Crystal Tarot – Elisabetta Trevisan

Crystal Tarot – Elisabetta Trevisan

78-card deck & guidebook

The Crystal Tarot is inspired by Gustav Klimt (1862 – 1918), a Viennese painter who was one of the greatest leaders of the artistic cultural movement known as Liberty, Art Nouveau, or Secession. When he painted ‘Beethoven Frieze’ in 1902, Klimt tried to describe the intentions of his work and its symbolic language. He spoke of ‘the suffering of the human race‘ and ‘the external and inner forces which move man to fight for happiness‘. ‘The desire for happiness finds solace in poetry. The arts lead us to the ideal realm where we can find absolute peace, absolute love. Joy, that wonderful divine spark. This kiss to the entire world‘. The Crystal Tarot shares this viewpoint that is so in tune with the nature of tarots. Together with a will (the Cartomant’s) capable of understanding and directing the latent force of their symbols, they permit creating a connection with the emotional tensions, existential states, and intangible realities which make up the inner being of every individual.

The softness of the drawing is immediately obvious in the archetypal figures painted by Elisabetta Trevisan. Approaching and accepting the symbolism of this deck is truly impossible without recognizing the influence of the Liberty style. Before providing allegorical elements, the drawings of the Crystal Tarot offer an atmosphere, a sequence of sensations which are communicated to the reader through observation of each card. The Arcana seem to travel in a cocoon-like peaceful universe without loud noises or sudden movements where each figure is permeated by extreme gentleness, comprehension, and consuming melancholy. The image is like poetry in this deck: to use and interpret it, we must trust our inner poetry.