Motherpeace Round Tarot

The 1980s saw an increase of women's participation across various fields, especially women's rights and representation. Because traditional tarot packs tended to be designed from a male point of view, “Motherpeace Round Tarot emerged from a need for positive female images, including strong women of colour [...] In creating the Motherpeace Tarot deck images, we gathered from ancient Goddess cultures and earth-based people, because we perceived those cultures to be an original source for the wisdom we found in the tarot [...] We looked back at forty thousand years of art and five million years of human evolution. Our investigations led us to study many Goddess and Indigenous cultures from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe.” - Karen Vogel and Vicki Noble, 1981

The 1st feminist deck published in 1981 is still available today. The deck comes with Witchcraft's “Charge of the Goddess” printed on an extra card and we find women as teachers, healers and communicators throughout the deck. There is a move away from gendered card titles, so the “Hanged Man” becomes “Hanged One” and “The Hermit” becomes “Crone” who represents Hecate, the sage, the Old Wise One. While the Emperor and Hierophant are both male there is a slight interpretative bias in the booklet which sees unrestrained power, patriarchy and organised religion for these particular cards. The court cards in each suit are Shaman, Priestess, Son & Daughter. As the cards are round there isn't a clear upright or reversed position, instead nuances such as tilting towards the left or right are possible readings.

Tarot is a series of visual images which might be described as a form of sacred play, where one suspends critical judgement and trusts one’s intuition. The circle is a feminine form, and the back design is composed of circles. The ‘hidden’ teaching can be deciphered by using the right-brain intuitive mind to ‘read’ the images on the cards. This becomes apparent even while shuffling through the deck, one feels drawn to the nurturing, healing power of the visual symbols. See the box

Above: Motherpeace Round Tarot with illustrations by Karen Vogel and Vicki Noble. Published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc., Stanford, CT. (C) 1981, 1983 by Motherpeace. Printed in Belgium. Primitive-looking line art, 78 cards + LWB + 2 extra cards in cardboard tuckbox.

Reference

Motherpeace.com: Origins of the Motherpeace Tarot►