Karyn Easton: There wasn’t any real reason behind this. I would love to say that there was some kind of deep and meaningful reason why those particular cards were that way, but it was just the way that I designed them at the time. I remember feeling at the time that I didn’t want to be thought of as just producing yet another Rider-Waite clone and I have always felt drawn to the Tarot de Marseille. The challenge for me personally was to produce a deck that was clearly a Tarot deck but not just a re-working of the Rider-Waite or the Tarot de Marseilles for that matter. In order to help me achieve this I knew I needed to draw inspiration from very traditional decks but at the same time I didn’t necessarily want to emulate them as such, if that makes sense? When I drew the Pope for example I drew something that said ‘Pope’ to me and it was pretty much the same for the High Priestess/Papess. My main aim which I hope I’ve achieved is to have created a deck that is unmistakably Tarot but doesn’t necessarily conform and is ultimately very unique.
Bonnie Cehovet: Why did you go back to the medieval origins in developing this deck?
Karyn Easton: I felt that people in general have quite a strong idea of what a Tarot card looks like and for me personally I felt that both the Visconti-Sforza deck (one of the oldest known decks in the world) together with the Tarot de Marseille were the embodiment of Tarot design. These images to me shouted Tarot and this is why I wanted to go back the medieval origins. If I could capture the essence of what a Tarot deck should look like then that would be a great achievement for me. For this reason the Visconti-Sforza deck proved to be a great source of inspiration.