Three Decks

I use The Gilded Tarot for many of my clients readings, and use them on my workshop days. They are vibrant which works well for my personal preference for strong artwork and colour. However, they are also suitably close to the Rider Waite style that they are good for teaching.

Ciro Marchetti, the artist, has produced two more decks.

The Tarot of Dreams & The Tarot of the Divine Legacy ( to be published by Llewellyn later this year).

The Tarot of Dreams is a self published deck, with an interactive CD to accompany the deck. It has animations of the cards...adding further depth to their meanings.

For example, the card of the Fool shows the following animation: a kitten's paw batting at a flying butterfly, movement of the white dove, and a shimmering, glimmering crystal ball. The text for the Fool is as follows:

In brief:
Being Foolish, playing the fool, making fun of something. The beginning part of an endeavor or journey. An unorthodox or nonconformist approach. Being a catalyst for change.

Path on the Tree of Life:
Sphere 1 Consciousness (Keter) connect to Sphere 2 Energy (Chokhmah). As the Fool's journey begins, consciousness manifests itself as pure energy, without any rational or ethical restrictions.

Hebrew Letter:
Aleph means Ox. The ox is used to till the fields, preparing them for the introduction of seeds, which will eventually grow.

Astrology:
Uranus, the planet of eccentricity, originality, and anarchy.
I would dearly love these but I believe they are now out of stock and unlikely to be produced again.


Finally, he has created the Legacy of the Divine Tarot. These are firmly on my wish list. They look even more intense than the other decks...if that is possible! His use of people in the cards works well, as they play a very prominent role..you certainly can't ignore them. The jewel like colours may not appeal to everyone and indeed, occasionally it is refreshing to use a calmer less rich deck.

I love to see a progression of an artists work, and in the Tarot it is especially exciting.


Nathalie Hertz is another artist who has produced three decks. The intense and darker Vampire Tarot Deck (for full review on these click here) And the colourful and rich Faerie Tarot (here for review)
And my personal favourite and a deck I use alot the Fantastical Tarot . In these decks, like the Ciro Marchetti there is a distinctive style and many recurring themes. But the artist develops each deck that it forms it's own identity and makes them very individual.

Maybe I should start collecting deck sets by the same artist...umm just an excuse to get more tarot cards!!

Snow

It's snowing today...sadly not the beautiful powdery, dry snow of the Alps but the wet, slush of Edinburgh!

However it has inspired me to look into any tarot cards that may depict snow.

5 of Pentacles often has snow. The imagery of snow deals with being "out in the cold," isolation, and exposure to harsh conditions. However, anyone who has stepped outside just after a fresh snow can tell you the beauty is stunning. Clean, crystalline, and quiet. These are also symbolic qualities of snow.

When the flakes fall in your eyes it is a matter of perspective - we can either see the snow as isolation or we can see it as a fresh clean blanket - waiting for us to make a few snow angels in it.

I found this stunning looking deck Fantastical Creatures Tarot and the Death card has this snowy scene with Fenris-Wolf.

The The Fairytale Tarot has The Chariot with the Snow Queen, which is very wintery and highlights the cold, arrogant aspect of this card in readings.

The Viking Tarot depict the pips in a seasonal order and here is the Queen of Chalices.

Tarot for All Seasons: Celebrating the Days and Nights of Power Combining Tarot and the seasonal lunar and solar festivals of the year, with seasonal tarot spreads and each holiday has its own section explaining its traditions and associations, and listing appropriate ritual types for the season; associated tarot cards, scents, magical 'brews' and candle colours.

Pearls of Wisdom

The Pearls of Wisdom Tarot promises to be an amazing deck. I am intrigued by the seemingly chaotic colours and artwork. Whilst I do love many digital art decks, I am excited by the artwork and by the looks of them there will a huge depth in any reading. All the reviews are saying that the back story of the artist adds a wonderful understanding and meaning to the cards.

"Here was an artist who had been through heart-wrenching personal tragedy and illness, yet managed to paint the most optimistic, cheerful deck I had ever seen. And not "just" a Tarot deck, but a series of paintings - art therapy - that catalogued a seven-year journey of spiritual and emotional healing." - Janet Boyer

Count Down

It's the 1st of December and the count down to Christmas begins.
To start things off I thought I'd share these amazing tarot cards with you.

"This is an original Wooden Tarot Deck fashioned by a true old world artisan and based on the artwork of the Christmas Greeting Cards used in the 1910's and early 1920's. Each item is painstakingly made by hand. No two are ever exactly alike. "

These are definately on my wish list. What cards are on your wish list?

Expensive tastes....moi!?

It seems that all the tarot I'm attracted too are either out-of-print or very rare or indeed uber-unobtainable!!!

Here are some examples:

Ancestral Tarot...the cheapest available on Amazon is £139.00...

Favole Tarot....out of print...

Ukiyoe Tarot...anything between £40 - £300..and they go like hotcakes on Ebay...and I keep missing the cheaper ones!

Tarocco Storico della Citta di Ferrara...only 3000 made & I can't find any to buy anywhere..

The list goes on!

Writer's Block...?

I discovered this spread and thought what a great idea!! I guess you could lay the cards in book format or however you felt was appropriate.

1 - The main character
2 - The Main Character’s sidekick
3 - The Main Character’s love interest
4 - The villain
5 - The main plot/theme of the story
6 - Subplot 1
7 - Subplot 2
8 -An important event from the story
9 - Another important event from the story
10 -What lesson the main character will learn
11 -Where the story begins
12 -Middle of the story
13 -Where the story ends

The question remains what deck could you use? Something rich in art and inspirational in itself...just be careful not to fall in love with a passing Knight!

This new Tarot from the creator of the Gilded Tarot & the Tarot of Dreams might provide the perfect inspiration!! It will be released in 2009..can't wait!

Legacy of the Divine Tarot from Ciro Marchetti

With bated breath....

I am currently waiting for amazon to deliever the Fenestra Tarot. They have been on my wish list for over 2 years, and so I finally took the plunge!
I am slightly nervous that these will be too wishy-washy for my particular taste. I love very colourful & powerful decks, usually ones that are troublesome and difficult to read, which probably says alot about me! However the below review gives me hope.

'The artwork of the Fenestra Tarot excels in beauty. These are probably among the most beautiful tarot cards I have ever seen. There are beautifully flowing lines in Art Deco (Art Nouveau) style with whirling plants, leaves, vines and water. They give movement to the pictures which would otherwise perhaps appear too static. The colours are soft and muted but never too mild or vague. The overall feeling is a bit autumnal; there are lots of yellows and soft reds, beautiful shades of rust, olive and grey.' by hermea see full review here

Here are some images, see what you think!

The Vampire Tarot by Sue Lloyd

When I first ordered the Vampire Tarot I was nervous that it would turn out to be just another novelty deck.
I already owned the The Fantastical Tarot its sister deck, and loved working with it because of its colourful and vibrant interpretations of the tarot.
I though it would be interesting to work with the two decks together. I wondered if because they were designed by the same artist, Nathalie Hertz, there would be a connection between them, a heightened energy when used together in spreads.
So when they finally arrived I couldn’t wait to open them!
The Vampire Deck is amazing. Firstly the cards themselves are high quality. They are a comfortable width for ease of handling. The background edge is black which is effective in highlighting the pictures. The back of each card is a blood-red and black freehand design. Each face has a red border and on the left and right sides, a border of skulls and leaves. At the top of the Major Arcana are Roman numerals and each card has its name at the bottom – the Sun or Seven of Swords. Unlike many decks these are fairly simply laid out. There are no Hebrew letters, runes or astrological symbols.
The vampires depicted on the cards are powerful, sometimes scary and sometimes strangely attractive. I’d like to point out that I’m not normally into the sexy vampire thing, but actually in these cards you forget the Dracula myths and get drawn into the archetypal aspects of each card. Justice for example is a vampire woman holding a set of scales in her left hand and a sword horizontally above her head with her right hand. She has a necklace of crystals and her wild hair is black and streaked with white. She is primitive, stark and uncompromising.
Not every card has a vampire on it. None of the cups have but they are still visually enticing and somehow it’s as if the vampires are just waiting in the wings, ready to step into the picture.
The colours and pictures are raw, brilliant and sometimes very uncompromising. Right from my first spread I felt as if I was stepping through a window into my own psyche. One of my favourite things is that each vampire has a distinct face. They are all individuals. This is especially noticeable and valuable in the Court cards. I’ve been working with Mary Greer and Tom Little’s book Understanding the Tarot Court
Their approach works heavily with Jungian archetypes and the personality of each Court card. The Vampire Tarot is an ideal learning ground for this.
I’ve used this deck in many different spreads and for different questions. Personally, I find they work best in areas where I’m exploring my own motivations and lessons I need to learn. Though not a spiritual deck, I do find that they highlight aspects of my character which I need to strengthen or where I need to exercise caution if I am not to play out a painful lesson.
And yes, I have used them along with the Fantastical Tarot. The spreads have been complex and usually weighing up two distinct choices. Each time the energy between the decks and the way the individual cards balanced against each other gave a very powerful reading.
I would say that this deck is best used by someone who is a pretty confident reader. There aren’t a lot of clues to each card’s meaning in the traditional sense. But for me, that is one of the big attractions. The Vampire Tarot is a very instinctual deck and I love it!

by Sue Lloyd All Rights Reserved 2007

Sue Lloyd is A Theta Healer who can be found at: Theta Healing Scotland

Nathalie Hertz's New Tarot is the Faeire Tarot...looks good!

Tempting Tarot Cards

I really, really want a copy of this deck! Normally, I don't go for Celtic themes but this is beautiful and a lovely step away from the norm.

It is full of fabulous imagery and loosely Celtic but using more modern and up to date themes. Some of the figures are wonderful and the colours are great. I only hope that when it is published they do not give it a white border as I think this will make it seem wishy-washy....maybe a fabulous dark green for something abit more striking.....

Check out the Deck in progress, Llewellyn will be publishing the deck kit in Spring 2010. Currently pre-orders are not yet being taken, but when it is released, you will be able to purchase from the site below and orders are shipped internationally as well.

Website!

Finally after a week of wrestling with technology, I have the website up and running! So now readings are available to buy there.
The trouble with websites is that the temptation to get sidetracked & add lots of cool & fun things is great. I had to remove several pages that whilst seemed cool they really weren't appropriate for the site. But know, hopefully, I have it looking & working smoothly.
Today is pretty cold here without the beautiful autumnal sunshine that we have had all week. However, I did get inspired to find some tarot cards that would perhaps have a seasonal feel...Tarot for All Seasons is the only thing I could find relating to the seasons.

So, perhaps a deck with a strong seasonal appeal might be nice, I am aware of hallowe'en and other festival decks but not, so far, any year decks... Or Oracle cards...umm I feel a project coming on!

Talking of projects I am working on the tarot art work that I want to include on the site...hopefully, scanners allowing, I will have that up in the next few days...watch this space!

Lovely colours from the Fairy Ring Tarot ....like the look of this deck...Oh Dear! More for the wish list!