First, I have to credit the authors of this deck and book set for their efforts to establish Tarot as a serious means for self-development and decision-making for business people, who are not usually ready to come out of the closet even if they use it.
The set comes in the plastic case which is typical for the Urania sets, but this one is well oversized. This is due to the book, which is a substantial volume and, for me, certainly the most valuable part of the set.
However, when I first opened it, my initial response was a little grudging, since the book starts with testimonials from managers and management trainers who work successfully with Tarot – six statements, all from men. Having been a management trainer for many years and being a business executive now, I would have liked to have at least a “quota woman” mentioned… after all, we are about 40% of the management trainers and 25% business executives…
Next, I did, of course, shuffle through the cards. At first glance they seemed rather disappointing to me: Very pale watercolour images on a mostly white, sometimes slightly shaded background. Scenery is, if at all, sketchy. The Minor Arcana are pips, and even the court cards are not bearing people, but symbols. Minors and court cards also have keywords on the top border.
After a while, and especially after studying the companion book, I got used to the cards. The symbolism is thoroughly researched and well integrated. However, most cards have fairly traditional images assigned and therefore don’t prompt too many new insights or twists. Those who are depicted in a different way resonate partly positively, partly negatively with me.
Management Tarot by Korai Peter Stemmann and Ute Stemmann
Publisher: Urania Verlag AGMüller, Switzerland 2002
