The Millenium Tarot: Tarot of the Four Worlds
First Australian Tarot, designed by Mary Susan Chamberlain, with artwork by Ziba Vilmanis-Westenberg.
Australia is not a country one immediately associates with Tarot cards. However, at least six Tarot packs were created and/or produced in Australia prior to 2014†. The earliest of these was The Millenium Tarot, thought to be the first Tarot pack designed and produced entirely in Australia. It was the result of a collaboration between Susi Chamberlain, the conceptual designer, and Ziba Vilmanis-Westenberg, the artist. A wide variety of cultures, traditions, races and time periods are represented in the imaginative and colourful designs. The card titles are the traditional ones apart from card 0, The Innocent, which replaces The Fool. The extensive booklet includes a full description of every card. The first edition of The Millenium Tarot was published in a limited edition of 1,500 packs of which 300 were numbered by hand and signed in gold ink by the conceptual designer and the artist.



Above: The Millenium Tarot: Tarot of the Four Worlds, designed by Mary Susan Chamberlain, with artwork by Ziba Vilmanis-Westenberg, printed by Sharples Printers, Australia, 1984. 22 cards + 1 extra card + leaflet + 43-page booklet + pale blue silk cloth in gold drop-lid box with paper sleeve. Size: 70 x 120 mm. © Artwork copyright 1984 Mary Susan Chamberlain and Ziba Vilmanis-Westenberg
The box is completely plain (without images or text) so I have not scanned it • See the sleeve • See the leaflet
References
† The Millenium Tarot (1984); Bohemian Tarot (1990); Tarot and You (1999); Garden Path: An Antipodean Tarot (2004); Jordan Clarke Tarot (2011); Nine Lives Tarot (2013).
Kaplan, Stuart R. The Encyclopedia of Tarot, Vol. III. Stamford, CT, USA: U.S. Games Systems, Inc.; 1990. pp 350-2.

By Roddy Somerville
Member since May 31, 2022
Roddy started collecting stamps on his 8th birthday. In 1977 he joined the newly formed playing-card department at Stanley Gibbons in London before setting up his own business in Edinburgh four years later. His collecting interests include playing cards, postcards, stamps (especially playing cards on stamps) and sugar wrappers. He is a Past President of the Scottish Philatelic Society, a former Chairman of the IPCS, a Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards and Curator of the WCMPC’s collection of playing cards. He lives near Toulouse in France.
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