The Everyday Enchantment Tarot

I'll start with the negatives ...why I only gave 4 stars instead of 5. These negatives have ONLY to do with the card stock and size.

The size is huge, at least for me.  4 x 5.5 inches/ 10 x 14.5cm.  I have modified the deck down to a slightly more manageable size by cutting off all the borders except for the bottom one, which has the printed card name on it.  This means my deck is now approximately 3.12 x 5.12 inches/ 8 x 13 cm.  It's still a stretch for me to reach from top to bottom with one hand, but the side to side grip is a lot easier.

They are very problematic to shuffle. The card stock looks and feels good ...very smooth matte finish.  But not only are the cards themselves very thick (don't really bend) but the surfaces tend to cling together as well.  I'm still working on a way to make it easier to shuffle.  But riffle shuffling is out, and because of the tendency to cling, the hand to hand shuffle doesn't work very well either.   Still a work in progress from that perspective.

That being said ...this is a wonderful deck.  If it weren't for the card stock/size issue, I'd have unhesitatingly given it 5 stars.

This deck is an excellent translation of the usual RWS system from esoteric to practical, and symbolism is minimal.  There is no hint of religion, except in the Hierophant, who is pictured teaching (in a classroom setting) about all major religions. The deck is very diverse when it comes to race, sexual orientation, and age groups—without ever seeming preachy or forced.   The scenes depicted are recognisable scenes from 'real life' as it happens in the UK today.

One of the best things about the deck are the court cards ...which contain the same kinds of scenes as the other cards, and don't put the 'court' people on thrones or anything like that.  They simply portray the individual character type by showing what they are likely to do. A few of them are quite amusing, actually.  The Knight of Blades/Swords is a hoot.  He's pictured as a hairdresser, enthusiastically whacking away at a client's hair ...client looks rather nervous.... 😬.  This card is pictured below, at the end of my review.  One of my other favourite court cards is pictured above in the original entry for this deck: the King of Cups.   What a lovely image that is!   

The cards ARE UK-based, by the way.  Even the postman delivering the letter on the 8 of Wands card is a Royal Mail employee!  The scenes depicted on these cards are mostly all urban/suburban, and very English/UK based. That should not be an issue for non-UK users, though, as the scenes make perfect sense, and don't require immersion in a particular culture to be very very usable.

The book that comes with the set is well-produced, and the detail the author presents in the discussion of each card is very useful.  Some of Poppy's card designs deviate a bit from the usual RWS subject matter, so the author explains in detail why she chose the image she did.  That being said, nearly all of the images ARE instantly recognisable as RWS-based issues.  Perhaps the only downside to this approach is that the pictures do so clearly depict one aspect of the card that sometimes other potential interpretations are obscured a bit.   But that is a VERY minor downside, and with a bit of thought, these other interpretations can easily be constructed, when it comes to working with a particular spread.

No deck's interpretations will be 100% satisfactory to everybody, so there are a few cards I am not as keen on as others.  But overall, this deck is groundbreaking, and I suspect would be very easy for a beginner to use.  The potential for intuitive reading with these cards is very high.

Just to close, I'll include a few more pictures of cards I particularly like.  That Death card is tremendous.  It doesn't skirt around what Death can be, but it's not scary, and what's most important, it emphasises how all things run their course and come to an expected end. This is not the sudden, awful Death that's so often depicted with a skeleton on a horse trampling through a crowd of people.  Rather it's depicted as inevitable, but expected.  Something that runs its course, then needs to be let go.  Which is what the Death card is all about, isn't it?  

Here are a few I'm not quite so keen on ...but they are still good!  Just maybe a bit too specific for some interpretations.  The 10 of Blades/Swords shows the attack taking place, while most other RWS cards show the aftermath.  As I usually interpret the 10 of Swords as 'the worst has already happened, and things will improve from now,' this card can be a bit problematic for me in this deck.  Ditto the 7 of Blades/Swords, which I usually interpret as 'a daring act, stealing the weapons of the enemy out from under the nose.'  This card depicts a burglary ...against what looks like an innocent victim.  This is not something to celebrate or see as heroic ...so that's an interpretation I'll still need to work on.  But even so, these cards are good!

All in all, I really love this deck!