I was recently given a very extraordinary deck of tarot cards: Michael's Tarot, called so, not because the deck is made by the Stuttgarter artist, Michael Kutzer, but because to the artist a central card in the deck is the rendition of Justizia (Justice) as the Archangel Michael.

Michael Kutzer has for years been fascinated by tarot symbolism and history, and in particular by the variety of motives, he found in older packs. As an example he mention The Star, which before it found its present form in the Marseille-deck's water flowing maid, was illustrated also by a maid carrying a star, by astronomers with their measuring instruments or by the Holy Three Kings, being led to Jesus by the star.

This freedom of earlier times inspired Michael to work on his own reinterpretation of the major arcana. He did not just want to make a new variation of the more or less standardized pack; he wanted to emphasize the symbolic content, as he saw it. There are three major ways in which he reinterpreted the cards. In some cards Michael substituted the standard image with those older motives, he was fascinated by: The Chariot depicting Elias' Chariot of Fire, the astrologers on The Star and the Archangel Michael as Justitia, weighting the souls on his scale. The motto of this latter card is "Solum Gratia" (Through Pure Grace). The motive shows us that, without Michael's sword, the souls would be condemned to Hell. The vignette at the bottom of the card, the Angel carrying the suicidal Judas to Heaven, is an indication that even Judas took part in the Grace.

In another group of cards, Michael Kutzer keeps to the standard tarot motives we all know, like The Moon depicting the crawfish, changing his element from water to earth, or The Magician, whose motto is "Fac et Spera" (Act and hope) The Magician - or the scientist - stands in front of his table with the signs of the four elements. What did he actually learn from his work? In the window we see the nuclear mushroom-cloud. The scientist often only acts and the other side of the motto, Hope, is overlooked. The small vignette is a reference to a French legend about an entertainer, who honors The Holy Virgin by his acting.

The third group of cards are those, where Michael Kutzer found that the original symbols no longer could be used, because they had lost their original meaning, like The Hanged Man, hanged by his one foot, originally being a way of punishment. This is a symbol, which Michael finds is so far from our times, that the main interpretation of it, being "looking at the world from a new perspective", no longer is obvious. He therefore rendered this card, as a young man looking at his changed Self, mirrored in a globe. The Greek motto on the card means: Know yourself. Michael Kutzer's comments on the card: Who are we? Already Adam and Eve wanted to know this, and ever since, this question has been asked: Is the Fool, who questions everything, a Wise or is the Wise, who strives after knowledge, a Fool? Is the mirrored image false or just the truth under other circumstances?"

Michael has not numbered the cards, nor has he printed the traditional titles on them. Instead he gives a motto for each card, either in Latin or Greek (except for The Devil, whose motto is in Italian - a detail Michael Kutzer himself excuses in his text of the deck).

The cards are very delicate, hand colored original etchings. Each card has five parts. The upper part is the framed motto, then comes the main motive, and in the bottom, which is about 1/5 of the card, there are three additional frames. The central one of these is depicting a scene from the bible or from some legend, adding to or commenting on the main symbolism of the card. The two other smaller frames have additional symbols. The all-over design of the cards reminds me of an altarpiece.

Michael's tarot is not a tarot for divination, but a tarot for meditations and for afterthoughts. In the accompanying booklet Michael Kutzer gives us the key to the symbolism, which definitely is not obvious. Without this key, it would be difficult to identify all of the cards, because they are much different from standard tarot images. Once you have entered its world, you will find yourself absorbed by it.

The handmade deck is made only in a very limited edition of 12 decks, hand printed from the original black and white etchings, and afterwards hand colored.