Housewives Tarot - A Domestic Divination Kit
Paul Kepple and Jude Buffum
It is a relief when quite a different and unusual tarot deck shows up in the endless flood of self-important
tarot products. "The Housewives Tarot - A Domestic Divination Kit " is such a deck. The package alone is
promising, looking like the packing for a typical household product of the 1940's or 50's. It could be a
pack of tea or coffee, a special soap product or even a pack of margarine. The relatively big box
(140x90x70 millimeters) is made of heavy cardboard and covered with a check-patterned paper carrying the
necessary information about the product, along with a portrait of the happy housewife, holding a card in her
hand. One text on the box says: "Within this Box lie the Secrets of Domestic Empowerment".
So what is that secret? Opening up the box, the happy housewife will find that the inside reveals a filing
box with file cards and index cards, held in a tilted position. The index cards keep the tarot majors from
the minors and an instruction book is also stored behind an index card. The card frames are colored
differently for each suit and the suit-marks are dinnerware (pentacles), martini glasses (cups), mops/brooms
(wands). The swords are edged or pointed instruments, like pairs of scissors or knives.
All cards have collage art based upon advertising illustrations as they were used in ladies weekly magazines
in the mid-20th century. Nowadays these illustrations all appear very funny but at that time it was the way
household products were promoted and sold. One can wonder if nowadays advertising style will appear just as
ridiculous in 50 years?
The nostalgic art is quite entertaining, and as the box states "Shuffle the deck to create the recipe of
your future". The 96 page booklet tells how to do that. The description of each of the cards is just as
funny as the rest of this household product.
This is not the first time we have seen a tarot deck disguised as a box of recipe cards. US Games System's
"Epicurean Tarot" was a box of recipe cards to use for your cooking. How much more could that deck have been
appreciated, had it been illustrated in this way, instead of the manufacturer's endless use of inferior
Waite-Smith remakes.
Luckily, "The Housewives Tarot - A Domestic Divination Kit " is a much more interesting product and,
amazingly, it costs less than $15. The creators are Paul Kepple and Jude Buffum and the publisher is Quirk
Books, Pennsylvania (www.quirkbooks.com).
Distribution in USA is by Chronicle Books.
It is a relief when quite a different and unusual tarot deck shows up in the endless flood of self-important
tarot products. "The Housewives Tarot - A Domestic Divination Kit " is such a deck. The package alone is
promising, looking like the packing for a typical household product of the 1940's or 50's. It could be a
pack of tea or coffee, a special soap product or even a pack of margarine. The relatively big box
(140x90x70 millimeters) is made of heavy cardboard and covered with a check-patterned paper carrying the
necessary information about the product, along with a portrait of the happy housewife, holding a card in her
hand. One text on the box says: "Within this Box lie the Secrets of Domestic Empowerment".
So what is that secret? Opening up the box, the happy housewife will find that the inside reveals a filing
box with file cards and index cards, held in a tilted position. The index cards keep the tarot majors from
the minors and an instruction book is also stored behind an index card. The card frames are colored
differently for each suit and the suit-marks are dinnerware (pentacles), martini glasses (cups), mops/brooms
(wands). The swords are edged or pointed instruments, like pairs of scissors or knives.
The nostalgic art is quite entertaining, and as the box states "Shuffle the deck to create the recipe of
your future". The 96 page booklet tells how to do that. The description of each of the cards is just as
funny as the rest of this household product.