The Virsel Tarot, or to give it its Sunday name The Divinatory Tarot of Virsel, is a majors only pack consisting of a standard twenty one numbered cards, and a single unnumbered Card of Negation.
The imagery on some of the Virsel cards will be familiar to those who’ve used other packs. Many packs commonly available share themes traced back to the Waite Rider tarot; at first glance some may even appear to be near direct copies. Such was its influence, coupled with the works of Ouspensky, that its symbology underpins the majority of tarot packs today. If your own preferred tarot is one such pack, much of what you could learn here would make for a much deeper understanding.
The Virsel Tarot has some significant differences though. What perhaps looks on first glance like just a simple name change offers fresh insight into the deeper meanings of its symbology.
Others are wholly unique. For example, it is an easy mistake to assume that the aforementioned Card of Negation is simply a renamed Fool card to be used as one would any other deck. Here it has a very different meaning, and a very different mechanic when used in a reading.
Some of the symbolism that is often depicted on Fool cards, such as the dog, here finds itself on the ninth card, The Searcher. Some cards will appear to be transposed to users of other packs. Strength and Power now sits at 11, with Justice and Balance at 8.
This is all intentional, and is fully explained inside.
Why majors only?
The focus of The Tarot of Frown Strong, as it was called on its first release nearly half a century ago, was to produce a new major arcana. Historically the major and minor arcana come from very different traditions. These can and have been successfully combined elsewhere, and there is nothing stopping anyone using a minor arcana from another pack (or even run of the mill playing cards) to add secondary meaning to their Virsel Tarot readings. This is something we discuss inside.
It was never intended to be a static work, and work has already begun to develop this deck, as well as introducing a second arcana to run alongside this one to fulfil the minor’s role holistically. Don’t worry. This will not invalidate your existing Frownstrong or Virsel deck if you choose to stick with it, but it will give you ways to enhance its divinatory effectiveness.
