Pictorial Key Tarot Cards – February 8, 2008

The artwork is not a copy of Waite's cards possibly due to copyright. If you want the strictly Waite interpretations, you'll have to read his book, also available on Amazon. One interesting change I noticed was in the XVIII Moon card. Waite shows a crustacean coming out of water. Crustaceans are considered to be bottom feeders. Crayfish have been found with pathogens and parasites. Some lobsters suffer from diseases also. Waite says of the crustacean, " It strives to attain manifestation, symbolized by crawling from the abyss of water to land, but as a rule it sinks back whence it came." Earlier he says, "The card represents life of the imagination apart from life of the spirit." The creator of this deck shows instead an ugly creature still in the water and notes in the LWB (little white book) "...Unleash your adventurous spirit, but prepare yourself to face unknown dangers."If you're not worried about some missing or changed symbols from Waite's version, then this is a beautifully executed Pictorial Key to the Tarot

I spent some time looking at tarot decks and finally decided on this one. I received them and they are truly lovely. Other reviewers mention that they are thin but I don't see that as a drawback personally. Other reviewers mentioned that they follow or were influenced by the Rider-Waite deck and that is obvious. I did see a reviewer specifically mention the Fool card not containing standard symbols. I agree that they don't contain standard symbols but I believe there are symbols we don't see on Rider-Waite and that these symbols will render the same conclusion or even broaden the meaning of the card. They are lovely and I look forward to working with them more. I connected to them immediately (which is not usual for me).

I understand that some cartomant's feel a lack of connection to this deck. I am inclined to assume that is a first impression response.At first glance, Corsi's illustrations may come across 'stiff', but - quite similarly - so did Pixie's RWS drawings a century ago.Sit for a bit with this portal; and energies expose themselves!

This is a beautiful deck of Tarot cards. The artwork is amazing. The colors and images really speak to me. My only complaint is that the cards are a bit on the thin side. Handling the deck as a whole isn't too bad, but when handling individual cards, they feel somewhat flimsy. Make the cards a touch thicker and sturdier and this would be a perfect deck.

Beautiful color and interesting imaging!! A nice addition to my deck collection! The sturdiness is reasonable, but that’s okay because it makes shuffling easier?! Great deck!

Very pleased with my order. Beautiful deck in person.

Excellent quality pictorals. I would have liked a slightly thicker card stock, however, these work fine. Readings with the deck seem to be very accurate and give great insight to the reader.

I've just received my tarot deck. I must say that I was looking forward to this deck with great anticipation. Viewed on the computer screen, these images are fresh, colorful, and lush. However, once I had unwrapped the deck and held the cards in my hand I noticed a few things.1. The cards are printed on very thin paper. This deck is not a professional grade deck, and will not be able to be used for client readings. It just won't last, sadly.2. While the images themselves are quite lush and colorful, the figures on the images seem somewhat more static than they did on screen. In other words, there is not a lot of motion in this art. The pictures seem flat, the figures static. If you are looking at the card, you can tell that it is very obviously photography washed thru photoshop. There are a few parts of images that may be either primitive drawings or highly processed photos, but the energy and life of a drawn or painted image is not to be seen here.3. There are important elements of symbolism left out of the pictures. It is not that the cards need to look like the Rider Waite deck. They certainly don't. But if you are going to make a Tarot deck, rather than another kind of oracle deck, you need to understand the symbolism of what you are doing. For example, the very first card of the Major Arcana, the Fool, is missing the dog. In addition, both the Fools feet are on the ground. Without going into too much, I'll just say that this misses the point of the card entirely. The dog doesn't need to be small and terrier-like, or even wolf-like as in the Cicero's Golden Dawn Magical deck, but to take that symbol out without replacing it with one of similar meaning, changes the overall intention of the card. Similarly, restraining the Fool's path so that he seems to be standing rather than moving forward, is another change in symbolism.Yet another example would be the heavily fanged, menacing octopus that has replaced the crab on the Moon card. The obvious symbolism here of course, is that the Moon rules Cancer, and the attributes of cancer and the moon and the quality of that rulership are part of the card. A sea monster just doesn't cut it, sorry. It doesn't mean the same thing, nor does the change of the wolves howling at the moon to your pet lab playing on the lawn.There is nothing wrong with Divination Decks of alternate symbolism. BUT, if you are going to do a Tarot Deck, and at least pretend that it is a deck of traditional symbolism, as is implied if you model it after the Rider-Waite, then at the very least get the symbolism right. There are reasons for the symbols to be there. You can't successfully change a structure if you don't understand how it is built. And each of these Tarot images or Paths is a structure unto itself.The really great Tarot decks had one thing in common. They had an occultist who understood the symbols working with the artist who created the images. If you think about the Crowley Deck, the Golden Dawn deck, the Rider Waite deck, all of them had accomplished magicians who knew their Qabbala and the paths between the spheres on the Tree. It is these paths that the Tarot represents, after all. So unless you know the Tree very very well, it makes no sense to start changing things.On his Website, the artist has a rant about the 'tarot-police'. I surmise from this that he has been given some negative feedback for his altering of the images. Oh well, too bad. If he had taken the advice of someone who knew the subject, he might have made a fabulous deck. Unfortunately for me, I cannot use these due to their thin card stock and incorrect imagery. I'll be sending them back.And yes, I do have several decks that have unconventional or non-traditional imagery. I enjoy them and use many of them to read clients, as the need calls for. But they have a couple of things in common. they are all on good solid card stock from US Games, and they are sophisticated enough that if the creators change symbols, they end up replacing the absent symbol with something else that makes sense. This leads me to believe that there was a knowledgeable occultist involved somewhere in their creation.I'd advise looking at the Haindle Deck for a real avante-garde set of images, the Hanson-Roberts for a very gentle traditional deck which is good to use for clients who are timid or not familiar with the Tarot, or who are emotional (I've gone thru three of these decks in my professional life); the Thoth deck from Crowley for obvious reasons; the Rider Waite for ritual; the Tarot of Marseille, if you can find an older one on better card stock; Godfrey Dowson's Hermetic Tarot; the old Qabbalistic Tarot (you might find one used on eBay); the Voyager Tarot, for really amazing non-traditional collage imagery that opens up subconscious doorways like mad. I also love the Cicero's Golden Dawn Magical tarot, and will go out on a limb and also recommend the Golden Dawn deck that carried Robert Wang's name. I don't particularly like the art, however Israel Regardie's name is also on the deck, and the images I've seen reflect that level of mastery and scholarship.Lastly, I've seen many of the decks that Lo Scarabo has produced, and in the past have been willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. It seems, however, that they are producing decks as quickly as they can, on very cheap paper stock, so as to make sales. This is simply business. They are not interested in the quality of the scholarship. For that reason, the paper and the greed and ignorance, I'd advise staying away from their decks if possible.