What do you think of this deck? Should I buy it?

[DanielJUK]

@Misterei totally agree with your post. One of the best things in tarot and divination in the last decade has been progressive diversity, I can see my life and my friends featured in cards. LGBTQ+ relationships, trans and non-gender conforming people and people of colour and minorities. But also it's really easy to get this very, very wrong! There has been some recent decks which make such a mistake with it. Like you can't take RWS, paint the people different shades of brown and white and then say this is diverse for everyone! The deck shouldn't be "diversity" themed, that is the agenda that goes wrong here. You make a deck with the artwork or theme you want and you have cards that reflect different people but it should just flow and seem natural, like people you might meet in the street in a diverse city. This is probably a whole other discussion but you made a great point . Symbolism always first.

[FindYourSovereignty]

9 hours ago, Misterei said:

12 hours ago, Raggydoll said:

... I’d just develop a nasty rash. I’m allergic to ‘Love and Light’ keyword phrases.

🤣. But on another note ... some of the new decks feel very UN tarot to me.

Like the deck creator has an agenda ... and they exploit Tarot's name and template for their agenda ... which disregards the essence of tarot.

Yes, true, and decks are being created on any subject, collectible, animal, fruit, cars, games, bands, tv shows, you name it. Everything is possible and anything is on the table. 
 

9 hours ago, Misterei said:

Now this cozy witch deck might be perfectly good and useful if @Saule  [or anyone] wants positive affirmations. Great. But call it an Affirmation deck.

Tarot isn't all love and light, nor is it all dark and shadows. It has BOTH. That's its charm.

Yes, this ^^^
 

8 hours ago, gregory said:

The "book-learned" meanings are there, boiled in to "real" tarot cards. In a good deck, they also shine through the images.

 

 

Sorry, @Saule, but this wouldn’t work for me as a tarot deck.

 

 

Edited October 5, 2023 by FindYourSovereignty

[Arania]

10 hours ago, Misterei said:

Judgement is so NOT about smiling complacently with your cat and your flower box.

Interestingly, I see the judgement here as the gossiping neighbour who normally watches and criticises everything you do just not now 😄

[gregory]

17 minutes ago, Arania said:

Interestingly, I see the judgement here as the gossiping neighbour who normally watches and criticises everything you do just not now 😄

 

 

OK fair enough !

[Nemia]

There are times when I need tough love from my decks or only tough, and at other times, I like a more gentle-cozy-comforting deck. For those times, I have the Good Karma and the Distant Past Tarot, as well as the Inner Child cards. 

 

In the deck above, the art is a bit too cute for my taste, and the affirmations on the cards would feel restrictive. If I need positive affirmations towards the end of a reading, I prefer to write them myself. But that's just me. Maybe there are also times when you don't find the positive angle  yourself, just when you need it most, and then these cards may help. 

[Misterei]

13 hours ago, gregory said:

... As in DV's omission of Devil and Death,

What is DV?

No Devil or Death? My 2 favorite cards! Waaaah!

 

@gregory said

<<... Someone on another forum used to say that when they read for others they always deliver positive messages. When I said that wasn't possible; there CANNOT always be a positive outcome, all hell let loose. ...>>

 

This is why I had to leave Tarot reddit. If you said, Death can mean Death ... whew! The ensuing sh%tstorm!

Poor little things. What will happen when they get old? When they realize that actual physical death *IS* a thing ...?

[Misterei]

4 hours ago, Arania said:

Interestingly, I see the judgement here as the gossiping neighbour who normally watches and criticises everything you do just not now 😄

Huh. I didn't get this from the image or the text which says <... you're exactly where you're supposed to be>

But of course visual messages are in the eye of the beholder. You see what you see.

And now we have an image divorced from history which can mean anything to anyone.

Which is ok ... but not Tarot. More like an oracle.

 

Me? Judgment is: make a change or else. It's literally warning you to change your ways.

You are NOT where you're supposed to be.

There's a pre-christian meaning where it's the immortality of fame ... I like that meaning too ... but it seldom shows up in my reads as such.

Normally it's a lawsuit or a warning to change your lifestyle to be more healthy.

 

And I guess this is my problem with "positivity" invading Tarotspace.

Sometimes someone needs to hear: Listen to your doctor. Go on a diet before you get a heart attack and leave your family crying.

The cards are HELPING when they say this.

[gregory]

32 minutes ago, Misterei said:

What is DV?

No Devil or Death? My 2 favorite cards! Waaaah!

 

Doreen Virtue, She had Ego, IIRC, for Devil....

[Misterei]

Just now, gregory said:

Doreen Virtue, She had Ego, IIRC, for Devil....

No wonder I didn't clock that.

I loathed those decks even when they were all the rage. I laughed to see her renounce them.

[Raggydoll]

Regarding the judgment card. From what I can tell, she is not inside of the building. She’s actually growing out of the flowerbed and her hair is floral! Look at her body and how it’s not bent out from the window. I think the card is telling her that sometimes we are planted in awkward or unexpected places but this happens for a reason. Which aligns with the keyword phrase “you’re exactly where you are supposed to be”. Which do not really align with my way of viewing Judgment, but I think this could be a nice, comforting, Oracle style deck for those in the need for such a thing! 

[rylla]

On 10/4/2023 at 11:47 PM, Misterei said:

🤣. But on another note ... some of the new decks feel very UN tarot to me.

Like the deck creator has an agenda ... and they exploit Tarot's name and template for their agenda ... which disregards the essence of tarot.

 

Now this cozy witch deck might be perfectly good and useful if @Saule  [or anyone] wants positive affirmations. Great. But call it an Affirmation deck.

Tarot isn't all love and light, nor is it all dark and shadows. It has BOTH. That's its charm.

 

 

My thoughts as well. I totally agree.

[Saule]

Hi everyone! Thanks for your input on that deck. I decided not to buy it. I realised that I wanted affirmations more than anything, so I ended up buying an oracle deck.

 

On another note, I'm back again with another dilemma, as I just can't stop buying decks :D A beloved Youtuber of mine swears by Tarot of Vampyres. The imagery doesn't really resonate with me as I love decks that convey their meanings in the images, but I am willing to make an exception. Apparently the guidebook is great and it's a great deck overall especially if you put time into studying it. Thoughts?

[gregory]

I like it. But then - I like CREEEEEPY ! It is well thought out, though. IT is FAR better than Robert Place's Vampires. And the book is excellent.

[Misterei]

1 hour ago, Saule said:

... On another note, I'm back again with another dilemma, as I just can't stop buying decks 😄...

Consumerism and retail addiction is a real thing.

I was very poor for a few years and could hardly buy anything much less Tarot cards.

Then I got money and began collecting decks. I'm actually quite happy with my deck collection now ... BUT ...

at a certain point I realized I had gotten addicted to tarot consumerism.

I stopped buying any decks for about a year which was a nice amount of time to cure the addiction.

I have 70 tarots, oracles, and lenormands in my collection. If I buy one I get rid of one. I like the size of 70 decks and don't want more.

I address this in my course manual for my students ... there's a section called: Don't get influenced by Influencers.

Back in the day there were just regular people sharing their decks on YT ... now that YT etc. are MONETIZED ... the Tarot influencers are TRYING to sell you decks. Be careful of these influencers who have 1001 decks and "Love" every deck. They are trying to "be somebody". They're trying to influence you for THEIR benefit ... not yours. It took me a while to understand this b/c I remembered the days where ppl were just sharing decks for the fun of it. Monetization changed a lot.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Misterei

[FindYourSovereignty]

2 hours ago, Saule said:

Tarot of Vampyres.

 OwlMoon513 Raecine per chance? She swears by this deck and even has offered a class on it. 
 

I’ve managed to pass up this deck for years and have no regret about it. Not my style or interest.

[Saule]

@FindYourSovereignty It is Owlmoon513 indeed! I get what you're saying @Misterei, but I do think that Owlmoon513 is an honest reviewer and she has explicitly said which decks she doesn't like and why. Tarot of Vampyres is her all-time favourite deck and she swears by it, so I thought I'd ask you guys about it :) Thankfully, I can afford to buy new decks. But your idea about keeping a limit is great. I have around 20ish decks in my collection so I'm still a baby collector.

[FindYourSovereignty]

@Saule, Raecine lives near me and she is definitely an honest reviewer with the intention to help the viewer decide if the deck is correct for you or not, why she likes it or doesn’t. Yes, she does participate in the ‘top-decks’ and the ‘decks of the year’ and recordings like that, but she does it more because followers have asked for recommendations or interested in what she has to share not because it is what other TarotTubers are doing. 
 

I do agree with you, @Misterei, that there is a high degree of consumerism that has been created by these tarot deck reviews and being aware and creating a boundary is very helpful. 

[Saule]

I'm back again with another deck :D Should I buy Tarot of the Vampires by Charles Harrington? Here's some images. I find the deck really pretty, but I'm not sure how I feel about the popular culture references, and some courts are just too cold for me. But Page of Cups and Queen of Cups are so lovely <3 I think I would struggle to read intuitively with some of these cards. However, the image on 6 of Cups is my favourite card imagery, ever. If only the artist created a deck with the same vibe and imagery as that card...

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Saule

[gregory]

I'm not even tempted - I never saw it before and I don't care if I don't see it again. It doesn't feel AT ALL vampirey - and that's a must in a vampire deck, for me.

[Raggydoll]

That deck just does not work for me. The queen and king of swords are almost ridiculous- Willy Wonka has apparently married some dude from Vikings. But neither of them look like vampires! 

[moonglow]

Alrighty. Finally coming back to working with my cards after a few years away, and I’m finding I am still drawn to the Oracle of the Radiant Sun and am so close to giving in and buying it. However, when it was reprinted, there were a lot of complaints about the card stock. Anyone have it and use it regularly? How’s it holding up to shuffling? Is it really as bad as all that? I have watched a couple more recent videos, and they didn’t mention the card stock at all, so I’m hopeful.

[Guest]

The art of the Tarot of the Vampires is a tad generic, but I admit that some reviews have made me curious about its stories. May have to borrow a friend's copy of the codex to see if it's any fun. 

[DanielJUK]

On 12/13/2023 at 2:05 AM, moonglow said:

Alrighty. Finally coming back to working with my cards after a few years away, and I’m finding I am still drawn to the Oracle of the Radiant Sun and am so close to giving in and buying it. However, when it was reprinted, there were a lot of complaints about the card stock. Anyone have it and use it regularly? How’s it holding up to shuffling? Is it really as bad as all that? I have watched a couple more recent videos, and they didn’t mention the card stock at all, so I’m hopeful.

 

I like this deck, it's one of a series of decks by husband and wife team Caroline Smith and John Astrop, she is the artist and he is an astrologer by professional and created the astrological systems they use and wrote the book details about each card. Over the 2000's they made this deck, the Moon Oracle, Runic Tarot (this is really an oracle, 24 cards) and the Elemental Tarot (actually a tarot). All of the decks have quirky artwork, always different per deck and complicated systems based on astrology. They had a real fan base and then all the decks went OOP going into the 2010's. A friend told me the Moon Oracle is one of her fave decks ever and I wanted it! But it was so expensive, like 3 or 4 figure prices. In the last few years, Astrop sadly passed, which made the value more expensive. I waited around and recently all had a reprint, this caused the first edition's price to totally collapse. I got an original Moon Oracle for not much at all on ebay. I did buy the new reprint of the Oracle of the Radiant Sun. I like the artwork and all the decks read well. I think the Sun version is less astrologically complicated than the Moon which is really based on moon transits for each card.

 

All of their decks has thin card stock, in the original releases and the reprint (I think). I don't use it constantly I must admit but it is holding up for me. Just beware they could bend with heavy shuffling. If you like the artwork I would go for it. My Moon oracle must be over 20 years now and the cards are fine, I bought it second hand and the box and book show signs of wear but the cards are fine. So it's something to be aware of but still glad I own a few of their decks now and this oracle.

[Eugenie]

I love my Spacious Tarot deck (actually I only have three decks now - this one, Centennial RWS in a tin and the Ancient Tarot of Bologna). I mostly use the Spacious and have been thinking of buying a backup deck. They are having a sale now, just today - Spacious Tarot and Extension deck for $39 instead of the usual $69 (if not mistaken), and I am sort of unsure... do I want the extension so that I have a modern Minchiate, do I need a back up deck at all as the first one is holding up well and I am not a heavy user and I shuffle carefully, maybe it is an unhealthy urge of hording... I decided to leave it for now. They keep printing the decks so I guess I will be able to buy a backup one later. (Huh! I have de-enabled myself it seems!). 

But then, there are other decks calling to me. Marianne Costa issued her version of Madenie which is lovely. And Yves' Madenie is available on tarotarts. However, I am such a slow learner, I have no idea if I will have the motivation to learn TdM at all. Maybe it is altogether silly (of me) to want to stock up on tarot decks; I know that even the mere two I have will serve for a long time, and I am also waiting for the Darkness of Light and Marseille-Waite to arrive. So maybe not. But the Costa's Madenie is really very pretty. And quite inexpensssssive... 
 

 

[moonglow]

On 12/14/2023 at 5:53 AM, DanielJUK said:

 

I like this deck, it's one of a series of decks by husband and wife team Caroline Smith and John Astrop, she is the artist and he is an astrologer by professional and created the astrological systems they use and wrote the book details about each card. Over the 2000's they made this deck, the Moon Oracle, Runic Tarot (this is really an oracle, 24 cards) and the Elemental Tarot (actually a tarot). All of the decks have quirky artwork, always different per deck and complicated systems based on astrology. They had a real fan base and then all the decks went OOP going into the 2010's. A friend told me the Moon Oracle is one of her fave decks ever and I wanted it! But it was so expensive, like 3 or 4 figure prices. In the last few years, Astrop sadly passed, which made the value more expensive. I waited around and recently all had a reprint, this caused the first edition's price to totally collapse. I got an original Moon Oracle for not much at all on ebay. I did buy the new reprint of the Oracle of the Radiant Sun. I like the artwork and all the decks read well. I think the Sun version is less astrologically complicated than the Moon which is really based on moon transits for each card.

 

All of their decks has thin card stock, in the original releases and the reprint (I think). I don't use it constantly I must admit but it is holding up for me. Just beware they could bend with heavy shuffling. If you like the artwork I would go for it. My Moon oracle must be over 20 years now and the cards are fine, I bought it second hand and the box and book show signs of wear but the cards are fine. So it's something to be aware of but still glad I own a few of their decks now and this oracle.

Thank you. I did end up buying the deck and received it yesterday. I think they’ve changed the card stock again from the original reprint run where everyone was complaining about the super thin card stock (much thinner than the original). The copy I received yesterday has thicker, plasticky-feeling (IMO), glossy-laminate type cards, which I’m really not a fan of. I’m overly sensitive to the “feel” of things, so I don’t love them as much as I’d hoped to. However, I still enjoy the art and hope I am able to get over my issues and get much use out of the deck.