Tarot de Maléfices


Le Tarot de Maléfices was a tarot deck designed for Maléfices, a French occult and conspiracy role-playing game by publisher Jeux Descartes set in 1870–1914 in Belle Époque France. It is supposed to be the deck authored by Le Club Pythagore, a fictional society from the era involved in occultism, spiritualism and magical research.
The artwork on the cards is dark and sardonic, with a tinge of madness about them. People are portrayed as bestial, vain or foolish and demons or beasts are in most of the backgrounds. It helps to create the mood that magic is nothing to be trifled with and that there are dark forces all around – and even inside – us.

Major Arcana

The Arcana are not numbered. There are also no suit cards. The eleven Upper Arcana cards are full frame and deal with one view. The next nine Lower Arcana cards are split-frame and deal with a depiction of the figure on one side of the diagonal line and a bestial parody on the other. Eve and La Midium are the only female cards in the deck.
The 20 Major Arcana are:

Upper Arcana

Eve combines the High Priestess and Empress. Adam combines the Emperor and High Priest. This makes them a hybrid of Upper and Lower arcana.
The First Edition deck had different Adam and Eve cards. Adam is an attractive fair-haired man and Eve is a beautiful fair-haired woman. They are depicted with their face in profile on a circular mirror split between light and darkness and bordered with branches. Each one faces towards the darkness and away from the light. Adam faces towards the left-hand side of the card and Eve faces towards the right-hand side of the card; each has their back to the other if the cards are placed back to back.

Lower Arcana

These cards show a split view. There are two edges to each Lower Arcana cards in the deck. One edge shows a normal person and the reversed edge shows a bestial parody of that person. One depiction is shown with an animal on his shoulder and the other with a demon on his shoulder. Both versions have a beast's head issuant from their subject's groins, with the bestial version usually looking more sinister than the human one. This means that there is twice the chance of drawing a Lesser Arcana card.
The cards were originally designed by LeCordelier and drawn by Gilles Lautussier. The first edition of the cards were black and white on pre-punched cardboard. The second edition was in color and was printed on laminated cardboard.
A third edition of the deck made in 2007 added two new Lower Arcana: La Midium as equal to The High Priestess and L'Archiviste as equal to The Hierophant, therefore making Eve equal to The Empress and Adam equal to The Emperor.
Hippocrate, the title for "The Physician", is used in the 1985/1988 edition of the deck. It is a pun on "hypocrite", implying the doctor isn't as benevolent as he seems.