version better also. But from what I'd heard about it, I thought there were more nudes in it.

rwcarter said:

It looks like USG brightened the colors. The bubbles above and below the pictures look more burnt orange in the original and look like they have a little more yellow added to them in the USG version.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your input Rodney. I have a first printing US Games and the yellows are very yellow. I also have a second printing and the yellows are a lot more burnt yellow as you described the original to be. It's like they realized they goofed and tried to get closer to the original the second time around. I personally like the burnt yellow much better.

Oh, so the kitchy tighty whities (that are colored) and the boots are original on the courts?

Oh my. That makes me smile.

sravana said:

Oh, so the kitchy tighty whities (that are colored) and the boots are original on the courts?

Oh my. That makes me smile.

Click to expand...

Yup. The cards have a very 60's flower child leading to 70's disco feel to them.

Rodney

I went back to Tarot Garden and again compared the original with US Games. The color tones of the original are a lot softer and do look rather nice don't they.

I have only seen the older version, as that's what I have. It seems odd that only some cards were modified in the US Games version. Thank you very much for the original detailed description. I had wondered if I had the older version and now I'm certain of it.