Category: Deck Reviews

Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Oracle deck review

by Kim Krans

This oracle deck has superb artwork and a lot of iridescence.  If you enjoy animals this is a deck for you!  The substantial guidebook has a lot of information about the deck, spreads you can use, and extensive information for each card.

The Five Elements are represented throughout this deck: spirit, air, fire, water, earth.

Spirit- creatures of the ether; air- creatures of the sky; fire- creatures of the desert & grasslands; water- creatures of the oceans, rivers & lakes; earth- creatures of the field & forest

Each card has the name, symbol, keywords, an explanation, and suggestions for what it looks like when it is in/out of balance and what to do to bring it into balance.

Overall, it is a beautiful deck and one that may appeal to you.

 

The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit by Kim Krans

Apprentice Tarot Deck review

by Jody Boginski Barbessi

The Apprentice Tarot combines traditional Waite symbolism and imagery, with a flashcards concept.  If you are just learning tarot, or struggle with memorization, this deck is a valuable resource.  Every card has its meanings printed ON the card itself.  The Majors have keywords for upright and reversed meanings.  The Minors have keywords for upright and reversed meanings; as well as keywords for both suits and numbers (example, Knights, Pages, Cups, Fives.. )

This is a standard sized US Games deck, so it is easy to hold in the hand as well as shuffle.  Given that all of the meanings are printed on the cards, the guidebook (little white book) focuses on the mechanics of Tarot.  It covers what tarot is; the major and minor arcana; what is on each card and what it is for (such as card title, suit keywords); tips on how to get to know the cards; reversed meanings; reading tarot; spreads; reading for others; and a few tips and tricks scattered throughout.  For a little booklet it’s actually packed with a lot of information useful for beginners (or anyone wishing to refresh themselves on the basics).

This is such a useful little deck that I would recommend anyone involved with Tarot to own a copy.

 

Apprentice Tarot (Universal Waite) by Jody Boginski Barbessi

Soul Cards I deck review

by Deborah Koff-Chapin

Soulcards is a deck of images with no accompanying suggestions as to meanings for the cards.  I feel this is important to emphasize, as many people are accustomed to having a guidebook at least hint at an idea for an image.

The guide book has the following table of contents, so as you can see you are not entirely on your own to figure out what to do with the deck.

Instant Reading, Preparation, Combinging SoulCard Decks, Selecting the Cards, Integrating the Images, Working with Others, The Genesis of SoulCards

It offers a couple of layouts for divination: Past, Present, Future; Body, Mind, Soul; and Challenge, Gift.

This deck will make you work for your interpretations. This can be helpful in developing your creative intuitive mind. The variety of imagery is such that you will likely find imagery that is both comforting and confronting within it.

 

Soulcards I by Deborah Koff-Chapin

Royo Dark Tarot deck review

(suitable for adults only)

This deck has extremely well-done art.  Some images match the traditional meanings of the cards better than others.  It is a deck that I feel should come with a whole string of Trigger Warnings, such as nudity, violence, cutting, bondage, and so on.  You may find it useful as a shadow work deck.

We have the Major Arcana, as well as the suits – chalices, swords, wands, pentacles.  The guide book, being a Lo Scarabeo deck, is in five languages (English, Italian, Spanish, French, German).  The cards are a reasonable size that fit well in the hand and are flexible enough to shuffle easily.

From the guide book:

The Royo Dark Tarot is born from the ashes of the Black Tarot, as illustrated by Luis Royo and first published by Fournier in 1998. At the same time it is an evolution and the completion of its parent deck.

… Considered among the greatest, if not the greatest, master of Dark Fantasy art, Royo represents a violent and cruel universe where torment and bliss, poetry and desperation are difficult to conceive one without the other.

Royo Dark Tarot edited by Pietro Alligo (suitable for adults only)