The Fool's New Journey Tarot - Review

In an age when psychology has become more of a guiding and motivating factor in our lives than religion…

The Tarot system or format as we currently know it has been evolving over the last 500 years or so to reach the two Arcana, 22 Majors and 56 Minors that we generally expect to see when we crack open a new deck. However, a little glimpse back in time shows us that, in its earliest known conceptions, there were often much less than the 78 cards we use today (e.g. Mantegna), and, in a number of cases, many more (e.g. Visconti di Modrone, Minchiate.) It is, therefore, not surprising that there are modern interpretations of Tarot where the decks contain differing numbers of cards, and differing groupings and suits. One of these is The Fool’s New Journey Tarot, developed by John Matthews and illustrated by Charles Newington.

In his Introduction in the excellent LWB, Matthews describes how his intention to create a set of archetypal images, based on the standard Major Arcana, that spoke to modern experiences and norms eventually led to him creating 38 new cards, with the usual 22 Majors spread throughout the full deck of 60. These included additions such as The Maze, The Shadow, Hope, Truth, Chaos, Eternity, and so on.

 

Running through the cards, the initial perception is that the imagery is relatively simple – scenes depicted in water-coloured line drawings in a minimalist style. The artist’s intention was to reduce unnecessary clutter in the scenes, allowing the deeper meanings to come through despite an apparent lack of esoteric symbology. And maybe that was the focus of the deck – more a tool for self-discovery and meditation that for divinatory use. And, in that sense, this deck really works!

 

As a tool for clarifying current personal events and relationships, or for deep self-analysis, the visualisations work in drawing you in to deeper reflection or drawing you out to higher, clearer perceptions and personal understanding. I actually believe that, despite, or maybe in-spite, of their simplicity, these images are closer to true Jungian archetypes than those of the many decks that claim to be built upon Jung’s direct philosophies. Many of the new images speak directly to what I would consider to be depictions of truly modern archetypes that still relate back to emotions, perceptions and understandings that Jung would recognize were he living in today’s science-age entrapments.

As for production quality, it is excellent! The heavy-duty magnetically closed keepsake box comes with a wrapper with the deck title and logo on it. Inside is the larger-than-usual little white book of around 250 detailed pages, covering the premise of the deck and with a detailed description of all 60 cards, as well as a section for The Fool’s Story, a couple of narrative fables describing how The Fool progresses through the events and personalities encountered on his/her journey, and which serves the purpose of introducing the reader to the Journey concept for both the classic Tarot Major Arcana and then The Fool’s New Journey arcanum, which are both well worth the read. The book also has a section on working with the cards, covering spreads and interpretations and the like. The cards themselves are slightly wider and slightly shorter than the standard Tarot card size, and are printed on 350 GSM card. Their matte finish makes them easy to shuffle and, to keep them safe inside the box, they come in their own tuck box too!

All in all, this is a superb re-imagining of Tarot, uncovering a much wider scope for the Major Arcana and definitely adding a what should be a highly popular modern context to the traditional Tarot scope. I thoroughly recommend this deck to the young and young-at-heart looking for an introduction to self-introspection and growth.

Get your copy of The Fool's New Journey Tarot at Amazon.com

Weiser Tarot

So, I have to say I am quite disappointed with this deck. I bought it on the recommendation of a Tarot influencer as I was looking for a saviour deck for my ancient RWS deck, which is showing real signs of its age and deserves its retirement. I read the reviews of the Weiser deck and, quite interested, ordered it to use as a replacement for my working deck.

Initially, I was really impressed with the quality of the deck. I was looking for a deck with heavy duty cards 350 GSM or better, and with a good, sturdy, durable box to keep the cards safe, as most of the "official" RWS decks come in cheap and flimsy tuck boxes. The Weiser deck is printed on great card stock - although there are reviews here showing wear and tear on the cards. The keepsake box is strong and durable - just what I was looking for. I don't mind the matte finish either, even though I find it difficult to shuffle. Even the D.E.I.-ing of the characters depicted on the cards is quite fun and acceptable, and the enhanced colourisation of much of the clothing and scenery is well done.

My real disappointment with the re-imagining of the deck is the changing of the sky colours in a large number of the cards. This totally changes the atmosphere of those cards, altering the potential interpretation of the imagery away from the accepted meanings that have been applied by Tarot officianados for decades. Yellow skies are indicative of happy and joyful outcomes, while the blues indicate peaceful and contented situations. Grey skies prognosticate serious or even gloomy perceptions, while the blacks are used in dire situations, such as The Tower and the 10 of Swords. The Weiser deck changes these skies across all of the Minor Arcana suits, thereby removing these interpretations and, in some cases, making a suit appear as a totally doom and gloom suit and another as all light and happiness! As we know, no suit is all one way or the other - that is the delight of the RWS, and the Weiser deck destroys this concept.

Having said all that, I still enjoy this deck, but it will not be the replacement for my aged RWS that I was looking for, and my hunt continues!

I added some scans of the cards showing the Weiser cards on the left and the Radiant Rider-Waite on the right, highloghting the differences in the backgrounds of each card.

Get a copy of the Weiser Tarot at Amazon.com

Blue Starlight Tarot by Wyspell - Review

This deck is awesome! I initially bought the deck as it came up in a “We Found Something You Might Like” email from Amazon, and I was captivated by the deep blue colourisation of the cards. As a Tarot deck collector, I am always looking for new and different interpretations of the arcane mysteries, and this deck seemed to fit the bill.

First impressions on receiving the deck were, “WOW! What an awesome, sturdy box they come in!” Far too many of the mass-produced decks by the big Tarot publishers come in flimsy, weak flip top cartons that provide little protection for the cards and certainly are not impressive as keepsakes for the precious decks inside that are supposed to last a lifetime. Not so with this Wyspell deck! The box is heavy duty card, very strong – even stronger than the box my original RWS deck came in 60 years ago! It’s really pleasing to see that these newer publishers are prepared to put the time and money into decent packaging, and at a price point that is certainly on par with those mass-produced decks!

On unwrapping and opening the box, I too encountered a strong, persistent smell, either from the inks or the glues used in producing the cards, boxes and book. I am sure this will diminish overtime as the deck gets used and aired out!

The LWB – or, in this case, maybe Little Blue Book – is well produced and clear, with a good amount of divinatory instruction for each card in both the upright and reversed positions. The orange (or maybe sepia?) coloured paper is designed to match the colour scheme of the cards, and is easy and clear enough to work with.

And then the cards themselves! These are produced on great cardstock – 400 GSM or maybe even better – and are sturdy while still being flexible enough to riffle shuffle. They are also gold-edged, which adds to both the visual appeal of the deck and the rigidity of the cards. The matte finish is not so heavy as to inhibit shuffling, so really good production quality all-round. The colour scheme of the deck is striking, and is what drew me to the cards initially. The main colours are black, shades of deep blue, shades of orange, some golds/browns and the flesh tones of the characters. The artist has used this palette to produce rich artwork that is both stimulating and yet easy on the eyes. The characters are well depicted with excellent detail, and many of them are facing forwards so that their eyes are looking right at you, which makes them all the more intriguing. Even the Star is boldly staring at you with just the hint of a smirk. The typically black backgrounds are star-filled and illuminating, as per the theme of the deck, and add an air of ambient mystery that compliments the scenes portrayed.

As for the scenes, they are based on the standard RWS model, but, as this is not a clone, there are a number of variations that are to be expected in the new design. None of these significantly alter the symbology of the deck, so an experienced reader could easily work with the deck to perform readings. Beginners could start with this deck, as it is easy to work with, given the detailed LWB, but would benefit at some point in their future learnings to invest in either the RWS deck or a detailed book about the RWS deck so they can see both the symbolic similarities and the differences that would lead to a deeper understanding of this deck.

All in all, an excellent deck that I thoroughly recommend to both new Tarot acolytes and experienced doyens of the cartomancy arts!

Get yours from Amazon.com: Wyspell Blue Starlight Tarot

Deviant Moon Tarot - deck and book review

I first came across the Deviant Moon Tarot around 2010, when I was expanding my collection, and looking for decks with interesting correspondences, such as Day and Night, Sanity and Madness, Dream and Nightmare. I'd already found and acquired the Night Sun Tarot, when a troll through my favourite Tarot site, Aeclectic Tarot, turned up the Deviant Moon by Patrick Valenza.

The imagery struck me immediately - both sensual and, in many ways, grotesque beyond normal comprehension. Stylized humanoid figures and nightmarish monsters populated scenes of arid bleakness and graveyard lithography, digitally enhanced with industrial images and asylum escapees! Just the kind of stuff I was looking for!

The deck I received was more than I had hoped for, but, sadly, the LWB that accompanied it was incredibly underwhelming, so much so that I don't even remember it at all. I guess I have been spoiled by the recent practice of new decks coming with a glossy handbook as part of the package that described the creators inspirations for both artwork and meaning, and there was nothing, it seemed, like that for the Deviant Moon Tarot. Still, the iconography and imagery compensated through it's sheer power and beauty - albeit with very little in the way of explanation regarding the premise of the deck and the source of the visions and symbology contained therein. So, after a few studies and practice spreads, working on the assumption that the deck was designed to follow the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition, I let it lie for a number of years, disseminating its deviance amongst the other decks collected together in the wooden chest I keep them in.

Then, about four years ago, on a trawl through a search on Amazon, I came across the Deviant Moon Tarot book by Patrick Valenza. I had to admit, I was thrilled to find the book, and expected it to be a small paperback in much the same way most of the other books for Tarot decks were. However, it turned out that this was a hardback book, and the cost was over 150% MORE that what I'd paid for the deck itself! So I baulked at spending so much on a book that, in my deluded opinion, should have either come in a package with the deck, or not cost more than the deck itself! So, like the deck, I let it lie on Amazon, adding it to my Tarot wishlist, and keeping an eye on it every now-and-then to see of the price dropped.

And, eventually, it did!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I finally succumbed to the temptation, and ordered the book! 

Still expecting something the size of a normal paperback, I was somewhat bemused when a large - for a book - box turned up on my doorstep a few days later, and even more surprised by the weight of it! My curiosity fully piqued, I opened the box to reveal a humungous tome of a book - 340 large pages of heavyweight paper - full of glossy card images, theme derivations and prescribed card meanings, along with an end-to-end study of Valenza's genesis and development of the Deviant Moon Tarot.

Make no bones about it, this is a phenomenal book, and, for what is essentially an expanded LWB, something unique among the Tarot books I have collected over the years. Valenza not only describes each card in detail, but goes deep into the origins of each image, and, in the process, exposes how he first discovered his artistic abilities around the age of 8, and how these quickly developed into his lifelong fascination with Tarot and its ability to uncover the deeper, darker side of the psyche. He goes on to narrate how, driven by recurring childhood nightmares, and the close proximity of various cemetaries and the Pilgrim State Asylum, New York State, filled his mind and his sketchbooks with visions and phantasies both inspiring and unsettling, leading to the deck and book we have before us today. He also tells of his path from pencil and paper (or ink) to digital media, and how he uses these to manipulate the collection of drawings, images and photos he has pulled together over the years, to construct the scenes and characters for each card, and how he ties those back to the meaning of the card when it appears in a spread.

The denizens of the Deviant Moon Tarot, in the main, are dual-faced, with the fore-face (I coined a word!) representing the outward facade of the character, and the inner, deviant face representing the hidden, subconscious aspect. Some of the characters are, perhaps surprisingly, warm and potentially friendly, while others are distinctly not so. Add to these the backgrounds drawn from blasted and withered landscapes and buildings, ruins and monsters culled from Valenza's nightmare childhood, and you have a complete new Tarot world to wander through and wonder about, although maybe the possibility of getting lost in these psychically charged tales might snare the unwary or keep the inexperienced (or feeble) at bay! This is not a Tarot for the light-hearted, although there is joy within the scenes - albeit the joy of artistic creation and the ability to achieve such a high standard of self-expression and clarity.

Having taken the plunge and bought the book, my only regret is that I waited so long to do so. The insights it provides, along with the full explanation of the deck's card meanings, makes it an invaluable part of the Deviant Moon Tarot package. (Maybe the publisher's should offer a deck-and-book package?) Knowing what I now know, I am approaching the deck again with an inspired new interest, and am looking forward to applying my new-found knowledge.

If you feel inspired to discover something new, you couldn't do much better than this incarnation of the RWS!

Patrick Valenza's Website: https://deviantmooninc.com/

Amazon.com link: Deviant Moon Tarot

 

Hello and Welcome...

...to my humble appreciation of the World and Art of Tarot!

Like many enthusiasts and practitioners of Tarot, I have collected a number of decks over the years (I mean - there's been so many of them!) and for a number of reasons - but mainly because I am drawn to their beauty and symbology.  To me, each deck is both a collection of wonderful artwork to be admired and inspired by, and a book - a tale of the Long Journey of Life - from Ignorance and Inexperience, usually symbolized by The Fool, to Wisdom and Skill, usually symbolized by The Magician, in search of the understanding and knowledge to rule or succeed in their World - that needs to be read and experienced and, subsequently, assimilated into one’s own ever expanding reality.

I have been collecting Tarot decks for over 45 years now, but really got into the swing of it when I moved to Canada from England back in the mid-1990's. Since that time, I have collected over 100 decks, and encountered many more, as can be witnessed on my Pinterest site here. As can be seen, I have come across many variations of The Key on my journey, and learned much about Tarot and its multifarious incarnations that I am more than willing to share and opine about. Not that I would consider myself an expert in any way - just a highly interested participant and acolyte in this realm of the arcane and occult that sends some people off on their own secret sojourns while others tremble and balk at its very mention.

Like most Tarot practitioners, I tend to limit my readings to only one deck - in my case, my oldest deck, an early edition of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, although recently I have started using a clone of the same deck. Two cards from the RWS appear above. However, I do not stick rigidly to this as a hard-and-fast rule. Sometimes, the aspects or symbology of another deck apply more closely to the environment in which the reading will take place, or are more closely akin to the querent and their hopes and situation. Also, as is often the case with Tarot practitioners, I find that there is no such thing as "One Deck Fits All", and a deck that may be right for most readings will suddenly have limitations in symbology or meaning when a certain situation, problem or specific interest arises. I will opine on decks and their target uses as we progress through both my own collection, and in reviews of other decks I come across.

I hope you enjoy my small perambulation through this most interesting world, and come to love Tarot in all of its aspects in the same way that I do. I will always be interested in hearing your own stories and experiences, and may even include them in posts to this blog - with The Querent's permission, of course - so please feel free to share you own Tales of Tarot with me as we wander through this world together.

Also, I should state that this site is a work in progress, and will continue to develop as I come across different designs, formats, and styles for blogs, and learn the art of blogging. (You will see from my other blogs, I am not a prolific or highly experienced blogger. Hopefully, this blog will change all of that!)