Tarot Fellow
Tarot of Dreams by Ciro Marchetti — 78-Card Deluxe Collector Deck
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$29.95 - Regular price
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$29.95
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Tarot of Dreams by Ciro Marchetti — a 78-card deluxe collector’s deck featuring Marchetti’s signature richly detailed digital art in luminous jewel tones with gold-foil accents throughout. Drawing on Rider-Waite-Smith symbolism while infusing a distinctly dreamy, otherworldly aesthetic, this deck is beloved by collectors and readers who want artistic luxury in their daily practice.
Description:Quick Specs
- Artist: Ciro Marchetti
- Author: Lee Bursten (guidebook)
- Cards: 78 standard tarot cards plus Tree of Life and Palace cards
- Publisher: U.S. Games Systems
- Best for: Intuitive reading, collectors, dream-logic visual interpretation
Tarot of Dreams by Ciro Marchetti: Origin and Artistic Vision
Ciro Marchetti's Tarot of Dreams began as an independent project before U.S. Games Systems brought it into wider distribution. Marchetti, a Cuban-born graphic designer who spent years producing commercial illustration before turning to digital art, is best known in the tarot world for the Gilded Tarot, which was his first published deck. The Tarot of Dreams followed as a more ambitious successor: deeper in color, richer in symbolic layering, and explicitly organized around the logic of dream experience rather than conventional daylight consciousness. Each image was built digitally using layered composition techniques that produce a depth and translucence unusual in printed tarot art.
The deck's stated aim, in Marchetti's own words, was to create images with the same impact as a suddenly remembered dream, the kind that arrives with full emotional weight before the analytical mind can process what it is. That approach shapes the imagery throughout: figures appear in ambiguous settings, scale shifts unexpectedly, and backgrounds suggest locations that feel simultaneously familiar and impossible. These are not illustrations of standard tarot tableaux. They are paintings of the internal experience the cards represent, which makes them particularly effective for readers who work intuitively through image rather than through memorized symbolic systems.
Marchetti Tarot Deck: Structure, Cards, and the Palace Additions
The U.S. Games edition includes the standard 78 cards of a traditional tarot deck, supplemented by additional cards that make the Tarot of Dreams structurally distinct from most contemporary decks. Each of the four suits includes a Palace card, a fully illustrated scene depicting the environment or court of that suit, which serves as an extended context card for the court cards. This brings the active card count to 82 plus a Tree of Life reference card designed by Lee Bursten, whose guidebook grounds the deck's imagery in Kabbalistic and astrological frameworks. Major Arcana titles follow Marchetti's preferred naming: the Hierophant becomes Faith, and the Hanged Man becomes Hanging Man.
The deck was originally produced in a signed and numbered collector's edition before the U.S. Games commercial release made it widely accessible. Collectors who encountered the original edition often cite the Tarot of Dreams as one of the landmark decks in the genre of digitally produced tarot art, alongside Marchetti's later Legacy of the Divine Tarot and Tarot Grand Luxe. Unlike those later decks, which moved toward a more polished aesthetic, the Tarot of Dreams retains a softer edge that reinforces its dream-state quality. The card stock in the current edition handles smoothly and is suited for regular reading use alongside its value as a collector's piece.
How to Read with the Tarot of Dreams
How to approach reading with the Tarot of Dreams by Ciro Marchetti.
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Orient to the Dream Logic of the Images
Spend time with the Major Arcana before your first reading without consulting the guidebook. Let each image speak before applying a keyword. Marchetti's imagery works best approached like a dream: notice what pulls your attention before naming it.
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Use the Palace Cards as Suit Context
The four Palace cards each depict the environment of one suit. When reading a court card, consult the matching Palace card to understand the territory the figure inhabits. These additions are unique to this deck and add depth not in standard decks.
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Read Intuitively First, Then Check the Guidebook
Use Lee Bursten's guidebook as a deepening layer after your intuitive read rather than as the starting point. The Tarot of Dreams rewards readers who let the image speak first. The guidebook amplifies what the imagery opens; it must not replace it.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I carry the Tarot of Dreams because it occupies a specific and important space in the tarot landscape: a reader's deck that is also a collector's piece, with imagery that rewards long-term use rather than just initial visual impact. Marchetti's later decks are more polished, but the Tarot of Dreams has a quality of unresolved visual energy that many readers find more generative for intuitive work. It is also one of the few decks where the bonus cards are substantive enough to change how you use the full structure. For the full range of tarot decks available, browse my tarot decks selection. For books that support tarot study and practice, see my tarot and divination books.
Frequently Asked Questions
The U.S. Games edition includes 78 standard tarot cards plus four Palace cards and a Tree of Life card by Lee Bursten, totaling 83 cards. The 78-card structure is complete; the extra cards are supplements, not replacements for traditional positions.
A strong deck for beginners who learn through imagery rather than keyword lists. Marchetti's visually rich compositions produce impressions without prior tarot knowledge. The Rider-Waite structure underlies the complete card set from Fool to World.
Both are by Ciro Marchetti, but the Gilded Tarot follows traditional imagery with a Renaissance metallic aesthetic. The Tarot of Dreams uses softer, surreal compositions built on dream-state logic, and includes Palace cards the Gilded Tarot lacks.
The guidebook was written by Lee Bursten, a tarot scholar known for integrating Kabbalistic, astrological, and psychological frameworks. Bursten also designed the Tree of Life card. His guidebook covers all 83 cards including all four Palace cards.
