The ancient philosophers and alchemists taught that the highest wisdom is to see the patterns that are timeless. This is what happened to Siddhartha as he sat under the Bodhi Tree -- he saw the pattern of all his incarnations like a great wheel and became the Buddha, the "Enlightened One." Now the archetypal similarities between his journey to enlightenment and the story told by the Major Arcana are brought to light in The Buddha Tarot. By viewing the Tarot as a mandala, with the four suits representing the four cardinal directions and the trumps as the sacred center, you can use this deck to change your consciousness and progress toward individuation. With this deck you will understand how the practice of divination itself prods us toward the realization that all is one as you begin to communicate with the unconscious and bring its wisdom into consciousness.

The Buddha Tarot: A Mandala of Cards, Robert M. Place, Red Feather, Boxed set with 352-page book and 78 cards, $39.99,

Robert M. Place is an internationally known visionary artist, whose award winning works, in painting, sculpture, and jewelry, have been displayed in galleries and museums in America, Europe, and Japan and graced the covers and pages of numerous books and publications. He is the designer, illustrator, and coauthor of The Alchemical Tarot and The Angels Tarot, which have received international acclaim. He is designer, illustrator, and author of the award winning The Tarot of the Saints, The Buddha Tarot and The Vampire Tarot. He is the author of The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination, which Booklist has said, "may be the best book ever written on that deck of cards decorated with mysterious images called the tarot." He is the author of Astrology and Divination, Magic and Alchemy, and Shamanism written for the Mysteries, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena series. He has also created illustrations and authored articles for numerous books and magazines.

Robert has conducted lectures and workshops on the Tarot in education centers in the United States and Europe, including the Open Center, Omega Institute, The New York Tarot Festival and The Reader's Studio in New York, The World Tarot Congress in Chicago, The Southeastern Regional Tarot Festival in Florida, The Third International Conference of the Association for Esoteric Studies in Charleston, The Museo Dei Torocchi in Riola, Italy, and the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles. He is the curator of the Fool's Journey, a Tarot Exhibition at the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum. He and his work have appeared on A&E, the Discovery Channel, and the Learning Channel, the TV series Moonlight and Monk and were included in a documentary on vampires on Animal Planet.