Guardian Tarot - MJS Tarot

This deck, wow, I don’t know where, or how, to begin. I first saw the Guardian Tarot on You Tube and I thought hmmm creepy. But, I couldn’t stop looking at it. I found it hauntingly beautiful yet I couldn’t imagine how I could work with it. Yet, try as I might, I couldn’t turn away. So, before long it ended up doing the shopping cart dance – I put it in, I took it out, I put it in, I took it out, then finally I put it in and clicked place order. And that brings me back to wow. The Guardian Tarot speaks to me in a way that I can’t explain. I feel it takes me where I need to go. In fact, it began the process of changing my whole approach to my work. But I’ll write more on that elsewhere.

The box blurb opens with “Trees are guardians of our lives” and later adds that:

These guardians will teach you that in a nourishing environment, where your needs are met and supported by others, you grow stronger.

Reading that helped me to understand why I was so drawn to these cards – I truly believe in the overall message they are trying to spread. Before owning the Guardian Tarot I wasn’t aware of the philosophy behind them. I generally only focus on the cards themselves when deciding on whether or not I feel they’re for me. This is something I will consider in the future but, since I bought them anyway, I believe that I’ll receive the messages I need when I need them regardless.

The Guardian Tarot Deck

The Guardian Tarot doesn’t adhere to your typical RWS associations. For example, the 9 of Cups pictured above shows a choice. What do you need to do to create a sense of contentment? What path do you need to follow? This deck encourages us to question rather than to blindly accept what may be deemed more reputable, more “normal”. Those that truly care for us will always be there but ultimately the choices we make need to be ours. The closer you look at the cards, the more becomes clear, and for me the stronger the message becomes. Now when I look at them I feel such a deep connection and I can’t believe that I found them a tad creepy when I first saw them. I just don’t see it anymore. Now I just see a beautiful, powerful deck that adheres to its own philosophy.

Often times decks are designed in such a way as to make their suits obvious. That isn’t the case with this one. No dominant colour, animal, environment, or imagery represents each suit in any way that I can discern and yet the deck feels cohesive. The suits are still Wands, Swords, Cups and Pentacles with a court made up of Kings, Queens, Knights and Pages. And, apart from the Hanged Man who has been renamed Suspend, the Major Arcana, whilst unnumbered, have standard RWS nominations. But if you’re looking to interpret it purely through RWS keyword associations you may initially find it doesn’t seem to align. Strangely, the more you work with it, the clearer the associations become. Though personally, I prefer to let them speak to me in their own special way.

I love that on many of the cards it appears as though the texture of the watercolour paper is showing through. It doesn’t seem to be as evident on all the cards though so I hope I’m not doing Beth Seilonen’s artwork a disservice when I write that. Either way I love her interpretations and the colour palette she’s used. This deck was always going to offer unique depictions but unlike other decks, it doesn’t get lost in its own cleverness. It stays focused on its message. When I looked at the cards on line I found the eye sockets unnerving and yet now when I look at the eyes I discern so much. They definitely aren’t the vacant holes I saw initially. Rather, in keeping with the idiom, they act like windows to the soul of the particular tree guardian and I love them.

I pretty much love all of them. As I flipped through to select which cards to photograph, I soon had way too many in my pile. I found culling them difficult. In the end I cheated and let the book cover choose my main image rather than trying to select a favourite. The box itself features the 3 of Swords, which for most decks would definitely not be considered the best representation of the cards. However, that’s not the case here. It’s been done really well. As has the 10 of Swords. They are on point without being gruesome.

The Death card isn’t a pretty rendering in any way but its message is clear without stirring up the usual fears that surface when people see it. Instead it encourages us to recognise the need to change what doesn’t serve our greater good and to consider what we are doing to our environment on a global and personal level. It may be difficult but so is doing nothing, whether we want to acknowledge that or not. The 8 of Cups does the same thing very successfully too. As I keep looking at these cards I wonder how I ever saw them as creepy, but I can’t ignore that was my initial reaction. Considering it was my daughter’s as well I know I’m not alone in that reaction.

I tried to encourage her to spend more time with them to see if her reaction changed too, but I had no luck. Because of this though I don’t know if I could use these cards to read for others. I may try and win my daughter over by using them in a spread for her but if she’s not keen that’s fine. After all, there’s absolutely no need to sell someone on any particular deck. The reason I collect and showcase so many different ones is because I believe I’m bound to have one that does appeal. My hope is that everyone finds a deck that they can truly connect with.

The cards themselves measure approximately 7½ x 11½ cm. The overhand shuffle is fine but due to the thicker card stock, I find them a bit clumpy to riffle shuffle unless I only do the corner to the corner. Then it’s fine. That doesn’t bother me though as my shuffling method of choice now is a combination of a very loose long edge to long edge riffle that doesn’t bend my cards in any way followed by overhand shuffling. Nothing exciting but I find it’s effective to use with cards of any size, and any card stock, with little chance of damaging the edges or warping the cards. For me it’s a win-win. I like that I have a shuffling method now that works regardless of the cards I’m using. I definitely don’t want to damage these cards in any way.

The Guardian Tarot Book

The deck comes with a 103 page, full-colour, card-sized guide book. There’s a brief intro that explains where the inspiration for the deck came from which is followed by the card meanings section. Each card is represented by a colour, thumbnail sized image. Alongside the picture a description of the card image is given in green followed by what the card suggests in both the upright and reversed position which is printed in black. The book wraps up with some spreads. Rather than being in the book, the information about the deck creator can be found inside the lid of the sturdy two-part box.

Spreads

Two spreads that were developed for personal growth are included in the book:

Guardian’s Tale (10 cards)
Guiding Coast to Coast (6 cards)

I found both spreads beneficial. But to be honest the most powerful messages came through when I conducted the deck interview I do as part of my personal review process. When I sat down to prepare this overview I definitely wasn’t expecting to uncover the powerful insights I have. Most importantly, I can’t un-see what I saw and to me that makes this a very powerful deck.