Today I have the rare pleasure present you with what's probably one of the few "historical" decks I will have the chance to showcase from Greece. I wrote "historical" in quotation marks because, while this version of the 1JJ Swiss Tarot is definitely old (I'd estimate around the late 70's or early 80's) and is probably one of the most popular and ubiquitous editions that has been sold in Greece--even my grandparents owned a copy, which unfortunately got lost--and is still being sold today, it is clearly a "counterfeit" edition that's almost comically bad.
So, to begin with, the tuck has all the original U.S. Games information in English, including the ISBN from the original 1974 edition (!), names Stuart R. Kaplan and claims to include a booklet that is nowhere to be found in the box. Meanwhile, however, on the bottom flap of the tuck, it shows the name and address of the Greek publisher, «Εκδόσεις "Δίδυμοι"» (Gemini Publishing) -- a publishing house that still seems to exist, as its books on magic, metaphysics, theosophy and paranormal subjects are still widely available. Despite the similarities to the U.S. Games/AGMüller original, however, both the tuck and the cards inside have been resized, with all the images looking slightly stunted.
The ad card that accompanies the deck, which has been included twice in my copy for some reason, is even funnier, as it describes the deck as follows: «Αστρολογική Ταρό Μ.Α.Ν.Τ.Α.Λ.Α» (Astrological Tarot M.A.N.D.A.L.A), stating that it is "with great pride, "DIDYMOI" publications offer to its numerous readers the unique, costly and luxurious in appearance and packaging edition of the Tarot M.A.N.D.A.L.A. which combines the interpretation of the simple TARO with astrology and the Zodiac Signs."
To be clear, none of this statement is even remotely true. There are literally zero references to astrology in the entire deck, except for where the Tarot designs themselves have deigned to make that connection, such as the Moon card, which shows the crawfish which could be connected to Cancer, and the Justice card which is generally associated with Libra, none of which is out of the ordinary.
The cartouches on each of the cards have all been translated, but, once again, we see some interesting discrepancies: the 1JJ Swiss is one of the decks that replace the Popess and the Pope for Juno and Jupiter, but the Greek titles use the RWS names for most of the corresponding cards, regardless, with Juno bearing the title of the "High Priestess" («Η Αρχιερεία») and Jupiter the title of the Hierophant («Ο Ιεροφάντης»). One notable exception, however, is the Tower card which features the title «Ο Οίκος του Θεού,» i.e. "The House of God" (La Maison Dieu) from the Marseille tradition. Conversely, the Minor Arcana all bear the traditional Greek titles for the playing cards, which, while most suits traditionally correspond with the Italian suits of Cups (Κούπα), Swords (Σπαθί), Wands/Clubs (Μπαστούνι), hilariously, the Coins/Deniers are referred to as «Καρό» (Carreaux, i.e. Diamonds).
Lastly the cardstock is absolutely atrocious; featuring unevenly cut corners, no black core, meaning the cards are all semi-transparent when held up against the light, and extremely porous to dust and moisture, making them nigh impossible to shuffle. Truly, the epitome of a costly and luxurious production. 🤣
Nonetheless I still find it a fascinating deck, and I'm glad I have the 1JJ Swiss represented in my collection in one form or other. It definitely has some sort of cult appeal. Definitely a product of a time where copyright laws in my almost-third world country were barely enforced, if at all, and where fortunetelling parlors and spirituality were basically the Wild West with zero oversight and quality control.
