I'm Jason Augustus Newcomb, the designer of the PGM Tarot and I am so excited and grateful that you are checking it out. I know you will want to have this deck! It is a passion project for me that I have been working on for quite a while and I am so happy that it is finally complete and ready to go out into the world. Just so you know, I've been a professional Tarot reader (as well as a magical author and creator) for almost three decades and this is the Tarot that I am going to be using with my clients from now on. It is a very magical Tarot and it is really going to transform my readings, and hopefully yours too!
The great thing about this deck is that it is both a tool for divination as well as a portable magical tool kit that will give you access to the magic of late antiquity right in the palm of your hands.
The art is based on ancient Greek pottery, late antiquity magical gems and the talismans of the PGM. It is very much a "magical" Tarot. There are more than 40 talismans from the PGM incorporated into the deck, and I did not assign normal Tarot titles to the major arcana so they can be used flexibly in readings, and more comfortably in ritual.
It is a Tarot, in that it has 78(+) cards, (it actually has 100 cards) but it has a lot more going on. It has 56 "minors" that are based on "black figure" pottery and 22(+22) majors based on red-figure pottery. Part of the "Homer oracle" is also incorporated in the 2-10 minors, as well as related talismans from the PGM. Unlike most modern Tarot creations it is not really oriented around Qabalah or the Rider-Waite model, but is instead much more directly related to Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy and a chthonic magical journey.
Many of the oracular choices and image choices were inspired by my visionary work, but I also spent several thousand hours in papyrus manuscript archives, visiting museums with pottery and magical gem collections both remotely and in person, and studying dozens of books on theurgy, pottery, ancient magic and ancient philosophy to immerse myself fully in the project.
The deck was expanded by crowdfunding backers and includes: 100 cards with 44 deity (major arcana cards) and 56 numbered or court cards containing talismanic images drawn from the PGM, many of which have never been published before in visual form.
The book was also expanded and includes: an exploration of the structure and process of creating the deck, descriptions of each card, and brief instructions for consecrations and divinations. It also includes instructions on using the cards for visionary portals to communicate with the divine. Simple and direct "Tarot Spells" related to all the cards are also included. And of course don't forget the "materia magica" of the PGM in an appendix that lists every physical object in the PGM with associated deity cards where appropriate.