Haindl Tarot: What's it all about?

'If suffering can have a creative meaning, Hermann Haindl's life and work were formed by it.'   ~ Erika Haindl

In my last post I mentioned I dislike Rachel Pollack's books about this deck. I should clarify by saying that in the past I've found them a bit frustrating, or did when I read them a few years ago upon buying my first Haindl Tarot deck. They seem as stream-of-consciousness as Haindl's paintings themselves, and that can be frustrating when you have come to a guidebook to make order of such complexity, only to find the explanations as abstract-random as the cards themselves. For me part of the problem is that each chapter starts with the Hebrew letters, runes, astrology, and/or I-Ching, and you have to skim past all this to get to the actual card images. For me this is a problem, as I do not like adding separate systems to tarot, and for me these are all unnecessary add-ons that get in my way! I have been dipping into them for the last couple of days and can say I still find them a little rambly--and think they could be offputting indeed to dewy-eyed tarot newbies--they are useful for gleaning insights into the artist's mindset and some of the curious elements of the cards.

If you're willing to plow through the detail and continuously remind yourself that these are Rachel Pollack's personal thoughts about these cards (sometimes with input from Haindl himself, but often just her own responses), the book can help with some of the more mysterious or curious elements on the cards, particularly with the majors. The books are not essential, though. When all is said and done, as deeply personal a tarot as this is, it is still a tarot, and if you bring to it Thoth/Golden Dawn interpretations (which can differ from contemporary RWS ones), it doesn't matter if you can interpret every single 'cosmic bubble' or cryptic reference to Wagner. It doesn't matter if you know Aleph from Tau, or what a tallis is.  You can still read with this deck.

And that's the important thing, because as Rachel Pollack points out in the introduction, the Haindl Tarot is not an occult deck, not in the sense of the Thoth et al. It is, as she points out, 'a sacred tarot, one which reaches back to ancient spiritual traditions and cultures...leading us to see the world as a vessel filled with spiritual power and truth' (Haindl Tarot: Major Arcana, New Page Books, 12).


Here are a few gems from the book that I'd like to share. The epilogue written by Haindl's wife, Erika, and confirms some of my notions about the mood of the deck. 

About the backs: 'One section [of the painting 'The Eye'] ... has become the leading motive for the 78 cards of the Haindl Tarot. The eye looks at us from the back of the card. It is not the timeless, seeing eye of a godlike entity--this eye is marked by suffering. Amid the otheriwse immaculate beauty and tranquility, an abcess must be endured. The abscessed eye represents a symbol. Perhaps only through suffering can we reach a higher state of awareness' (Haindl Tarot: Major Arcana, New Page Books, 262). This certainly confirms my feeling that the entire deck depicts suffering, the constant tension between the fragility of physical life and the infinity of the spiritual/universal. 

• 'If suffering can have a creative meaning, Hermann Haindl's life and work were formed by it' (Erika Haindl, 260). 
• 'The first card to come about was the Wheel of Fortune. This card, very reserved in the colours,   shows Hermann Haindl's life principle symbolically. The axis of the wheel is the very centre of the personal life. However, to know one's own personal centre is to confront pain. Hermann's Wheel of Fortune depicts his theoretical and philosophical concept of life: in particular, it shows a life that has been deeply experienced and included much suffering' (Erika Haindl, 263). 
•  'With the image of a woman in the final painting for the cards [Isis], the essence of this tarot deck is emphasized. From the first painting, the Wheel of Fortune, to the last, Isis, the theme of the common longing for a society that finds its inner harmony again--in the return to equality between man and woman. The balance between male and female energies is a necessary prerequisite for a harmonious  society, though in our patriarchal world it seems almost a utopian concept' (Erika Haindl, 264). 
• 'The Haindl Tarot represents a summary of Hermann Haindl's life. It can be compared to a tree, which lives with its roots and branches through the uncountable places of contact with the material and nonmaterial world' (Erika Haindl, 259). 

Anyone who picks up this deck and has a flick through can immediately sense the suffering and pain that runs throughout it. Haindl's world view seems to have been shaped early by his experience as a prisoner of war in Russia for four years, from age 17 to 21. Surrounded by death and grim physical indignity, Haindl found symbolic meaning in a small birch sapling growing up through a barbed wire fence, which he would contemplate for hours, and which came to him to signify growth in the midst of misery and destruction of human dignity--a symbol of rebirth and life. 'Hermann never forgot the green leaves of the little tree...the secret of the profound connection between life and death became a well of strength in him, never to be lost' (Erika Haind, 261). 

So that explains the constant, throat-achingly small and keenly beautiful glimmer of hope that runs through this pain-infused deck. 

There is another theme in the deck, a sort of environmental message:

• 'We can describe the central theme of the Haindl Tarot as the renewal of the Earth -- not just the material resources but the spiritual Earth' (13).
• 'We can summarize these themes simply, as a return to the ancient wisdom and respect for nature, a need to renew the Earth as well as to restore the female principle to its true place--in daily life, in society and in the cosmos.' (26).  
• 'In the absence of harmonious balance, our nations will not stop destroying each other in war. Our food, the air we breathe, and the earth itself will be further poisoned by a society moving away from balance' (Erika Haindl, 264). 

So what is the 'mission statement' of the Haindl Tarot? As Erika says:

The Haindl Tarot cannot bring about significant changes in the way we conduct ourselves. Its positive influence will be almost weightless and barely detectable. However, there is an ever-expanding network of people who not only fend off that which is destructive, but also go further and nurture the spiritual. The Haindl Tarot is part of that network. Many people will see these cards and be moved by them. In this way the rich experience and understanding captured in these inspired images will help balance the scales -- with the weight of a feather (264).