Cult of Tarot Forum

I have an old tarot deck that was given to me a long time ago. It does not have the box or instructional booklet, and I have never been able to identify it from the cards. I'm hoping some of you might be familiar with it and can let me know the name. It is a standard 78 card deck, with 22 majors and 56 minors. The majors each have a symbol on them and one word, such as Analyze, Legacy, Fortune, Knowledge, etc. The higher suit cards (ie King, Queen, etc.) have Egyptian styled drawing accompanying them. A major and minor arcana card are in the photo, as is the design on the back of the cards shown in the middle. This deck has frustrated me for many years, so any help in its ID is greatly appreciated! Bruce

This looks like a really interesting deck Bruce.

I hope someone out there knows what it is.

Any ideas folks?

Hi Solarbearz. Because I had good luck asking a Facebook group about a mystery Lenormand deck posted here, Joan Marie put me on the case to get them to ID this deck as well. And by George, I think they did it!

Astro Tarot by Steven Joseph Sinopoli.

The person who IDed it said she took a Tarot course from him in the 80s and everyone had to get his deck and accompanying book. The one - ONE - photo I've been able to find of it is a later mass-market edition, which has a slightly different border design. And is yours multi-coloured, as in this photo?

The double-S design on the back of the cards makes sense now.

Solarbearz wrote: ↑30 May 2020, 17:09 This deck has frustrated me for many years, so any help in its ID is greatly appreciated! Bruce

Frustrated no more!

JudyK wrote: ↑24 Jun 2020, 17:49 Hi Solarbearz. Because I had good luck asking a Facebook group about a mystery Lenormand deck posted here, Joan Marie put me on the case to get them to ID this deck as well. And by George, I think they did it!

Great work! Thank you!

Joan Marie, thank you for passing my request on to Judy. Judy, thank you so much for checking on this deck and finding out what it is for me! And you are right, there is nothing out there on the internet on this deck! I could not even find the picture that you found, LOL. You are right, the photo that you found must be a later version. Where those cards have colored borders, one of the four colors associated with the four suits, my deck has light and grey borders with more of the S's for the creator worked into a decorative scroll pattern instead. Any you are so right, the double S's on the backs are for Steven Sinopoli… I wouldn't have even figured that out with his name, LOL, I just figured the back design was just that, a pretty design. And yes, to answer your question, my deck is in color, although the color is only in the center of the cards and the number/letter for the card at the top. I find it amazing that there is no info online about this. I checked on Aeclectic Tarot, Tarotgardens, and all five volumes I have of the Encyclopedia of Tarot. What comes up for Astro Tarot are all of the other tarot decks out there by that name, LOL. Typical search result is for the Astro Tarot by Art Fair, I had a copy of that which I have sold and its a totally different deck. It would be nice to know the publication date of my deck, but I can live with that now that I have a name for it. I've only found this absence of info on two other decks I have, I always find it puzzling! Thank you both for your help on this ID!!! Kudos to you both, Bruce