The Fool from The Linweave Tarot
Sage of Aquarius
David Palladini & The Art of Being
It was a tremendous honor for me to publish the first career-wise interview with David Palladini for Tarosophist International (Winter 2009//Vol. I, Issue 5). In addition, the same issue containes my interviews with Stuart R. Kaplan, Founder of U.S. Games Systems, Inc., publisher of both the Aquarian and New Palladini Tarot decks; and Susan Hansson, author of Reading Tarot Cards: A Guide to the New Palladini Tarot.—Michael Orlando Yaccarino
Following here is the introduction to the Palladini interview.
The Vietnam War rages on. Both African-American Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King, Jr. and presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy are assassinated. The first heart transplant takes place in Paris, the same city where student revolts nearly wreck the government. The Beatles open Apple Records and set cinematic sail in their Yellow Submarine. Richard M. Nixon is elected the thirty-seventh President of the United States. The hippie counter-culture delivers their tuneful protests in the Broadway musical Hair. Pope Paul VI condemns birth control. Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey ignites philosophical debates on college campuses everywhere. Manchester United becomes the first English team to win the European Cup Final. Mattel premieres its line of Hot Wheels toy cars. And NASA launches the Apollo program, the first manned space mission.
All of this fruit—bitter, luscious, dangerous, explosive, liberating, mind expanding, and soul altering—ripened during the span of a mere twelve months. But then again, this was 1968. And while such pivotal years happen rarely, the aftershocks of this particular one are still experienced today.
Spirituality was an integral link in ‘68’s eclectic/electric daisy chain of cultural, political, and societal upheaval. While the mainstream religious establishment came under attack, any form of exotic mysticism was embraced as a means to attain enlightenment. Occult was “in”. The divinatory arts, such as I Ching, Astrology, Numerology, and Tarot, became the focus of serious study in ashrams from Woodstock to Katmandu, and favored forms of after-dinner entertainment among the international social set. Unlike the glut of mystical paraphernalia available today, Tarot decks for the masses were scarce—fewer still with imagery capable of speaking to this tumultuous historical moment.
And then that same year, the Aquarian Tarot appeared for the first time.
With uncommon grace and technical virtuosity, then-fledgling artist David Palladini created an enduring masterpiece. Clearly referencing Pamela Colman Smith’s designs for the classic Rider-Waite-Smith deck as departure point only, he then made it entirely his own. And this is where the Aquarian succeeds where the multitude of RWS clones falter. For this deck was fashioned by a solidly trained artist fluent in a variety of styles and techniques. The result is a Tarot of superlative aesthetic beauty upon which an entire generation of readers willingly cut their teeth....
Following the Aquarian’s release, David Palladini went on to a multi-award-winning career of international renown as illustrator and fine artist. He even designed a completely new Tarot deck more than a quarter century after the Aquarian. An ongoing troubadour’s existence has spawned innumerable peripatetic adventures and the shaping of a personal belief system of profound dimensions.
In this rare and intimate interview—the very first in-depth one granted in a more than forty-year career—David Palladini documents a singular artist’s life, uncovers the genesis of the Aquarian Tarot, and reveals the very nature of his soul.
Following here is David Palladini's assessment of the project:
Michael Orlando Yaccarino has done a masterful job of collecting and arranging the chaotic bits of my vagabond life. He has done me great honor with his hard work and insightful writing. He recovered the most meaningful parts of my past, and preserved them for the future. My thanks to him are small in comparison to what he has done for me...giving me his respect for my work and for who I truly am.—David Palladini
Note: Tarosophist International is available free to all members of Tarot Professionals or for non-members through The Far Away Centre Book Shop.