Deck and Book Reviews
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Cozy Witch Tarot
I pre-judged the Cozy Witch Tarot and in so doing I did myself and the deck a disservice. I have Amanda Lovelace’s Believe in Your Own Magic Oracle and I found a lot to love about it so I should have taken that into account. But, I didn’t. Instead, I saw the keywords and questioned whether the deck was for me. Generally I see keywords on tarot cards as distractions that can limit the meanings of the card. How wrong my assumption has proven to be. My eye is naturally drawn to the artwork and when it does wander down to read the words beneath the title I find I…
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Midnight Magic
Midnight Magic has a lot to say. Yet I never expected to write that when I first became aware of this deck. My initial reaction was, “How on earth would I read with that?” As it turns out, very, very easily. I mean wow! I have a monumental crush on this deck. It’s grounded, it’s cheeky, it’s enchanting, and as corny as it sounds, it nourishes my soul. Yes, I’ll say it again, I’ve fallen hard. I don’t think I’ll ever look at mushrooms in the same way again. Pairing mushroom names and properties with tarot is the sort of seemingly random connection that turns out to feel so natural…
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Tarot of the Owls
At first glance the Tarot of the Owls may seem like a cutesy deck that focuses on being beautiful to look at rather than offering anything new. However, that assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. It may look light but it offers so much. Beneath its beauty is a solid tarot deck that I have come to discover is wonderful for shadow work. That definitely wasn’t what I expected when I first flicked through the cards. The deck might take you into a magical Owl Realm, but what you find in this mystical place is solid, practical and helpful. The Tarot of the Owls deck To discover that this…
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Tarot for the Great Outdoors
If you love outdoor recreational activities and tarot then this deck provides a wonderful way to bring the two together. Creator, JQ Gordon says the Tarot for the Great Outdoors encourages you to, “explore your inner potential and the outdoors with the beauty, mystery and joy of tarot” and she’s right. This deck urged me to get up from my desk and head outside. Not many things motivate me to do that lately. Yet bushwalking, kayaking, camping and just generally sitting out in nature had been such an important part of my life. I wrote a personal essay about why which you can read by clicking here if you’re curious.…
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My deck review process
Recently I was talking to someone about why I write tarot deck reviews. I told them that initially it was because I truly believe there is a tarot deck out there for everyone. So I write reviews about a variety of decks to showcase what is available. This is still what drives me. However, I soon uncovered a secondary motivation, that has in turn led to the creation of this post. It is this. As a direct result of writing reviews I have learned so much about myself, my tarot decks, and tarot in general. Every deck has its own story to tell and along the way each one takes…
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Out of Hand Tarot
Jamie Sawyer’s goal in creating the Out of Hand Tarot is to show “that you forge new and deeper relationships with the tarot by seeing how it can relate to your personal experience.” I believe she succeeded. The guide book opens, “Things in life have a tendency to get “Out of Hand”. This deck showcases moments in which we live and experience the tarot.” She goes on to add that the Out of Hand Tarot aims to show “how we live the tarot in even some of the smallest moments.” By the end of this post I am pretty sure you will agree that is exactly what this deck achieves.…
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Wild Woman Oracle
The creation of the Wild Woman Oracle was a deeply personal process for Cheyenne Zarate. Like happens with many of us, she had “lost touch with her authenticity which in turn resulted in low self esteem, poor boundaries and people-pleasing tendencies.” Some recent experiences in my own life brought up some resentment about this exact same thing. Fortunately, like any good “Tower” moment, some good, actually a lot of good, came out of it for me, as it did for Cheyenne. I have owned this deck for a little while but until now I hadn’t overly felt called to work with it. This surprised me because a previous experience had…
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Witches’ Wisdom Tarot
I ummed and ahhed about buying the Witches’ Wisdom Tarot because I knew the creators had taken a different approach to the Majors. For the most part, I focus on the RWS system, but in the end I relented. My curiosity, and to be frank, some of the artwork, got the better of me. Though at first, as much as I appreciated the deck, I wasn’t sure how I would work with it. Fortunately that has changed. Much of the philosophy of the deck aligns with my own. I simplify it to “Heaven is here on Earth”. The explanation they provide is much more eloquent. Phyllis Curott points out that…
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Tarot Landscapes
Introduction With a name like Tarot Landscapes it is no surprise that this is “a deck of tarot cards that are inspired by and dedicated to landscapes.” What is a surprise is how much I fell for this deck. I pre-ordered it on a whim because, to date, I have not been able to source an affordable copy of the Majestic Earth Tarot. However, since the first time I worked with Tarot Landscapes, I became a bit obsessed and I’ve found myself reaching for it constantly. To put this into perspective, this deck arrived around the same time as Tarot of Echoes, a deck I had coveted since its inception.…
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Tarot of Echoes
I go through phases of buying decks. Sometimes there’s nothing that’s really jumping out at me and other times there are way too many decks that appeal to me. Lately I’ve found myself pre-ordering several decks and this is one that as soon as it was available for pre-order I jumped at. Even with the shipping costs it was worth it to me. I had been following the development of the Tarot of Echoes on Instagram and each image new Ana Tourian shared increased my anticipation. I was truly captivated. Now, I don’t normally share decks that are not readily available because personally I hate falling in love with unavailable…
