I don't think the background to this tarot (if it was published for the first time today it would almost certainly not be called a tarot since it in no way follows the conventional tarot structure) can be put better than in this Amazon review by someone who knew the man who conceived, but didn't draw, it:
'The cards, originally, weren't meant as a tarot or even as anything for anyone other than Morgan [Robbins]. When he described their origin to me, he said he was working as a dishwasher at a small place in the Santa Cruz mountains and studying his own personal development. He got some cards (I assume index cards) and started writing down the key ideas he'd been thinking about, just as sort of reminders for himself. There are even around a half-dozen cards in the deck that he attributed to the cook at the same place.
Morgan just carried the cards around to be reminders of his focus in terms of consciousness. (being a spiritual being seemed to make sense, easily, to him, but the "living a human" life was much harder to integrate and make sense of ...)
'He described his confusion as other people started looking at his cards and getting something from them ... and started insisting that he should publish them as a tarot. (I'm sure those others pictured that as a simple path to a "well beyond dish washer" income for him ... when I met him, he was washing dishes, again, for a place that would trade food and lodging and some pay ...) 'He found the artist ... and thus the black-and-white line drawings came into being ... and, from somewhere, scraped up the money to actually print decks ... and set about selling them himself. Eventually they gained enough "grass roots" popularity to be in Metaphysical (and other) bookshops all over the place, to the extent U.S. Games found him and picked up the rights. 'You have to put this all in the perspective of the times, this was during the first waves of popularity of "awareness and consciousness" in the western world ... Timothy Leary and Ram Dass (under his other name) were exploring LSD at Harvard ... and many other folks were doing their own explorations along similar paths ... so, when I met Morgan, over a beer, I told him, first, that I'd been reading with his cards for years and loved them. Then I confessed, (somewhat embarrassed) that based on the mythology around, I'd been describing the author, him, as ... ' a drug-crazed hippy out of Santa Cruz...' ... he paused a long time, looking at me, and finally replied..."Boulder Creek, actually, but nobody knows where that is ... I guess Santa Cruz is close enough..." 'Morgan passed over some years back ... and I have to confess, my first thought when I heard about it was, "Wow ... he made it ... he finally finished what ever lesson was SO hard for him to learn ... and made it out..." Being a spiritual being was pretty close for him to touch, it seemed ... but being a spiritual being living a human lifetime ... seemed to be a mystery to him for the whole time.'
Source: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/cr/0880790288/n=1/ref=aw_cr_i_1 This writer also comments on how the cards open your intuition, to the extent that he or she ended up doing readings without a tool at all, since one was no longer needed. (S)he also comments on feeling that the deck doesn't really need a little white book, & that without one the user can make their own connection with the cards. Certainly for myself I find the LWB interesting as a further insight into how the creator saw this deck, an expansion of the deck's ethos, but certainly do not find it necessary to refer to it in readings, since the meanings of the cards tend to jump into ones mind without help, even without the aid of entheogens! If you want to see the LWB (no purchase necessary) it is on the US Games Systems website here: http://www.usgamesinc.com/Morgan-s_Tarot/
I love the idea of a tarot conceived over the washing up! How witchy is that: it's only slightly removed from divination in the washing up water going down the drain. I've never read with a deck with a Happy Squirrel, although I love that what was a joke on The Simpsons got incorporated into actual decks. Christian Day says that he will sack anyone who reads in his shops with a deck with a Happy Squirrel, so I hate to think what he would see this deck, which is not so much unconventional as Way Out There. It does not follow the conventional tarot structure at all, there are no suits, the cards are in no particular order & the order in the LWB is completely arbitrary. Oh, & there are 88 of them, so don't even think of trying to relate it to RWS or Thoth! I think this is the feature I personally like best about this deck: the arrangement means that there is no hierarchy about this deck, nothing 'trumps' anything else, nothing comes before or after. In terms of divination, this gives an equal standing to everything that can come up, an approach I like enormously. I dislike that in conventional tarot 22 of the cards appear to represent major events, & 56 of the cards quotidian events as if they weren't important. It also creates greater flexibility: like it or not the Swords cards will always come across as being related to each other in a way they will never be related to the other suits & the trumps. Morgan's approach allows connections & less prejudiced relationships between all 88. It is almost as if this deck wipes the whole slate clean & literally allows you to divine in a new way. Do not judge this deck as being an old hippie's relic of the 60s merely: it is far more powerful than that. It has line drawings that are very much of its time, & I love that too since I love 70s tarot decks. The one thing I find difficult about it (I have the current US Games printing rather than any of the earlier versions, so don't know what they're like) is that I find the deck unwieldy to handle & shuffle. The cards feel like a standard US Games RWS, rather laminated. However the number of cards make this deck thick in comparison to my other tarot decks. This makes a riffle shuffle difficult. Similarly I feel the cards are slightly too large for comfortable handling. Bear in mind though, that I've given many of my decks a borderectomy & recently have been tending to read with some decks that come smaller anyway, so I'm out of practice handling large cards.
I feel it is best shown in action - this deck easily sounds like a wrecked old stoner with no memory left if you don't see it working - so I want to do something with it to show its personality & sense of humour. It is a technique of interviewing a tarot deck which I learned about on Alec Satin's website, although he attributes it to someone else. An example of him interviewing another deck using this spread can be found here: http://tarot.alecsatin.com/tarot-master-interview/
1. Tell me about yourself. What is your most important characteristic? Power. Interesting that one - even I would have expected Neil to come leaping out the deck at this point, but it's not having any of it. This deck is one which demands respect in its own way, by virtue of the power which it does wield. 2. What are your strengths as a tarot deck? Hand (the LWB interprets this as referring to help, either being given or needed); Stop ('cease being guided by omens. The universe is not entirely in harmony with your will. A psychic jolt can change the flow of events or even rechannel it'); Ball ('6 is the number of universal creation. This card is a more direct version of the "Transmutation through Union of Opposites" card'). What more could one want? A grown-up divination tool that helps, points out when we need to help others, gives us a slap when we're being ridiculous & opens the world of creation to us!
3. What are your limits as a tarot deck? 'Du Wacky Du' & 'Think about it for awhile'. OK, so it's shortcomings are obviously that it's a stoned 1970s deck, & gives the kind of readings you'd expect! This is a case where my gut instinct is complemented/contradicted by the LWB. It seems du wacky du can be the deck commenting on the madness of life around it, & think about it implies there's more involved in the question than meets the eye. 4. What do you bring to the table? 'There are no misteaks'. I suppose this is exactly the kind of alternative view I was talking about above. You wouldn't use this deck if you weren't wanting the completely alternative view. 5. How can we best learn from & collaborate with you? 'From here on in it's nothing but a downhill run.' The LWB says 'it is a total coast from here to enlightenment & total liberation. Cut the strain & flow into what is.' 6. What is the potential outcome of our working relationship? 'Do it now,' to which the LWB adds 'awareness comes only in the reality of experience.' There is one final question I personally like to ask a tarot deck when I get it, & I'm aware I haven't asked this one yet. Every deck I have asked this question to has given me an answer I haven't wanted to hear, & frequently with the one card in the deck that on looking through them I haven't wanted to see in a reading for myself. You've guessed it: this deck has followed suit.
The question is, 'What do you have to teach me?' The answer from this deck is, 'You are experiencing an illegitimate feeling.' No fluffiness there, then - this deck is so not feel-good. The LWB comments on that card: 'This statement is an absurdity, for there are no illegal feelings. In a reading, this card may indicate that you are experiencing a negative emotion which will disappear when you realize negativity is not necessary. Focus attention on your feelings & experiences - get in touch with yourself.'
I'm off to do that in the most obvious way: running naked through a cornfield. But not till I've put the lentils in to soak.
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