Many capable tarot writers have tackled the 17th-Century Tarot de Marseille with the apparent goal of rendering every shred of ornamental detail on the 40 suit - or "pip" - cards into some kind of symbolic meaning. They usually succeed in producing a wealth of minute details that draws attention away from the enigma of the central images. Their results are for the most part scholarly, energetic and inspired but they do little to fire the imagination of the tarot reader seeking insights with a little more storytelling vigor. As a graphic artist, the author has taken a slightly different approach that studies the “design language” expressed in the pip cards as the key to their interpretation: What do the recurring motifs, the shapes and styles, the figured areas and the “white spaces,” the visual interplay between the features suggest in the way of intelligible hints about their significance when reading the cards? Think of it as analogous to a “Rorschach ink-blot” test that strives for overall pattern recognition rather than individual highlights. This 116-page expanded and illustrated edition is rounded out with a detailed exploration of the court and trump cards that offers a more traditional perspective.