Review of the Hezicos Tarot by Mary Griffin

On June 13, 2016June 13, 2016 By benebellIn deck review, tarot5 Comments

Hezicos Tarot 01 Whole View

The Hezicos Tarot by Mary Griffin is a self-published Rider-Waite-Smith based deck that blends a multicultural point of view with fairytale fantasy. It is a versatile, readable, and easily accessible tarot deck for novices, beautiful imagery that is fit for professional readers, and artwork that will tempt any tarot deck collector.

My favorite artistic style for tarot decks is unembellished hand-rendered line art, and that’s exactly what we have here. The Hezicos Tarot is done in watercolor and ink. There is a contemporary style to Griffin’s art. The imagery here leans feminine, storybook, with a fable and fantasy tone that works really well with a modern tarot deck.

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The Type Tarot: A Deck Review

On January 17, 2016December 17, 2015 By benebellIn deck review, tarot10 Comments

Type Tarot 01 Box

I came across the Type Tarot on gamecrafter.com. It is a self-published print-on-demand tarot deck created by Hurgle Studios. Wordsmiths and English Lit majors are going to go nuts for this cute novelty deck! It’s adorable! As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have it.

Type Tarot 11 Closeup Justice

If you thrive on words and writing, I know you’re going to gush a little over the Type Tarot. It’s inevitable. As a workable tarot deck, though, I think that’s about where Type Tarot ends: as an incredibly fun, kitschy novelty deck for your collection.

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The Wooden Tarot Deck Review

On December 27, 2015December 4, 2015 By benebellIn deck review, tarot25 Comments

The Wooden Tarot by A. L. Swartz of Skullgarden on Etsy is an animal lover’s dream tarot deck. I love the paintings on wood and found it pleasantly synchronistic that Swartz draws heavily from the concept of memento mori, as do I in certain aspects of my own practice. Swartz’s artwork seeks to express the esoteric dimension of flora and fauna, merging realism and surrealism, and you see that in the illustrations on The Wooden Tarot.

Wooden Tarot - Box

The deck is based on the RWS tradition and while the deck does not come with a companion guide or LWB of any sort, Swartz does note to interpret The Wooden Tarot with any RWS-based tarot book. However, I found that I craved a book keyed specifically to the imagery of this deck, because it really is quite special and distinct from the traditional RWS symbols.

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Living Magick Learning Cards Series: Palmistry Learning Cards

On November 15, 2015November 6, 2015 By benebellIn book review, deck review, divination, oracle deck5 Comments

Learning Cards Series (All Three)

The Living Magick Learning Cards Series is one of those brilliant “now why didn’t I think of that” cool ideas that Jadzia and Jay DeForest have brought to life. The series is published by Living Magick Publishing and distributed through Devera. You can order these Learning Cards over at DeveraGifts.com. They’re basically $25 each, which is a great deal.

As you can see from the above photo, I currently own the Palmistry, Tree of Life, and Tarot cards from the series. I’ll be reviewing each deck in turn.

This review will be on the Palmistry Learning Cards: The Art of Chiromancy. They’re marketed as self-study flash cards. Since I’m a beginner when it comes to palmistry, I’m an ideal subject to be reviewing the deck to see if it can teach me palmistry.

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Journey of Love Oracle Deck Review

On August 24, 2015June 16, 2015 By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, divination, oracle deck10 Comments

The Journey of Love oracle deck by Alana Fairchild and illustrated by two artists, Rassouli and Richard Cohn, was published by Llewellyn (Blue Angel Publishing) in 2014. It’s printed in the same style common among modern oracle decks right now, with the larger dimensions, sticky high-gloss finishes, and vibrant contemporary art.

There are 70 cards in total, along with a sizable perfect-bound guidebook. Alana Fairchild has rapidly ascended to the top of the New Age Movement. She is based out of Australia and is the bestselling author/creator of guided meditation CDs, books on angels and crystals, etc., and exquisite oracle decks that tend to be inspired by the divine feminine. There’s the Kuan Yin Oracle deck, the Isis Oracle, Mother Mary Oracle, and Sacred Rebels, among others. I have the Kuan Yin deck (my review posted here), this one, and the Sacred Rebels (review forthcoming). I love the Sacred Rebels deck, like, a lot, but I might actually love this one, the Journey of Love oracle more.

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Guardians of Wisdom Universal Power Cards: A Review

On August 10, 2015October 14, 2015 By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, divination, tarot19 Comments

The Guardians of Wisdom Universal Power Cards is a 78-card tarot-inspired oracle and insights deck, or universal power cards, that was self-published back in 2000 by Todd Hershey and illustrated by Emy Ledbetter. I contend that this deck came out way ahead of its time, and had it been released today, 15 years later, rather than back in 2000, it would have become an instant bestseller and generated a great deal of buzz.

The vibes of this deck are the same vibes as today’s most popular oracle decks and resonate with why we reach for oracle decks, only the Guardians of Wisdom cards do it better. Like, way better.

It’s not light and sugarcoated. Many of the messages can be bitter pills to swallow about yourself. As either tarot or oracle decks go, this one is way up there in terms of how well it achieves equal competency between both upright and reversed readings with the deck. In fact, you’ll want to read with reversals when you use the Guardians of Wisdom power cards and you’re not going to want to overlook that very important component. In fact, it’s half the deck. Literally.

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Tarot Mucha Deck Review

On July 1, 2015October 14, 2015 By benebellIn deck review, tarot22 Comments

I kept dragging my feet on whether to join the Tarot Mucha bandwagon, but here it is, and sometimes you just have to give in to the tarot reader majority when they’re all gushing over a certain deck, because they tend to be right. There are so many reasons to get this deck that I don’t even know how to process my thoughts and begin this review.

I’m loving it so much and will probably find myself using it in professional reading settings. It’s also a fantastic starter deck for a beginner reader who wants to commence study with the RWS tradition but may be having a hard time connecting artistically to the original Rider-Waite-Smith deck.

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Prisma Visions Tarot: A Deck Review

On May 11, 2015June 29, 2015 By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, divination, tarot16 Comments

Oh gawd I love this deck…!!

When I first saw the Prisma Visions tarot by James R. Eads, I knew I wanted it. Then after I learned more about it, the continuing narrative of the Minor Arcana cards forming four long, exquisite landscapes, and the bold symbolist-surrealist imagery in the Major Arcana, I knew I had to have it.

I love the bordered Majors juxtaposed with the borderless Minors (shown later). Eads’ art here is a contemporary tribute to French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, calling to mind Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh, and even some Degas. You can view all the images on the Prisma Visions website, here, though I’ll provide some samples in this review.

I love the flip top box and pretty much the design for every part of this deck and its packaging.

You have a modernized all-seeing eye on the card backs, and while the card backs are not reversible, I still read with reversals when using this deck.

The gilded silver edges are an exquisite detail. You’ve got a thick, heavy, and durable cardstock here, so the cards are thicker than traditionally published tarot decks. I do love the thicker cardstock. There is a semi-gloss finish to the cards. It’s not the full on glossy of, say, typical Hay House oracle decks, and it isn’t the papery matte finish that I tend to prefer.

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The Llewellyn Tarot: A Classic, Versatile RWS Deck

On May 5, 2015 By benebellIn book review, cartomancy, deck review, divination, tarot20 Comments

I’m always looking for RWS-based tarot decks that I can recommend for beginners who aren’t visually ready for the original RWS, and I’ve found one: the Llewellyn Tarot by Anna-Marie Ferguson and published by Llewellyn Worldwide. This deck has climbed up to my top five recommended beginner tarot decks or, heck, anyone interested in the Wales and Welsh culture of the Middle Ages.

The deck comes with a really comprehensive 5″ x 8″ guidebook that does a good job introducing tarot to the beginner but also has so much traditional Welsh folklore and mythology that I found it to be an incredible read, and should be equally enlightening to any seasoned tarotist. The cards themselves are 3.125″ x 4.5″, with thick borders all around. I’ve seen many tarot readers trim their copy of this deck and I’ve got to say, it looks a lot better trimmed.

The soft watercolor paintings by Ferguson (of the Arthurian Tarot fame) transport the Rider-Waite-Smith imagery to medieval Wales, bringing to life Celtic legends, deities, and mythic figures. Although it is a distinctly different style from Kris Waldherr‘s art, something about Ferguson’s work here reminded me of the Goddess Tarot.

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XIII Tarot by Nekro: Deck Review

On April 18, 2015April 18, 2015 By benebellIn cartomancy, deck review, divination, tarot26 Comments

The XIII Tarot by Nekro, published in 2014 by Fournier/Lo Scarabeo (and distributed in North America by Llewellyn) is a Gothic-inspired art deck with ornamental detailing, intense, evocative emotion, and a macabre motif. The art is in grayscale, with select sections of each card digitally enhanced a brilliant red.

The audience for the XIII Tarot deck is going to be aficionados of dark/gothic tarot decks, though without illustrated pips, it’s going to be better suited for Marseille readers.

Many of the reviews for the deck that I read on Amazon complain about the non-illustrated pips, but that didn’t bother me. You just have to know what you’re getting, as a deck buyer. In the context of Nekro’s highly detailed artwork, I like the non-illustrated pips. Illustrated pips, given Nekro’s highly detailed art work, along with the already highly detailed Majors might have been overkill.

Notice how the Majors stand out in a reading spread with the XIII Tarot.

When the cards are set out in spreads, the images on the Majors step forward beautifully, the Courts speak to us in their respective voices, and the pips provide supplemental information. For me, the deck reads quite well, but I see how visual-spatial-right-brained readers are going to prefer the illustrated pips that you might find in other Gothic decks like the Dark Grimoire Tarot by Michele Penco also by Lo Scarabeo, or the Bohemian Gothic Tarot by Alex Ukolov and Karen Mahony, which sadly, is now out of print (I believe).

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Tag: deck review