Unboxings and First Impressions

[zurgles]

 

On 1/2/2026 at 3:10 PM, zurgles said:

I’m glad there are full color and full page illustrations for each card since that means I won’t have to go back and forth with my deck.

 

I made a mistake, it’s not full color! Apologies.

[Croat]

On 10/7/2024 at 6:12 AM, DanielJUK said:

My Minchiate from the kickstarter arrived over the weekend. The Amparo Aguirre one.  It's so beautiful I love it ❤️ 

BTW top tip - the box is very full of thick cards. Becareful when opening for the first time. I have ruined brand new boxes in the past. Now wiser, I carefully used a blunt dinner knife under the top flap to ease it open 🔪

 

Now I have to learn the system 🙂 🥰

 

I love colourful decks so much 🎨

 

 

 

How fascinating!  Tarot cards of Bomarzo.  Whoda thunk?  I suspect very few people in this forum have been to the lovely hilltop town of Bomarzo in Italy.  It is well worth the trip.  Not just for the "Park of Monsters" it is known for, but also the adjacent forest where a massive Etruscan Pyramid was discovered in the 1990s.  In looking at the card art I'm trying to relate to what one sees in Bomarzo and not making strong connections (but then it has been six years since I visited), so I suspect this deck is themed more on the era when the Garden of Monsters was constructed, i.e., during the Renaissance.

[zurgles]

So this is my follow-up on my first impressions of the Wild Unknown. I read the guidebook and tried out a one card reading. 

 

So I made two mistakes with my initial first impressions post. The first was that the guidebook was full color. I think since the deck is primarily in black and white, I got confused. But the images in the book are in greyscale. The second mistake I made is saying that the guidebook descriptions don’t describe the card images. The cards I had looked at were court cards, and I think the book doesn’t really reference the  images for those cards. But there are a number of other cards whose images are at least referenced, and others where they are briefly described. It was nice when it did that. 

 

The guidebook is ok. It’s nice to know Krans’ thoughts on the cards. It gave me an intro and feel for the deck. But when I did my one card reading, I found my own impressions more useful than when I bounced some ideas off the guidebook. Usually I find added insight from the guidebook and add those to the mix when concluding my thoughts, but for the most part I felt like disregarding what the book had to say. It might have been different if I had drawn another card though. That could be a good thing for me though, since I’m still not confident breaking away from my guidebooks and references despite reading tarot on and off for a number of years. It could encourage me to trust my own impressions more when doing a reading.

 

When I was first going through the deck I felt largely neutral. But when I did my reading, I found myself approaching the cards in a different way and new ideas stirred within me. The whole thing felt very insightful. I drew a court card and asked myself how one would appeal to the court card on the issue and then how would they approach it themselves, but it felt natural and easy rather than something I was wrestling with. It does feel like a deck I will be able to connect with on an intuitive level. 

 

So yeah! That’s my unboxing and first impression of the Wild Unknown done. I’m not sure whether I’ll go back to reading primarily with the Thoth while I read DuQuette’s book and do my flash cards (it’s been a minute 🤐), or play around with these two new decks once in a while. We’ll see. 

[DanielJUK]

It's nice to hear Kim's thoughts and intentions in the book but I tend to ignore them to be honest.. There is also the well commented on Aeclectic study group from the past for the Wild Unknown here. I love the ideas presented there.

 

If you read intuitively, it's really worth just looking at the cards and reading what you see. It works best for me in that way. 

Also some of the images are optical illusions and out of my collection I would say it was the deck where I get a totally different meaning for each card, every time. I tend to look at what symbol or colour or animal most draws my eye. It really is a "say what you see" type of reading deck.

[DanielJUK]

On 1/5/2026 at 1:37 AM, Croat said:

How fascinating!  Tarot cards of Bomarzo.  Whoda thunk?  I suspect very few people in this forum have been to the lovely hilltop town of Bomarzo in Italy.  It is well worth the trip.  Not just for the "Park of Monsters" it is known for, but also the adjacent forest where a massive Etruscan Pyramid was discovered in the 1990s.  In looking at the card art I'm trying to relate to what one sees in Bomarzo and not making strong connections (but then it has been six years since I visited), so I suspect this deck is themed more on the era when the Garden of Monsters was constructed, i.e., during the Renaissance.

 

Why she chose Bomarzo for the deck is really interesting on the original deck's KS - here

There's also lot's of nice pictures of it. It sounds like a wonderful hill top town to visit one day.

 

She's an anthropologist by professional but Minchiate is her specialist interest area

Her next project seems to be a revival of Minchiate Al Leone di Girolamo 

[zurgles]

6 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

It's nice to hear Kim's thoughts and intentions in the book but I tend to ignore them to be honest.. There is also the well commented on Aeclectic study group from the past for the Wild Unknown here. I love the ideas presented there.

Yeah, I think that’s where I’m leaning too. Thanks for the link! 😄 I’ve bookmarked it. I looked at what they had to say about the Seven of Pentacles and several things clicked. It seems like a popular card. 
 

6 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

If you read intuitively, it's really worth just looking at the cards and reading what you see. It works best for me in that way. 

I’m not that intuitive a reader but I’m trying to be. I tend to go off my learned meanings but that can make readings kinda clunky and have me ignoring the card images, and at that point why even have multiple decks, y’know? I have sometimes included things that came up intuitively, and with some decks that was easier than with others, but I’m trying to lean into it more. I’m planning on joining the Intuitive Readings circle sometime after I finish the DuQuette book. 

 

6 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

Also some of the images are optical illusions and out of my collection I would say it was the deck where I get a totally different meaning for each card, every time. I tend to look at what symbol or colour or animal most draws my eye. It really is a "say what you see" type of reading deck.

I had a small experience with that when doing my one card reading. I drew the Daughter of Swords. 

My question was, how can I get myself to enjoy drinking water more? It’s something my nutritionist wants me to do. And the first thing I noticed was the colorful sprites and it made me think of how my nutritionist recommended this brand called tru lemon that has close to zero sugar drink mixes that you put into your water. They have different flavors. So I thought maybe I oughta lean into that and maybe even get different flavors to keep it interesting. There was a little more to the reading but I tried some later today and I drank 32 oz of water I wouldn’t have otherwise 🙂  So what you said makes sense to me just going off of that little experience. I’ll lean more into the “say what you see” with this deck then. 

[zurgles]

That’s a lovely looking deck @KiMo 🙂 I’d never heard of it before. I looked up some pictures online and thought the moon was so clever, with her holding the mirrors showing different angles of her face. I also liked how whimsical death looked and the tower is also very visually arresting. 
 

On 1/4/2026 at 11:06 AM, KiMo said:

then my lovely neighbour messaged me to say she'd found it in the 'safe place' (aka one of her bins 😑).

When you say bins, do you mean her trash bins?! 😱 I’m glad you’ve got a good relationship with your neighbor! Ours are mostly strangers to us (apartment living) so I’m not sure what I would’ve done. 

[KiMo]

5 hours ago, zurgles said:

That’s a lovely looking deck @KiMo 🙂 I’d never heard of it before. I looked up some pictures online and thought the moon was so clever, with her holding the mirrors showing different angles of her face. I also liked how whimsical death looked and the tower is also very visually arresting. 

The level of detail in the images is something else, aside from the general skill of the artist. Looking at the Death card, one of the femur bones still has flesh on it, decaying and growing fungus. The other has been fashioned into a bone flute. I think this playing with ideas is wonderful and keeps your eye endlessly roaming around the image.

 

6 hours ago, zurgles said:

When you say bins, do you mean her trash bins?! 😱 I’m glad you’ve got a good relationship with your neighbor! Ours are mostly strangers to us (apartment living) so I’m not sure what I would’ve done. 

Yes, specifically in her compost bin of all places 😂🤢 She had obviously given the box a wipe down, bless her! I'm just so thankful that she spotted what had happened in the first place, we live on a main urban road in London and doorstep raiders are a real issue. I think I would have cried if I had lost this deck 😅

[zurgles]

On 1/5/2026 at 7:05 PM, DanielJUK said:

There is also the well commented on Aeclectic study group from the past for the Wild Unknown here. I love the ideas presented there.

Hey Daniel. I just wanted to thank you again for this link. I’ve read through all the threads (well except the 103 page one where people were getting their decks, read through a few pages and still deciding whether I want to commit) and card discussions and it’s been really illuminating and helpful seeing how different people viewed and experienced the cards. A lot of the conversations were eye opening. Appreciate it! 💐 Anyway, that’s why I hadn’t been posting as much here this past week or so.

 

I’ve been doing my daily readings with this deck and it’s been fun. I think I’m a bit enamored. Now that I’ve read the study group threads, I’ll go back to reading my thoth book, but I may keep doing my daily draw with the Wild Unknown.

Edited January 16 by zurgles

[EMarieHasADHD]

I just purchased the Weiser Tarot and it’s now my favorite! I love the beautiful coloring. It’s also more inclusive than the traditional RWS, and the Majors have the corresponding Hebrew letter and astrological sign on them. So awesome. 
 

[Chariot]

9 hours ago, EMarieHasADHD said:

I just purchased the Weiser Tarot and it’s now my favorite! I love the beautiful coloring. It’s also more inclusive than the traditional RWS, and the Majors have the corresponding Hebrew letter and astrological sign on them. So awesome. 
 

 

Hi - did you know that the Weiser Tarot has also published an accompanying book of tiny stickers, to use in journals, etc.  While I don't have the Weiser Tarot, I do have two copies of the books, and use them to record my RWS journaling and individual readings with other decks, so I can easily refer back to them.

 

The sticker book has another really interesting use.  If you remove the stickers from consecutive pages as the cards turn up, after a while you can look towards the back of the sticker book—and the blank spaces will tell you which cards have appeared most often in your readings.   And the unused stickers near the front of the book will tell you what cards you don't see very often in your readings. VERY useful thing to know. 

Edited January 27 by Chariot

[Tanga]

Thanks for the heads-up on the Wiser Tarot sticker book @Chariot. I am eager awaiting mine now.

 

I was browsing (as you do)... and I saw this deck on littleredtarot.com.  And I thought - Huh weellll I can't NOT have 

a DIANA TAROT - "The People's Princess"  (I live in London, UK). 

So - I bough it.  And I've discovered, I like it a lot more than I thought I would 🙃 (so I bought a second copy,

as it's only £25).

 

 

It's a Majors only collage deck, in standard card size, with card stock a little thin and on the slippery side.  Printed August 2025, limited edition of 78.

 

The artist tells an endearing story about their fan relationship with Diana & how the cards came about - on a single

sheet of A4 inside the box. No LWB.

 

 

Rather amusingly - I find myself taking it out on Full Moons with that thought in my head "What Would Diana Do?"

(alla the artist). The duality of Diana the Moon/Goddess and Diana the Princess... 🤷‍♀️😄.

Edited February 1 by Tanga

[EMarieHasADHD]

I just got this deck and LOVE IT. 
Da Brigh Soprafino Dellarocca Tarot 

It includes a keyword on each card, including a reversed keyword. Would be a good deck for a beginner. It’s basically a Marseille deck with keywords. 

Sturdy card stock. The back is a beautiful purple/blue (changes based on light). 
Did not include a little white book, probably because the main keyword is on each card. 
 

 

[Sar]

@EMarieHasADHD I want Marseille so much!! where do I order?

[gregory]

Amazon.

[EMarieHasADHD]

8 hours ago, Sar said:

@EMarieHasADHD I want Marseille so much!! where do I order?

I did get this one on Amazon as I purchased it from the creator and was confident it’s not counterfeit. I usually try to buy my decks from independent artists or from sites like https://artisantarot.com/collections/decks

 

eta the deck did include a card with the creator/artists info and picture. 

Edited April 10 by EMarieHasADHD

[Sar]

9 hours ago, EMarieHasADHD said:

I did get this one on Amazon as I purchased it from the creator and was confident it’s not counterfeit. I usually try to buy my decks from independent artists or from sites like https://artisantarot.com/collections/decks

 

eta the deck did include a card with the creator/artists info and picture. 

Ok, I go and search for it

[EMarieHasADHD]

@Sar if you still need it 🙂 https://a.co/d/037dAypr

[Sar]

On 4/11/2026 at 5:41 PM, EMarieHasADHD said:

@Sar if you still need it 🙂 https://a.co/d/037dAypr

Thank you for link. I will be ordering.