I feel very similarly about a lot of mass market decks. Comparing Llewelyn's older Tarot of Vampyres with the vampire deck that came out this year is like night and day. The first felt like a very intentional creation and the newer one, which to be fair I don't have, looks like it's art made to fulfil a brief with a form over function book 😅 And I like a lot of brightly coloured and cheesy art styles! But there's a lot of decks that look like they were made to create a product, rather than because they had any kind of vision behind them. On a happier note I love love the Fyodor Pavlov and the Ritual Tarot too! Both were new to me this year and I wouldn't be without them 💖
When you said that your year was terrible I felt that too deep in my soul 😂 so glad it's 2024 now. I still can't hop onto the Ritual Tarot bandwagon personally but I'm glad you and so many others have been loving it! I agree with your thoughts on the Llewellyn decks though, I haven't gotten many recent ones because of that.
Love listening to you on a rant about a deck.. 😂. Your spot on with comments.. if Vogue magazine brought out a tarot deck it would definitely be the Mythos Tarot.. It's just a bunch of glamour shots. Not what tarot is about. ✨✨
Agree with you about Mythos--romance novel cover art and the women look like they're soliciting on a street corner. I had Lucid Dreams and liked it but passed it on. Looking at the midnight version I might just have to order it...though it's currently sold out. Thanks for your takes on these.
I want the midnight vision version because I think the words will be easier to read. The peach Sandy colored version is hard to read the white lettered words. I think it's because I'm 47 and my eyes need bifocals 😂
Agreed, because I'm 69! Deck creators need to consider readability (font style, size, colors, etc) more.@@1976mcfarlane 😄 But I also just like the art better against the black.
I have found a few tarot decks that have their own system and way of working. But my one gripe with oracle is the price to card ratio. Like, I can't justify spending $30-40 CAD for anything less than 50 cards. Because decks in Canada are hella expensive compared to pretty much anywhere else.
The newest version V.3 of Ritual Tarot was KickStarted in 2023 and was the best part of it for me (year sucked). The names are cleverly marked on the back, unlike any previous versions. They are hidden in almost a maze. It's very cool; I love it. Very deep, not a daily how ya doin' deck for me either.
I don’t have these decks but your disagreements with the decks you didn’t like are so on point. What you like about decks were a pleasure to listen to even if not the deck for me.
Ha! Love your honesty !! I have the Earth Moon & Shadow Deck and i love it. Have you seen the lantern Oracle? That one's mass market but reads in a similar way. I love it as well
I love the mythos tarot and at the same time can agree to the fact that it’s a shallow piece of doodoo. Hahaha. Yes to llewellyn, I’m over that whole publishing house when it comes to decks, and yes to Angie Sullins, I got the tree keepers oracle for the stunning art, what a crappy guidebook. Is she even a real human being?
I like the Dragon deck,too. I got Ciro Marchetti's Guilded Tarot Royal and Mystical Palette,because of the colors. Otherwise I can agree with you about the glut of decķs,lately,with mediocre books and just seem to be a money grab.
On the Mythos Tarot... i don't own it but almost every card reminds me of a photoshoped cover image of a failed fashion magazine. Maybe why almost every card looks like an AI generated image of a celebrity? I also don't own any Angie Sullins decks but am wondering how on earth she has done like 20 decks this year... none of them are my aesthetic or vibe and hey maybe she is like super creative but it just feels icky. Especially when some od them are not many cards. The idea of the tree keepers oracle appealed to me but the images and info available felt like it was fern gully for emotionally stunted adults. And what 40 cards? It just feels like there is so much half baked stuff coming out.
Waaayy too many AI decks coming out. I just saw one last night, I wish now I could remember its name. I swear the designer (I refuse to say artist) took existing art she liked, of many different styles, such as Jasmine Beckett Griffith or Susan Sedon Boulet, and just had AI redo them into another single style she liked. So they sort of look like they were all made by this new "artist" but also VERY familiar at the same time.
Can't say anything about the Owls yet - it's due tomorrow, so it'll be a Christmas present - but the Dragons, I adore. I like the sharp colours; and the artist had such fun turning cards around. The deck has my all-time favourite 9 of Swords, because it's both depicting a nightmare and making me laugh. (Overall I'm really enjoying your reviews, but I had to defend that deck.)
It's funny, just last night I was thinking about how so many new, trendy decks are washed out, desaturated, with a very narrow color palette (not to mention all the 2D graphics). I was wondering if people were going to end up put off by color. I thought it would be a few years but I guess I was wrong.
As a Hellenic Polytheist I agree with your opinion on the mythos tarot, with the art and the depictions especially. Athena and Artemis for example are virgin goddesses that represents chastity, why would they be sexualised is beyond me. When I expect any mythology decks is to show their symbols and why they are depicted as that card. Zeus I can see as an older man compare to Hermes or Apollo. Hestia or Hera I expect to be bit more older in appearance not to mention they are like European white not even olive skinned or accurate to what their respective attributes in Greek culture. Hercules is supposed to represent a very masculine man not a teenage pretty boy band member. I was thinking about this deck and more and more I thought about buying just made me not want to buy it which sucks because there isn’t a lot of Greek tarot decks.
Oh my God, I agree 100% with you on the guidebook from the W.I.T.C.H oracle. I love the cards but I don't even look at the descriptions... the Harry Potter made me cringe, and the author has been making SO many decks and I swear, they're all kind of the same. I just take the impression the card gives me because the guidebook just ruins the whole experience.
The Mythos Tarot deck is essentially Instagram selfies, at least that’s how I feel. I don’t mind pretty decks like tarot de la nuit, but it’s overkill in this deck plus I do not see these people as deities from Greek mythology. Have you heard of the odyssean tarot? I’m really interested in that deck and the guidebook looks really promising. Wondering your thoughts about it.
That mythos deck would have been a super disappointment to my baby hellenistic pagan, I'm so glad I didn't order it for her for xmas gift this year... I truly hope 2024 treats you and yours much kinder than 2023 did.
It’s so funny. I thought you were going to bitch about the big book with the tiny cards. I love the pop art styles. I don’t like the ones in your hand. BORING. I’m an Artist by profession. I NEED lime greens and hot pinks. Give me COLORS and abstracts. I guess it’s all subjective. 🤷🏼♀️
I kind of agree about the colors on Witch's Garden. I have and prefer Forest of Enchantment. WG is a bit more diverse, but, that's the best thing about it.
I have found some, definitely not all, but some cutesy, kitschy decks to be extremely well designed by someone who obviously is a tarot expert and they can be great to read. While many decks with a more "serious, arty" or dark aesthetic can be impossible to read and made by someone who knows nothing of tarot.
One of the top things I hate in a deck is turning over a card and seeing a celebrity. 🤮 It's just so far removed from what I'm trying to do in a reading
My condolences on the ownership of that last deck. Yikes. It is cringey. Without the redeeming virtue of being Kitsch. What word to describe it? Maybe sophomoric? Like a young male artist was going to use some fandom portraits he had laying around to do a tarot deck for his portfolio? I recently witnessed a flip through of a deck recently that had all the women were either mudflap figures with duck lips or old crones. LOLZ! Blocked out the title of it.
Those Llewelyn decks are shallow, cheesy, and commercial. Seems they're trying to hide it in over packaging and magazine like books. Seems a lot of folks are getting on the bandwagon of making money off of collectors, lately. There haven't been any new decks that appealed to me in 2023 except for one. The movie star deck you showed at the end looked like it was geared towards the romance novel readers. 😂 I get what you're saying! ✌️❤️🔮🃏
