Arica - the Tarot of Oscar Ichazo

fyreflye

I'll bet nobody here has this one. I dropped by my local book store this afternoon and there was a set, shrink-wrapped and under glass. Volume 1 of the Encyclopedia of Tarot has a spread on pp. 160 - 61, but there's nothing online about it. This must be one of the rarest decks in existence.
Its designer, the Chilean occultist Oscar Ichazo, was a minor celebrity in the '60's when he founded the Arica Institute in Buenos Aires, where he drew such notables of the time as John Lilly and Claudio Naranjo. http://www.arica.org/ One of his students at the 1970 40-day training class in New York City was the soon-to-be Ma Deva Padma, already a tarot obssessive who created the Osho Zen Tarot nearly 25 years later. http://osho.tribe.net/thread/341a6d2f-bb7e-403f-8e75-70f072447826
Ichazo claimed to have invented the Enneagram and taught a rigorous mind-body training program. Much of his work was similar to Gurdjieff's, though it also benefitted from a certain similarity to the hugely popular writings of his contemporary Carlos Castenada.
I can't possibly afford this deck, but any collector who is able to can get it through Abebooks http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&y=12&tn=Arica+Tarot&x=66
If anyone is seriously interested I can view it myself and get more information for you.
 

Granville

Did you buy it? How much was it?
 

Granville

Hmmm.....too rich for my blood. Would love to see images though. Let's see if one of the great collectors has it.
 

AceofBlades

Arica Tarot

Oscar actually never said that he "invented" the enneagram. He HAS said that it was one of the Seals of Pythagoras.
 

Patrick Booker

I was going to start a thread about the Arica Tarot, and discovered that someone had anticipated me. There are images of the deck online. Does anyone actually possess it? If it can be obtained anywhere, I imagine that it would be through the Arica organisation. I believe Ichazo is still alive.

Patrick
 

Madrigal

There's very little online about it. I've included an attachment pic of The Star card that I found on a blogspot blog called, beinglivingdoing. The blogger says, "I come across ideas of large and small brilliance which inspire me everyday. When I get an opportunity to see work by people I know and love I'm often struck but the syntony. James Hanlon is an artist I met some years ago. He is a gorgeous fellow, tall, handsome, humorous, dirty. Some of his commissioned work for the Arica Institute has been literally embedded in my consciousness. He produced a set of tarot cards used in the Arica Method as a kind of 'book' for understanding the process of ones life...Some years later we were given a uniquely designed set of Tarot cards designed by Oscar Ichazo and illustrated by Jimmy Hanlon. My perception of the 'meaning' and relevance to my own life of The Star was new and affecting."

And this site has three b&w cards from the deck that are intended to be colored.
 

Attachments

  • arica tarot.jpg
    arica tarot.jpg
    97.5 KB · Views: 501

Lee

Thanks for the image and link, Madrigal, very interesting.
 

Patrick Booker

Thanks for information and links, Madrigal. I hadn't realised how big they were.

Patrick
 
Wolff's Cartomancy: A Photographic Tarot Journey Which decks do you use in the winter?