Tarot Thrones | The Court Card Blog

Category: Deck Review

  • Ancestral Oracle of the Celts

    Ancestral Oracle of the Celts

    Caitlin Matthews is a popular and prolific author of a slew of books and divination decks (if you are a Lenormand fan and don’t have a copy of her Lenormand Oracle Handbook, you are missing out!) and the Ancestral Oracle of the Celts is one of her most popular creations.

    Originally printed in 1990, it has been re-released by Watkins and unleashed upon the divination world!

    Let’s start with the box – it’s a lovely sturdy box decorated by the image from the Way Shower card. The deck and accompanying book are accessed via a drawer to the side of the box.

    The box with the drawer open and the guide book showing.

    This is a 40-card oracle, with two distinct types of card – Ancestral Cards and Clan Cards.

    There are eight Ancestor cards, provided in pairs. These pairs are all Lord and Lady … and very helpfully, the realms that they preside over also all begin with the letter L – Love, Light, Lore and Love.

    These cards are landscape in orientation and each features an aspect of the Gundestrup Cauldron:

    Gundestrup Cauldron

    These cards represent our common ancient ancestors and are described as Gods and Goddesses from Celtic lore, such as Bran and Brigantia. These cards pose questions for us to consider when we draw them in the Oracle Readings.

    The other 32 cards are the Clan cards. There are four clans, each of eight cards. Each clan (Wisdom, Sovereignty, Truth and Honour) and has a symbol – Stag, Hawk, Salmon and Boar.

    Since each card is a ‘person’ card, each of the clans is depicted with a different coloured border – Red, Purple, Gold and Green.

    The Ancestor cards, flanked by the Clan cards.

    All 40 cards are related to the Sun Circle and the illustration shows how the Ancestor and Clan cards lie together on the Wheel, which is the Wheel of The Year.

    Sun Circle – p11 in Guide Book

    The artwork by Wil Kinghan is lovely and the clan cards cover every aspect of ancient society – Kings and Queens, Weavers, Shepherds, Commanders etc.

    There is a mix of Masculine and Feminine presences within the cards, but the ENERGY of each card is beyond the outward appearance of each character.

    Although the book is small, it has 88 pages of information. The majority of it pertains to each card, but there are also sections on how to consult the cards and re-membering the Ancestors for deep work.

    My only criticism of the book is that some of the print in it is TINY!

    Book entry for Lord of Love, the font of the copy next to the image is very small!

    So, what do I think of the Oracle – the cardstock is very pleasant. The cards have a definite shine – nice and easy to handle and to shuffle.

    I’ve used the Burning Question spread, two cards, which required a random Clan card and a random Ancestor card. The questions posed by the Ancestor card are interpreted through the wisdom of the advice offered by the Clan card.

    This is a lovely Oracle and the perfect addition to your suite of decks if you enjoy Celtic themed work.

    You can explore more of Caitlin and John Matthews vast body of work on their Hallowquest site. You can also purchase this deck from Amazon via this affiliate link.

  • Alexander Daniloff | Lenormand Oracle

    Alexander Daniloff | Lenormand Oracle

    I am a massive fan of Alexander Daniloff’s Tarot decks and I was super-excited when he contacted me a couple of weeks ago to let me know that he had completed a new deck – a Lenormand Oracle!

    What can I tell you about it?

    This first printing is limited to 500 copies and will be signed and numbered. Size-wise, this is a 2.25″ x 3.5″ deck – perfect for a Lenormand deck and for laying out the 36-card Grand Tableau spread.

    It’s a standard 36-card Lenormand with two additional cards to play with – an extra Lord and Lady. This will ensure that all types of relationships can be comfortably read, not just M/F.

    As you can see, each card is numbered at the top and has its title, in English, at the foot of the card. Pip playing card associations are presented in a fluttering banderole that features the appropriate number of pips in the suit concerned.

    Those cards who have court card inserts have lovely character studies of Kings, Queens and Knaves.

    The imagery and colour-palette is exquisite (of course, I’m biased!) and I am very much looking forward to holding a set of these cards in my sweaty little paws!

    There will also be a downloadable pdf (written by me) available from Alexander’s website that will help you get started on your Lenormand journey, if it’s a new system to you. The final page of the document has links and suggestions for fab authors and content creators to take a deeper journey into the world of the Lenormand.

    This Lenormand is set to become a much-coveted item in your collection!

    The deck will be ready to order from Alexander’s website in December.

    To see all the images: http://www.daniloff-art.it/Tarocchi%20gallery/Lenormand%20Oracle.htm

  • Rupaul’s Drag Race Tarot

    Rupaul’s Drag Race Tarot

    My Rupaul’s Drag Race Tarot deck arrived this morning and I rushed through my chores so that I could open it.

    Oh to say that I am disappointed doesn’t cover the half of it!

    It’s a full 78-card ‘intricately’ designed deck, ‘based on the Rider Waite’ design. Well, my definition of ‘intricate’ and ‘based on’ is clearly quite different from the deck designer/illustrator

    Let’s start with the box. It is a lovely, sturdy box with a flip top lid and is branded up with the familiar pink jump-suited and white-booted image of Rupaul that fronts every Drag Race show.

    However, the back of the box states ‘ please note that this product is not associated with the series Rupaul’s Drag Race.’ Say what?

    The box nor deck contains details of the creator. Which is unusual, I think.

    Anyway, to the deck. As I said, 78-card deck with Strength at VIII and Justice at XI.

    There are 22 Majors, each illustrated by a drawing of a Drag Race Queen set against a coloured background. Above the image is the card number in Roman Numerals. Beneath the card image is the card title (all as you would expect) and the Queen’s name.

    And that’s it.

    The Queen’s aren’t posed against back drops or posed like the RWS or holding any symbols of any stripe.

    Moving on to the Minors, the suits are:

    Wands (edged in blue)
    Pentacles (edged in gold)
    Cups (edged in purple/lilac)
    Swords (edged in green)

    Unusual colour selections for the suits, but ok I guess.

    Again, other than the edging around the cards, you would be hard-pressed to know what any card was supposed to be if removed from its coloured frame.

    Scuse my rubbish scanning – new scanner and very slippy screen lol!

    I SO wanted to love this. And I HATE disrespecting anyone’s work – but this is not a functional Tarot deck. The illustrations are cute – I know, I get that. But given that there are LOADS of well-thought out, strongly illustrated Tarot decks that are fabulous and desperate for your money … I am incredibly disappointed with this one.

    May be fun to gift to a Drag Race friend or your very own Queen, but as a working deck, doesn’t give you a heck of a lot to work with.

    It’s not a ‘chantay you stay’ for my collection; it’s a ‘sashay away’ I’m afraid.

    Am I being too harsh?

  • The Stolen Child Tarot | Monica Knighton

    The Stolen Child Tarot | Monica Knighton

    It may have taken two Kickstarter campaigns, but The Stolen Child Tarot has now been printed, boxed and delivered to the lucky backers!

    What a lovely deck it is!

    This is a 78-card, fully-illustrated deck, beautifully presented in a flip top box with a magnetic lid. There are two other additional cards – one called Topsy Turvey, which I think you could use as a significator card. And there is also a very cute Title Card.

    Topsy Turvey Card

    The deck is 8cm wide by 12 cm tall – bigger in both dimensions than the RWS. The card stock doesn’t feel the thickest, but I don’t think that this will be a problem unless you are quite physical with your decks! The cards have a sort of light linen or matt finish which is rather nice.

    The card back, at first glance looks entirely suitable for reversals, but both faces are different, so maybe not entirely suitable for reversals (if you like your reversed cards to look identical to the upright cards when face down).

    As far as the deck structure is concerned, we have traditionally named Majors with Justice at 8 and Strength at 11 (Majors have Arabic numerals, not Roman). Major 13 is unnamed.

    The theme of the deck is inspired by W B Yeats poem of the same name – The Stolen Child – and it has very attractive child/nature/fae artwork from Knighton, who is an illustrator to trade.

    The suits are not traditionally-named, but are straightforward to associate with the usual suits. In place of Wands we have Flames, for Cups we have Brine, Swords becomes Zephyrs and Pentacles becomes Oak.

    The imagery is not obviously linked to the RWS, unless you look closely and spend some time with each card – The 9 of Zephyrs for instance – you CAN see a link to the RWS – the feathers from the bird of prey are falling around the hare, terrifying it.

    I eagerly await the accompanying book pdf which will be available this month, hopefully. The pdf for the Majors, however, can be downloaded from Monica’s website.

    I’m especially interested in the Court Cards, of course, and have made a little video using Adobe Spark to let you see them.

    The suit ranks are Page, Knight, Queen and King. There are feathers and birds in the Zephyr cards, Shells in the Brine cards, Acorns in the Oak cards and Flames in the Flames cards (not always immediately obvious though).

    There’s a lot going on in these cards and the book will help us unpack Monica’s vision, so I hope to add more detail on these cards when that’s available later this month.

    I love the artwork for this deck – it is colourful and beautifully rendered. Desperate to get moving with this one and look forward to that book!

    You got this deck? Which card is your favourite?

    https://monicalknighton.com/books/the-stolen-child-tarot-78-card-deck-pre-sale

  • Supra Oracle + Book | Uusi Studios

    Supra Oracle + Book | Uusi Studios

    I am a huge fan of the Pagan Otherworlds Tarot, by Peter Dunham and Linnea Gits at Uusi Studios. So, when they announced a new Oracle deck, to be funded via kickstarter,I thrust my little paw into the air as quickly as possible!

    I signed up for the Supra Oracle deck and the accompanying book, both for sale separately.

    The tuck box has a lovely little gold foil feature which shows my deck is from the first edition and is numbered 1770/5000. Despite this being a large ‘limited’ print run, I want to keep my seal intact, so I opened my box from the bottom! The inside of the box is red and coupled with the gilding and colours on the outer of the box, gives you a luxe-looking object.

    The gold seal from the Supra Oracle box
    Supra Oracle | Edition details
    The box from the Supra Oracle, showing red interior.
    Supra Oracle | Box

    The cards themselves are nice quality card-stock which is beautifully slippy to shuffle with, and the smooth satin finish is unobtrusive and lets you see the card detail in all light.

    All cards from Supra Oracle in array.
    Supra Oracle | Hidden Path cards detail

    It’s a 56 card deck (artwork by Peter Dunham) rendered in black ink against a toned background (with the addition of the odd colour pop in some cards). Each card is named, but not numbered. Each image is set inside a little grid frame – which I love for its simplicity and effectiveness.

    There is no LWB with the deck, although there is a large accompanying book available to buy separately. Do I feel that a LWB would be useful? Yes, I do. Because even if it was just two keywords per card, it would be a huge help to those who can’t afford the book too.

    The theme of the Supra Oracle is a fusion of Jungian psychology, myth and gnosticism and the melting pot generates some interesting cards. But before we look at the cards in detail, I want to start with the book.

    Supra Oracle Book

    The book is written by Linnea Gits and as you might expect from a design house, it’s a really lovely little publication that echos the deck’s colouring and the shape of the guide book for their Pagan Otherworlds Tarot.

    Image of Book from Supra Oracle, from Uusi website
    © Uusi Studios

    It’s 6″ x 6″ in old money, and is 146 pages long. Each card is depicted on the left page with the facing page devoted to a paragraph or two about the card and a handful of possible interpretations.

    The writings about each card are poetic, for example: Here is the entry for Synchronicity

    “Synchronicity is the great, creative, polyphonic dream we share with Nature. It is our imagination tapping into and mimicking this ingenious dream, and in a sublime, reciprocal act of spontaneous inner creation, parallel phenomena is formed, an inspired, communal act that appears as if it were all by design.”

    p 47, Supra Oracle Guide Book

    While these descriptions will help you enter the head-space or zone for working with the Supra Oracle, for me, the little keywords are more useful in interpreting the cards.

    The book does not contain any spreads or ‘how to use this deck’ information, it is purely for the card descriptions.

    The unnumbered cards are not listed in alphabetical order in the book, which makes locating things in the index (at least at the beginning, when you are relying on the book!) slightly tricky.

    The Supra Oracle Cards

    The 56 cards are divided into three Arcana – the Materia Prima, The Hidden Path and Sacred Geometry.

    The Materia Prima arcana consists of five cards: Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Aether.

    Supra Oracle, the Marteria Prima.
    Supra Oracle | Materia Prima cards
    Air, Water, Fire, Earth and Aether

    The Sacred Geometry arcana consists of six cards: Unfathomable, Heavens, Terra Firma, Being and Destiny.

    Supra Oracle | The Sacred Geometry cards
    Supra Oracle | Sacred Geometry Cards
    hmmm – I have tried rotating these images and it’s not working – sorry!

    The bulk of the Supra is in the Hidden Paths section where there are 45 cards.

    These include cards that have clear up-ticks to Jung: Psyche, Unconscious, Anima, Animus, Synchronicity and Ego while Magic, Mysticism, Daemon, Gnosis and a slew of others descend from a more gnostic lineage.

    I love the way that Thinking, Feeling, Sensation and Intuition are created to form a labyrinth when laid out together! There is a plate of the single image, in the book. It is entitled ‘The Secret’. I also love the blank card, Nothing – I think that’s inspired!

    Supra Oracle, The four cards that make up The Secret
    Supra Oracle| The Secret
    The Nothing card from The Supra Oracle, above the Anima and Animus cards.
    Supra Oracle | Nothing | Anima/Animus

    Working with any deck that does not have a LWB is tricky, but to work with a specially designed Oracle, I find it difficult. Would I interpret Phenomena (from the Sacred Geometry cards) as Action, Magic, Conception, Form, Matter without the book? If I’m being honest, probably not.

    If you can’t stretch to the guide book, I would recommend sitting with each card quietly, perhaps even a guided meditation into each card, to see how the imagery speaks to YOU so that you can create your own associations.

    There are some cards that you can, of course, work with straight away because the imagery and the card title are familiar symbols. For example – Potential, with its rearing horse over the foaming waves or Impasse with its coils of barbs and berries that completely fills the card space.

    Summary

    I find the Supra attractive and well-designed, but it is not something that you can just pick up and read with. Especially if you do not have the Supra’s guide book too. The Supra demands your time and your focus and if you are prepared – regardless of your Tarot experience – to start with the beginner mind for this deck, you will be rewarded.

    The pen and ink style of imagery is captivating, especially against the unusual tone of the card stock and the little bursts of colour in the Sacred Geometry cards really sing out unexpectedly!

    You can buy the Supra directly from Uusi Studios for $46.00 with the accompanying book at $32.00.

    Curious about the Pagan Otherworlds Tarot? You can read the Tarot Thrones review HERE and you can also purchase it from their website for $58.00

    P&P will be over and above these prices.

  • Pholarchos Tarot | Carmen Sorrenti | Arnell’s Art

    Pholarchos Tarot: card back

    I was part of that fortunate band of tarot fans who took part in Arnell Ando’s last Tarot Art Tour to northern Italy back in 2015.  Amongst the many treats we experienced during the tour, one was undoubtedly the visit to the Tarot Museum in Riola.

    There in the garden of the museum, a young woman called Carmen Sorrenti propped some intriguing and beautiful paintings against the garden fence – the first paintings of the Pholarchos Tarot.

    Since then I have interviewed Carmen for Tarot Thrones (where she delves deeply into the deck’s inspirations) and followed the deck’s development via her facebook page and I was beyond thrilled when Arnell Ando (the publisher of the deck and the self-same organiser of that Italy tour!) asked me whether I would like an advance copy.

    By the time the Pholarchos Tarot arrived on my door mat, I could barely contain my excitement sufficiently to get into the package! Reader, I wasn’t disappointed!

    The box is sturdy, with a lift off top (illustrated with the deck’s High Priestess… a self-portrait I think) which reveals the accompanying book and the 78-card deck beneath.

    The 40-page book is full colour (but not fully illustrated) and provides Carmen’s insights for the use of the deck.  It’s not a ‘keyword’ type book, but prose poetry and the emotional flow of the card’s energies.  Here is the entry for 13 Death, by way of illustration:

    “What you know turns inside out – you may not recognize this new place but it has great value. The pollen of a trillion flowers makes and unmakes you, this is the honeycomb of your bright existence.  Keep your wits about you as you harvest metamorphosis.”

    Deep and intriguing, right?

    So, let’s take a look!

    The deck measures 3.5″ by 5″ and the glossy finish to the card stock means that shuffling is a breeze (although if you have small hands, the width of the cards might mean some adjusting to your shuffle style)

    The Majors are traditionally named and numbered (Justice at 8, Strength at 11) using Arabic numerals, not Roman.  The positioning of the titles has been sensitively done, with everything placed so as not to detract from Carmen’s artwork.

    Pholarchos Tarot – Major Arcana examples

    The deck is infused with alchemical symbolism and language, but in a magical way that is at once accessible, but also compels you to expand your concepts about the cards:  This is not a ‘The High Priestess means X and the Fool means Y’ sort of deck.

    My favourite Major is, I think,  16 Tower (bottom right card, above)  How often do you get to say that about a Tarot deck?!  The leaping figure is impaled by a divine lightning rod.  The book describes the moment as ‘an awakening’ as one is split asunder in order to refashion our connections.  I love it!

    The Minor Arcana is the area of greatest departure from the Rider Waite style decks.  We have four suits – Sparks, Coral, Spirals and Wings.  Very broadly speaking, these could equate to Wands, Cups, Pentacles and Swords.  But they are very much Carmen’s own creation.

    The images on the Minors feel as if they have been created at speed and have a dreamlike quality that demands you abandon what you THINK you know and just dive into the symbolism and immerse yourself in the qualities of THIS deck.  YOU become the Pholarchos.  You become the shaman in the cave who watches and listens, the dreamer who carries messages back to the world from beyond the mundane.

    Here are the 3s of the deck, to illustrate what I mean.

    Pholarchos Tarot – Minor Arcana examples

    And here is part of the entry for the 3 of Wings (loosely, 3 of Swords) from the accompanying book:

    “The first great cries, words turned to daggers, frenzy.  Balancing the act of becoming conscious, division creates what seems to be unbearable pain.” 

    The Minors have the same kind of feel, to me, of Rachel Pollack’s classic ‘Shining Tribe’ (thanks for the correction info, Caitlin!) AND the Motherpeace Tarot (Vogel & Nobel).

    Of course, my blog is concerned with the court cards and this is where we head now.

    There are four ranks: Dreamer, Trail, Queen and King.

    The Dreamers of The Pholarchos Tarot
    The Trails of the Pholarchos Tarot

    Note that the Trails (who equate to the traditional Knights position) ARE in black and white (as are the Aces, in this deck). We follow the Trails every night as we fall asleep (our beds take the places of the ancient caves of the Pholarchos!). They are our psychopomps who guide us into another realm.

    The Queens of the Pholarchos Tarot

    I adore the images on the court cards – especially the Queens, perhaps because they feel like old friends to me now!

    The Kings of the Pholarchos Tarot

    This deck is perfect for someone who prefers to work with the tarot on a much more personal and intuitive level (or who wants to begin to work that way).  I would suggest that it is better suited to experienced readers because the jump from an RWS system to THIS system is not so vast that it can’t be made.  BUT if you start with THIS system and think that you can easily hop to an RWS system, I don’t feel that the leap will be so easy the other way! So, I wouldn’t recommend it as a deck for beginners.

    If you like working with the Motherpeace Tarot, Shining Tribe or the Margarete Petersen Tarot, then I think that the Pholachos would be right up your street.

    You can pre-order The Pholarchos Tarot here.

  • Druidcraft Tarot | Rebox

    Just before Christmas I was provided with a review deck of the newly reboxed Druidcraft Tarot.

    Druidcraft Tarot | all versions | Tarot Thrones
    new box, brighter coloured book cover

    Even a casual perusal of back posts from me will show that the Druidcraft is one of my absolute favourites and I fondly recall buying my first copy from a little incense-infused shop in Glastonbury when I met up with some tarot friends from TABI waaaaaaaaay back in the mists of time – 2004!

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  • The Numinous Tarot | Interview with Noel Heimpel

    Dreamers | Numinous Tarot | Tarot Thrones
    The Numinous Tarot

    I like to find nice things for you to look at, usually with the ‘look’ slanted towards the court cards because, well, I’m all about the court cards.  Today I’ve got some inside skinny on the Numinous Tarot by Noel Heimpel.  Let’s jump in, shall we?


    Me: Tell me a little bit about yourself and your tarot background:

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  • The Wildwood Tarot | Distinguishing the 3 Versions

    So, there are now THREE versions of the Wildwood Tarot floating around out there.  All equally gorgeous, of course, but there ARE differences and you will want to know what you are buying if one comes up on the bay of the ee.
    I manage the Wildwood Tarot’s website and am an admin on their official page (and an admin of the wildwood tarot study group over there too). And I wrote A Year In The Wildwood (my e-book) I asked Eddison Books if they could send me a V3 to help me complete this info video for you and they very kindly agreed.

    The card stock in all three versions IS THE SAME, but the V3 version in the UK has a UV glaze which makes it sturdier.

    NOTE:  You will need to ensure that the imprint you are buying is the CONNECTIONS version.  Some retailers are stocking the STERLING version which is the US version of the deck.  The STERLING version will NOT have the UV varnish.  18/5/17

    Sorry about the quality of the sound – just used the camera’s onboard mic and it’s a bit tinny.

    A learning process.

    If you have ANY questions about The Wildwood Tarot, just let me know

    Reading cloth by Ania M!

  • Tarot of The Crone | Ellen Lorenzi-Prince | Arnell’s Art

    Tarot of The Crone | Ellen Lorenzi-Prince | Arnell’s Art

    Every now and again a deck catches your eye and you just KNOW that its going to be a powerful tool to work with.  This is exactly the situation with Ellen Lorenzi-Prince’s Tarot of The Crone.  Ellen is an experienced deck creator and has two other decks under her belt (The Dark Goddess and the Minoan Tarot)

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