The Hierophant of the first edition was intriguing because of its cleverly disturbing imagery. Perhaps because it was so unpopular, the artist, Marie White, replaced it with a new card.
The imagery in the second edition Hierophant does not make you draw back in shock. It may even draw you in. Nice touches are the two tablets and bronze serpents. The single key is more prominent in this edition (which key is it?) and I wonder if that's a bee hive on top of it. Once again the figure is female and I wonder why. Those would be some of the questions to explore if I purchase the second edition.
The new card is more accessible and should allow for positive as well as negative interpretations. I can reluctantly accept the revised Hierophant since it would allow the reader to explore more than just the shadow side of religious tradition. This card could grow on me.
The new Three of Swords, however, is deeply disappointing. In the first edition, the card was an original piece of art showing a bird's flight hampered by the three swords (wounds) he clings to-- or perhaps showing a bird that has caught the swords before they could pierce him.
None of the Minor Arcana cards in the first edition are RWS clones, but in the new edition, the Three of Swords has reverted to the usual, silly imagery of a heart pierced by three swords. Boring and cliché! (Tarot creators, please note: it only worked for Pamela Coleman Smith.) Red roses have been thrown into the mix as well, with a rose bud growing from the left auricle.
Two other cards have been changed. They are Judgment and The High Priestess. Judgment is now a more fiery Phoenix. It may be an improvement, but not an essential one. On the other hand, the new High Priestess is amazing! She may even compensate for the desecration of the original Three of Swords.
The original High Priestess was odd, its disparate bits of symbolism never really forming a single, coherent image. The first edition High Prietsess was too slender to be a Willendorf Venus as obviously intended, her fingers were like tree branches growing downward (but not from heaven), her headdress exploded into stars, the sefirot drawn in their original circular form on her broad, flat, naked belly made her look like a wheel of fortune, and there was all sorts of oddness just above the sea at her feet. (Maybe the guidebook would have helped me understand and bond with the card.)
The new High Priestess card is brilliant nod to the RWS, but takes the imagery in a more powerful direction.
As in the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, there are the two pillars of the Temple on either side of her, drawn in greater detail than in the RWS. A pomegranate curtain hangs between them behind her (screening a burning sun in a black sky). Her flowing robe, which begins as a veil over her head, merges into the reflective waters at her feet.
What makes the image so much more powerful than the RWS, is that her hands caress and support Torah, the fire that burns within her. (Lo b'shamayim, it is not in the heavens.) The image connects the ancient tradition of Torah (black fire on white fire) with the more primal imagery of welcoming flames inside a sheltering cave.
This deck will remain on my wish list. Eventually, I may be extravagant and order a copy from the U.S. Before I decide, I'll have to review the images of the the Minor Arcana on her website and come to terms with the Aces and some of the courts. (Check out the sevens! And the decaying Queen of Pentacles!)
I like that the Major Arcana cards seem to blend two concepts that have never been clear to me: "The Masculine" and "The Feminine."
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