African Tarot - MJS Tarot

The African Tarot is a colourful, unintimidating deck. It encourages you to embrace the present so as to empower you to overcome any obstacles you may face on your path to self-fulfilment. This vibrant childlike, and thus totally non-threatening, artwork provides a safe space to journey within to find our innocence and sweetness. In our current world climate this feels more important than ever.

The African Tarot Deck

It is easy to overlook and dismiss decks like the African Tarot but that would be a pity. Yes it employs relatively simple artwork and a simple colour palette. Blue and green predominate. The grass is green and the sky is blue. Hair is black, white or a dark purply grey. Throw in the basic colours of the rainbow and some pink and brown here and there and you have it. It appears as if you could create this deck with a cheap set of textas yet I don’t see a problem with that at all. Looks can be deceiving though.

I had a crack at drawing the 4 of Swords and a few things happened. Firstly, I found myself smiling and I thought I really must draw more. Secondly, since I was drawing in ink I couldn’t fix it when I realised that on my rendition his head took up more than a third of his body so I had to just keep going. And yes, he looks a tad bizarre. But, I can see that as I take a break to look over my drawing, the fact that I have something on paper affords me the opportunity to consider what I’d do differently next time. Now I know that’s not necessarily the intended meaning of the card but that’s okay. I didn’t choose the 4 of Swords to draw for any other reason than it seemed the easiest choice. My realisation was just a fortunate side effect. As someone with debilitating perfectionist tendencies it was an apt message. Even better was the fact that it came so naturally while I was just enjoying the process and therefore without effort.

I have only attempted to draw one tarot card before because it was a suggested exercise in 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card by Mary Greer. I think I’ll be doing a lot more of it though because not only is it a really effective way to focus in on a card, it’s also enjoyable. We don’t need to be artists to draw. We just need a pen, a pencil, a texta, whatever we can find, and a surface to draw on. Ask any child and they’ll tell you that. When I sat down to review the African Tarot this isn’t where I thought it would go but this deck does exactly what it aims to do – “[evoke] universal childhood emotions” and that makes it pretty awesome in my eyes.

Even though the African Tarot adheres to the RWS tarot they are based upon, I find I read them very differently. When I looked at V The Hierophant pictured above, my first thought was “a message delivered by someone who isn’t taking themselves too seriously can be really powerful.” We listen because we’re not overwhelmed and learning becomes fun and enjoyable. The same applies to these cards. Mentors don’t need to be rigid and intimidating and nor do we.

As I sit and look at the cards I’ve photographed all lined up on my desk I just see lots of colour and to be honest confusion. However, when I pick up one card and focus on it things become clearer. On the 10 of Wands pictured below, I notice the fruit on the bush. His efforts are about to bear fruit. I see that in this card he’s not struggling with the load. He’s almost home so he’s found his second, third, possibly even fourth wind and he’s sprinting towards the finish. This card feels encouraging just like the deck itself. I also noticed that some of the wands are not whole. Whether that was intentional or not doesn’t matter to me. I read it as sometimes we don’t need to do it all. We can let some parts drop off or pass them over to someone else. It’s more important to do what we need to do to ensure we can make it to where we are headed.

I like so much about the African Tarot. On the 6 of Pentacles the scales seem to be resting on the ground which I feel imparts a powerful and valuable message. There’s no obvious judgement. He knows he can give something without depleting his resources. We should all be able to ask for help without worrying about how we may be judged. We should also be prepared to offer assistance without any judgement thus making it easier for people to express their vulnerability. If that isn’t always the case then it should be.

Simple drawings really can say so much. I equate the presence of white hair as a symbol of wisdom. As such, I love that 0 The Fool has white hair. There is much to be said for the wisdom of children. My granddaughter saw me in my underwear one day and asked me why I had a belly. I wasn’t sure what to say in return. Months later I asked myself the same question, owned the answer, and set about changing my life. So thank you Little Miss Willow Pillow for asking the “hard” questions from a place of pure innocence and curiosity. What’s the saying – “Out of the mouths of babes”? The strength of this deck is that it reconnects us to this way of viewing things. We become curious and we ask the questions that actually matter.

There’s a few things I want to point out about the cards in general though. Firstly, they are tiny. They measure just under 6 x 8cm. They are only slightly taller than an average tarot deck is wide. I wasn’t expecting that when I ordered them and I wonder if that has a negative impact on people’s impressions of them. Personally I would love them to be available in a more standard tarot size. I do often carry them in my handbag but when I pulled them out for a friend once she told me later that she was initially disappointed when she saw I was going to use this deck. However, following a series of three cards spreads she came to see how much they have to offer. Unfortunately though we don’t always get an opportunity to alter first impressions.

The more I look at the African Tarot the more I wonder why we think we need to take things, and possibly ourselves, so seriously though. I was “called” to review this deck and I initially resisted. I pulled it out, had a quick flick through and wondered if I should consciously select another deck to write about. I’m so glad that as part of my intention to notice and listen to my intuitive hits more in regards to every day matters, I did as I was urged. The energy of this deck has been just what I needed to embrace.

The Major Arcana and the Court Cards all have a white strip along the bottom which ensures their titles are easier to read. They obviously make the illustrations smaller again but I don’t find them an impediment. Rather, I find it helps to make those cards stand out. The Minor Arcana only have a Roman numeral at the top to signify the number of the card. You need to look at the image to ascertain the suit. This is pretty easy to detect. Since the cards are small, the cardstock feels thicker than it is and I actually accidently bent one of my cards quite badly. It has flattened out again but the cards in general are a bit warped. Also I find I can only shuffle them overhand. There’s just not enough to hold on to for me to manage any other way.

The African Tarot Book

The book is a tiny, 55-page, card-sized little white book yet it offers more than many others. It opens with an introduction that explains both its philosophy and its heritage. It’s philosophy is to encourage healing through demystifying, and presenting, tarot in a non-threatening way. The book helps with the former, the artwork with the latter. I also appreciate that they mention the cards and books that inspired the deck. This is followed by a working with the cards type section. Apart from the final page, which includes half a page on the authors, the rest of the book is dedicated to card meanings.

For the Major Arcana, here titled The Trumps, there is a tiny black and white image, the card title, and a keyword followed by the card’s meaning. An explanation is provided for both upright and reversed presentations. This section concludes with a “Vibration”. Examples of what you’ll find in the vibration section are, “Untamed awareness. Sensual intelligence,” for 0 The Fool and “Equilibrium. Transformed energy. Transcendent intelligence,” for XXI The World.

The Minor Arcana are organised by suit. Each suit opens with a few keywords which includes its elemental association and a paragraph covering what the overall suit represents. Then, each card has a tiny illustration of the card and its meaning. What makes this LWB stand out is that for each Minor Arcana there is a section titled “Combinations”. Whether or not you agree with the interpretations provided here, they are a valuable addition because they encourage you to step away from reading cards in isolation. Having been urged to ask the question, “What does (Card A) when considered alongside (Card B) suggest?” other questions are likely to follow and a simple spread will start to divulge so much information. The combinations also offer another layer to the card’s meaning overall.

I have many, many, many tarot and oracle decks. This is the only LWB I have come across so far that offers this. As you can imagine, in my work I read through a lot of accompanying books so I welcome any points of difference.

Spreads

There is only the one spread offered with this book:

The Ancient Celtic Cross Spread (10 cards)
- (Marcus Katz challenges the notion of “Ancient” being associated with the Celtic Cross in his book Tarosophy so its use here stood out. But it’s how it was titled in the book so it’s how I’ll present it here.)

I actually like the wording of this version of the Celtic Cross positions and I found it worked well with the cards. In seeking to demystify and make the tarot more approachable I would have expected at least one simple spread to be included but on the other hand I like the juxtaposition of something “Ancient” with something that appears simple and childlike. This deck brings the wisdom often buried way too deep within to the surface so that we may rekindle our childlike wonder of ourselves, our capabilities, and the world around us. For me this makes it a very special deck.