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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Tarot Pink Promotional Banner by Roxi Sim, Creator of the Pearls of Wisdom Tarot
Tarot Pink for Cancer is a collaborative tarot deck project organized by Ron Leong, founder of Tarot eCards, a digital app for storing electronic versions of whole tarot decks on your smartphone. The mission of the collaborative tarot deck project is to raise funds for breast cancer research. The concept is to reach beyond the tarot community and introduce tarot to the greater public as a tool for emotional, spiritual, and physical healing, with a focus on fighting breast cancer.
The theme of the deck is “Tarot Pink,” with an emphasis on the tarot’s ability to inspire, empower, and support in a person’s physical wellness journey. Although the financial cause is dedicated to breast cancer research, the deck itself is keyed to all forms of physical healing and the path to wellness. The color pink evokes that healing, compassion, empathy, and soft, understanding, non-judgmental support.
You’re going to want to get this deck. Mary Greer is writing an introduction in the guidebook. You’ve got contributions from some of the biggest names in the tarot world: Robert Place of Alchemical Tarot and Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery; Ciro Marchetti of Gilded Tarot and Legacy of the Divine; Eric Dunne of Tarot Illuminati; Marie White of The Mary-el Tarot; Kris Waldherr of The Goddess Tarot; Pamela Steele of Steele Wizard Tarot; Mary Griffin of The Hezicos Tarot; Emily Carding of The Transparent Oracle and Tarot of the Sidhe; Roxi Sim of Pearls of Wisdom Tarot; Major Tom Schick of Major Tom’s Tarot of Marseille; James Ricklef of Tarot of the Masters; Carrie Paris of the Magpie Oracle; J. R. Rivera of Beautiful Creatures Tarot, and oh my goodness, so many more.
You are going to recognize a lot of the names on the contributors list. Tarot Pink will be available as both a mobile app. and a printed deck. The app. will be available as early as July, 2015 and the printed deck available in September, 2015. Please support our efforts over at Indiegogo and please help share news of this deck and our fundraising via social media with #TarotPink.
This is definitely going to be a keepsake deck. A lot of incredible folk have infused these cards with the kind of positive, empowering Qi energy that would help in any path to healing, so use it for yourself, use it for those reading the cards for their healing journey, get it as an inspirational gift for someone, or heck, get it as a collector’s deck. Considering the kind of efforts that have been devoted to the creation of Tarot Pink and the practitioners who’ve worked on it, this deck is going to vibrate at a very cool higher frequency, if you ask me.
If nothing else, please get the tarot app for your smartphone. It’s only a $2 donation. Do it! That is less than your morning cup of joe!
I was so honored and red with delight when Ron invited me to contribute to this amazing project. I hope by sharing about my card contribution, you’ll be inspired to go out and read about all the other amazing tarot people and artists and what they’ve done for this deck. And then, of course, actually get a copy! I’m not sure I have the authority to show you other works, so I won’t, but you have to go searching for them. My below doodle looks rinky-dink compared to what others have done. AH-MAZING! stuff.
Go forth to plan out an ambitious future. You are called to aspire for the horizon beyond. The orb symbolizes healing and the power that love has for overcoming obstacles. Gaze into that orb and you will see: you walk the path of a soldier. Progress.
The caption underneath the card image is the card meaning blurb that will be accompanying the smartphone app version of the deck. The deck’s accompanying guidebook will have a longer description, which I’m providing after the jump. Continue reading “Tarot Pink, a Collaboration Deck: My Two of Wands”→
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