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Darling, of course the Diva is all about the Tarot! Check in here to learn about the newest decks and books, as well as some old favorites!! A noteworthy word: as a long time Tarot student, teacher and reader, I usually have a very distinct and immediate reaction to any given deck of cards. They either grab me or they don't. In my opinion, there are two very distinct types of Tarot decks: the practical, usable decks and the gee whiz very cool decks. Of course, there are also the ones that are worthless on either front, but that's basically subjective. So on with the reviews...
Although this deck comes with a beautiful velvet pouch and is illustrated with lovely reproducations of Victorian drawings that are extremely appealing for the most part, I found the overall usability of the deck to be minimal. While this is definitely a "gee whiz" deck for the collector, I could not see a reader, particularly a novice, applying them to any practical use. As is the trend for some time now, traditional Tarot suits have been replaced, this time in the pictures only rather than in the titles of the cards. Cups are represented by jars, wands by pens (the writing kind, not the animal containing kind), swords by guns (yikes!) and coins by pocket watches. The illustrations give a strong nod to the classic Pamela Coleman Smith art from the standard Rider-Waite deck, allowing for a passing connection if one knows the traditional interpretations. The pictures go well with the interpretations and obviously, a great deal of thought and consideration has been put into the production of this deck. The book is well written and does a fine job of explaining the deck and applying meaning to the cards. The discussion of each card is particularly well written and I'd enthusiastically use the information contained in the book on its own merits. Of particular beauty are the Major Arcana cards and if this served as a stand alone deck working only with those cards, I'd be endorsing it fully. In direct contrast, it's in the minors that my appreciation falls down. While the effort is obvious, the inspiration is just not there and the pictures seem fairly tired. Honestly, it's as though the designers of this deck came up with a magnificent Major Arcana and forced themselves to put together a Minor Arcana. The court cards are particularly stale and do not appear to follow any particular theme or application. I found it uniquely disturbing that the Princess of Swords is portrayed as a young girl of 11 holding a pistol. Ick. Summary: this deck has a gorgeous Major Arcana that is more to the gee whiz level than to practical usage. The book is extremely well written and contains excellent information. The Minor Arcana and Court Cards, in my opinion, seem strained and leave a lot to be desired other than as interesting artwork. Other information on this deck: http://www.llewellyn.com/bookstore/article.php?id=338 http://www.llewellyn.com/bookstore/article.php?id=491
In direct contrast to the Victorian Regina Tarot is the extremely inspiring and vibrant "Waking the Wild Spirit Tarot." Very little about this deck reflects standard illustration or interpretation of the different cards and all have their own name rather than a division into traditional suits and numbers. By definition in the book itself, there is a separation of the minor cards into the categories of "Spirit of Air," "Spirit of Water," "Spirit of Earth" and "Spirit of Fire," however this distinction is not readily noticed when looking at the cards themselves. Each card has a very beautiful, alive piece of art, a pertinent and insightful quote to begin the discussion of the card and deceptively whimsical exploration of the individual meaning of the card. Written in first person as the card itself, the card interpretations come off as light and simple, but are loaded with strong symbolism and undertones, both in word and art, that inspire a plethora of inspiration that is bound to shift slightly with each and every reading. A friend of mine, while looking through the deck, remarked on how talkative and friendly the cards are and how inviting to interpretation they feel. There are many different points to catch the eye on each card and the expressive, imaginative quality of the artwork pulls a person into the cards' world in order to tell us more about our own. The book is well written and while it does not lend itself to the fortune telling angle of the Tarot, it fully and eagerly dives unapologetically into the best part of the Tarot: the window to the soul. The text of this deck offers a hand up in learning more about the self and one's life path, as well as providing a marvelous focus for meditation. I am certain this deck will get a great deal of joyful use and NOT be relegated into my "nice to have" Tarot stack. Brilliant work done by Poppy Palin on all fronts and I whole-heartedly endorse this deck. Other information on this deck: http://www.llewellyn.com/bookstore/article.php?id=527 http://www.llewellyn.com/bookstore/article.php?id=367
First catching my attention in the book "Tarot Spells" by Janina Renee ("Oooh! What are THESE cards?), the Robin Wood Tarot has long been a favorite of mine. Leaning heavily, but not offensively so, on the Pamela Coleman Smith illustrations from the classic Rider-Waite deck, the Robin Wood Tarot employs vibrant colors, lovely artwork and marvelous depth of symbolism to awake and inspire the reader's intuition and imagination. With a heavy Wiccan slant, the deck is a particular joy to the seasoned Craft person who will quickly layer another level of interpretation onto the already quite talkative deck via the thread of Pagan references. This would definitely not get in the way of a nonWiccan's appreciation of the deck (provided nudity isn't a problem), but simply gives another facet to the trained eye. Extremely welcoming and user-friendly, this would be an excellent deck for either the advanced or novice reader and I feel any Tarot collection is incomplete without it. I enthusiastically recommend it and feel it would be of great use and enjoyment to a broad spectrum of Tarot enthusiasts.
The Tarot of Oz Sitting firmly in the Gee Whiz Interesting Tarot category, this unusual Tarot deck is reminiscent of the Wonderland Deck in that it draws heavily from the stories from a series based on works for children without much practical application as far as actually doing readings. Anyone who has only a working knowledge of "The Wizard of Oz" would very likely find themselves quickly lost insofar as the imagery and interpretation of each card is concerned. The deck relies heavily on the more obscure Oz books that the average Tarot enthusiast will likely not have read, fifteen of them, in fact. References in the small book of interpretations are brief, necessarily so due to space restriction, but creating a near impossibility to explain the full connection between the card, the picture and the identity of the characters portrayed, much less the context in which the card is pertinent. While a valiant attempt is made to pull together the progression of the stories in each Minor Arcana suit, the impact is greatly lost due to the minimal explanations that attempt to employ a somewhat traditional interpretation while also shouldering the burden of telling the little known other tales of Oz. Don't get me wrong. This is a beautiful deck with colorful pictures in lovely primary colors, its practical application would be almost zero and heaven forbid a novice decide to embark on the Tarot through this deck. For those who are familiar with the stories and characters of the Oz books, this deck would be a delight and even without that background, the whimsical and lovely drawings make this deck a nice addition to any collection, but as a practical reading deck, it just didn't move me. I feel that this deck is centered toward the Oz folks more than the Tarot folks and that narrows the field of interest to what I would consider a fairly slim portion of the many people who collect and use Tarot decks. Other information on this deck: http://www.llewellyn.com/bookstore/article.php?id=366
Releases in December 2003 I was very eager to check out this deck, given the sample cards I'd seen and the delicious name. Sadly, like a movie whose best parts are in the trailer with little else to glue it together, the deck was a disappointment to me. Taking into consideration that the deck's artwork and approach are distinctly geared to the younger set, one would think that the deck would be more user friendly. Containing only the very slightest of booklets with only a breath of extremely basic information about each card (the interpretations involve only a handful of words each), the deck is basically unusable unless one also purchases the larger book, which is sold separately. The two should be forbidden to be sold apart from one another. The standard suits have been changed out with cauldrons (cups), boulders (pentacles), flames (wands) and broomsticks (swords) and while the fact that nothing is traditional about the deck would seldom be seen as a detriment, in this case, the artwork is never brought together into any kind of coherent or inspirational theme. The pictures are attractive enough, reminiscent of Hansrudi Washer's work on the Arcus Arcanum deck in that DC Comics kind of way, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the deck. There is little apparent interaction or relevance from one card to the next in the same suit or number to number (as in the fours do not correlate to one another, the tens have no central theme between them). The artwork is absolutely lovely and would be easily appreciated unto itself, but that does not create an effective Tarot deck any more than a number of pretty words on pages creates a readable book (which would have been extremely helpful in untangling the mystery of this deck). My concern is that the art work will work its appeal on the younger set, who will buy the deck and then become frustrated because they can't figure out what the heck to do with it or get a decent reading from the 5-6 word interpretations in the short-as-a-breath page that is provided to serve as the guidebook. Summary: Bleh. Pass unless you're looking for very, very nice artwork alone.
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