Does a 21 Century Real World Issues Deck Exist?

I found another deck described as modern, the LS Gothic Tarot of Vampires.
http://www.tarotclub.net/goods/deck/los/vamp/67-Vampiri.jpg

Tarotgarden describes it this way: "Modern, urban creatures-of-the-night are presented as anti-heroes that inhabit dark and moody citiscapes." I know this deck doesn't really seem to be about average people, however.

hi,

I read through the thread and did not see this deck mentioned, The Guttuso.

It is definitely a modern take on the tarot. Here is a link to it at Tarot Garden.
http://www.aeclectic.net/cgi-bin/frame.cgi?source=support.html&target=www.tarotgarden.com

As far as Modern Decks go, The Rohrig Tarot isn't bad. It's a little middle-upper-class-western than what it seems you're looking for, but it's not bad at all for getting a modern feel. It was my first deck, 10 years ago.

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/rohrig/

edited

I haven't read everyone's replies, so someone might have mentioned this one already, but I just got the Wheel of Change tarot and it sounds to me like this is the deck cut out just for what you want. You really should check it out. I love it already. It's got a guy playing saxophone on a street corner in the store to make money for the homeless, a card about the clear-cutting of timber, a doctor doing an autopsy (I think--looks like it to me, but it's not a gory image), an oil refinery polluting the astmosphere----it's a very awesome deck. It also has multi-cultural cards and just about anything else you can think of that's very pertinent to the 21st century as well as stretching back to primitive times. I heartily suggest it to you. There's a 400 page book with the deck and it took the author 10 years to create the deck and three years to write the book. I guess many people don't like it or get into it, but my daughter and I like it a lot. We each now have one.

More decks to consider

As Lyric suggested, the Wheel of Change is a good deck with a lot of modern imagery. You might also consider the Gay Tarot & the Bright Idea Deck. Both decks feature modern images & situations.

I think any deck is as modern as any in essence. It is the visual itself that doesn't easily visually relate to real everyday 2006. I think it would be great to have a modern version as the topic poster suggests. Maybe we here could create one and it can be called the AT deck lol.

Breezes said:

hi pruedence
i clicked on that likk and even did a search jfor "the guttuso" but nothing cam up.



Yes the rohrig deck is excellent.
i don't care if what social class the deck is from , all though , a deck of the common people their trials and trivals would be nice. but if the deck at least shows modern situations it is good.
breezes

Click to expand...

hi Breezes,

try typing in just "guttuso" without the "the" , sometimes the search things are picky. (and spelling has to be just right or it will turn up empty handed)

Bridget said:

I wonder how to translate the sword symbolism to a modern-looking deck. I also like seeing teacups instead of chalices, and sometimes a suit gets a clever update, like pens for wands in the Victoria Regina. But it's hard to think of a good 21st-century update for swords. Switchblades? Kitchen knives?

Click to expand...

military men/women would make a good true to the times sword cards. soldiers. If you think about what swords are this would make sense.

I hope know one makes a modern deck using the twin towers as the tower card tho...

I love my Rohrig. As an 80s teenager, its imagery reasonates with me. There is an authenticity to Rohrig's images, even the academically painted areas carry feeling.

Some of the Pagan tarot cards look nice, as does the Gay Tarot, but I think in both cases they've diverged too far from the RWS, or at least taken too specific a focus to make it really readable. I think this for me is an issue with the LS artists.

I expect that a lot of the time, they are probably under a really tight deadline and don't have time to get too analytical about their images. They also have a set style, perhaps that is sometimes quite nice but (IMHO) doesn't always really fit a tarot deck.

There's also a tension between ARCHETYPE and STEREOTYPE. It can be very easy to confuse the two.