Deck Review: The Grand Universal Tarot

• Grand Universal Tarot
• Bruno de Nys (no separate credit for the artist)
• Schiffer Books – £28 GBP
• Reviewed by Carolyn D

Bruno de Nys, creator of the Grand Universal Tarot, is well known in the Francophone Tarot world. The 11th edition of his first book, Tarot, the complete method, was published in French in 2003 and in English in 2017. It does not appear that any of his many other books on Tarot have been published in English yet. He has his own French publishing company specialising in Tarot and esotericism.

I see this deck as the Radiant version of the Marseilles deck. The images closely resemble those of the Marseilles decks we are familiar with, down to the peculiar omission of a title block for the Page of Coins. I wondered, for example, why the Charioteer and his horses were looking to their right, but then noticed that they do the same in the original Marseilles deck.

The images in this deck are not simply copies, however; the artist has livened the characters in the images, giving most of them rainbow-coloured clothes and tools and in some cases a little more ‘personality’, and has added details and backgrounds to the people and scenes (the sun-drenched library behind the High Priestess is a particular favourite of mine).

The artist has also added some symbology of his own; for example, appropriate chakra colours are provided along the spine and pelvis of the skeleton in the Death card, and the two animals in the Moon card are clearly male and female (the Marseilles imagery shows them ‘drinking’ the dew falling from the moon, but the image in this deck shows this action more clearly). The artist has also added background colours to the pip cards – green for wands, blue for cups, red for swords and yellow for coins – which I find a welcome improvement that simplifies identifying and interpreting them.

In the accompanying book de Nys provides instruction for two divination methods,  the ‘cut draw’ and the ‘cross draw’, which I have never before encountered. Although the book includes interpretations for all 78 cards, the reading examples only include the Major Arcana, and it appears the techniques he describes are for the Major Arcana only. His instructions and examples provide very specific predictions for querents, including times for and durations of future events. In his readings he uses something he refers to as ‘occult arcana’, adding up the numbers of two Major Arcana cards to get a third, which is included in the interpretation. It may be that some of his advice is lost in translation; I found a short chapter on ‘generic’ and ‘substitute’ Major Arcana cards difficult to follow.

As I enjoy a deck interview, I asked the cards what they would like readers of this review to know. The interpretations in the book for the cards I drew are as follows:

Page of Swords: diplomacy, dexterity, mental alertness, experience

Two of Wands: clashes, struggles, rivalries, courage

Three of Cups: team spirit, favourable news, luck, victory

My three pulls did not include any Major Arcana cards, which reinforces the suggestion, and my feeling, that deep spiritual insight or personal exploration might not be this deck’s best use. It seems like this deck is a good tool for making predictions and divining outcomes in the real world, for individuals and maybe even for groups or larger entities. Aside from its own suggestions for its use, this would be a lovely supplemental deck for anyone who already works with the Marseilles deck and would like an occasional change of pace with fresh and updated versions of the images.