Deck Review: The Gentle Tarot

I’m almost done re-writing and uploading my old deck reviews to the blog (two to go after this one!), and it seemed like a really appropriate time to post my review of The Gentle Tarot by Mari In The Sky (the publishing house of creator and artist Mariza Ryce Aparicio-Tovar), as the second edition is shortly about to launch on Kickstarter (pre-launch link here). A quick note to say that the second edition looks fab, and: NO BORDERS! I love borderless cards, so if the deck appeals to you, I’d hold out and order the second edition. I’m sure you could get all sorts of extra goodies too, as the creator has a very organised web shop etc. so I anticipate a very professional KS campaign!

The Gentle Tarot, is, unsurprisingly, a really beautiful and gentle deck. It’s really calming to work with, and has a very ‘good vibes only’ air. I’m a bit of a miserable old cynic, but even I find myself charmed by it. The creator is from Mexican (Wixárika and Chichimeca) and North American (Mohawk) lineages, and states she was “raised… with practices of honouring the land and relationships with the natural world”, which really shines through in the deck. Mari In The Sky also donates a percentage of profits from the deck to a range of important causes (mainly around nature and migration), so, if that mirrors your political views (spoiler: it does mine!) you get to feel really positive about buying the deck :-).

Tarot practice feels like a relationship with a very close friend. My Tarot friend has always felt gentle, feminine, warm, and patient… I would like the Gentle Tarot to be a loving refuge of gentle reminders and nudges with colourful art that lifts the spirit. The figures are mostly nude because I hope when we approach this deck we can strip free of our reservations and expectations. Naked, the way we were born, in full dialogue with our spirits’ source

Mariza Ryce Aparicio-Tovar

The card stock is super good quality (thick, mat, sturdy, but also pretty slippy so easy to shuffle with unlike many ‘thick card’ finishes), and the sort of dusty gold edging is much more resistant to dings and chips than its more glit edged cousins. The card back design is outrageously beautiful, and the box is also a total beaut 😍. Inside the box you get a small black & white, words-only guidebook with info on each card, but you can also order a full sized colour guidebook from Mari in the Sky’s website if you wish. A quick note here to big up Little Red Tarot, who I ordered my copy from here in the UK. Look at that lush packaging and the little goodies I got sent with the deck. I really recommend them if you’d like to support an indie Tarot deck distributer.

Onto the cards. The creator has switched some of the Suit names (but in a pretty intuitive way): Swords have become Thunder, and Pents have become Stones. Similarly, the court cards have changed to Seed, Root, Flower, and Harvest (instead of the classic P,K,Q,K) “representative of the internal stages of growth with a direct connection to nature, and a conscious distancing from colonial symbols“. There’s also a recurring theme of rainbows across the deck, which adds to its bright, hopeful feel, and almost childlike joy and wonder in the world.

The little fishy Fool is just so cute! Kinda gormless looking – which I like in a Fool – but the creator points out how “baby salmon do[…] not hesitate. In the same way that his DNA guides his life, following your life-path is also in yours“. I love how joyous all the art is in this deck, but especially here in the creatrix’s version of the Hanged Man. I get the card has links to Odin hanging on Yggdrasil and is thus related to sacrifice and can be Very Serious (though not necessarily negative) etc., but some Hanged Man cards tend towards the gloomy or the slightly surreal. I love that this card captures the uninhibited carefree joy that can follow upending your world view and turning things on their heads. Then this stately humpback whale is gorgeous as Strength.

The Three of Cups is always a pretty happy card, but I feel Mari’s version is particularly joyous. Anyone who follows this blog will be aware of my ongoing obsession with ‘flames as physical objects in Wands cards’, so it’s no surprise I find this Ten of Wands very pleasing. More than that though, I think it’s saying something really smart. Sometimes the very passions that sustain us can feel more of a burden than a joy, and it’s at that point that we need to think about whether we need to take a break, just stop and relax for a moment and let someone else carry the torch for a while. Fire nourishes but it also burns (and burns out). As an academic and a Criminologist I get SO angry sometimes about the state of both Higher Education and justice (both in my country and worldwide) that it’s just exhausting. For example, here’s some text I wrote to my mentor when I was considering leaving academia 18 months ago.

‘I think I then resent systems so much… that I really struggle to operate meaningfully inside them – it feels like an abandonment of my virtues.  One of which has always been ‘be the change you want to see’ etc.  I know strategically a lot of people say ‘I will play the game for now, and then when I get to Prof/become a Head of Department I’ll change things’.  But by then you’re in it up to your gills.  And what have you already lost by allowing yourself to be so compromised?  So I guess also anger is something I struggle with tbh! But how to let go of that without just becoming numb or losing my passion? As the two things are linked in my mind. 

I am super committed to the ideas of both slow thinking/the slow academy and the public scholar and just feel there’s no space for them anymore in the academy and it breaks my heart.  This job has broken my heart’

Oof. Any way, Tarot practice is one of the things that helped me come back a bit from the edge career-wise, and this particular Ten of Wands card really enlightened me. I have been able to step back a bit, without simultaneously losing the fire in my belly that drew me to both criminal justice activism and teaching in the first place. As Mari writes, “you have carried your load with love, and now it is time to love yourself. Release that heavy flame, no fear, the same fire has always been inside of you“.

Relatedly, I appreciated the energy in the Two of Stones (Pents) here. The creator has re-imagined this card slightly, and it’s very peaceful and calm. They write, “underwater you are enveloped in a comforting womb -silence… Listen and trust, your heart knows best and only good things come from following it“.

I’ve always found the Court cards the most difficult to get to grips with as a reader, and these ones were no exception when I first started using this deck, but I just love the animal art here So Freakin’ Much. The playful and curious little otter in particular.

This is a really beautifully manufactured deck, with a heart and a conscience, that I would def recommend (though I’d personally wait for the 2nd edition now, and back it on Kickstarter!)

Deck interview spread with the Gentle Tarot

1. Tell me about yourself? What is your most important characteristic as a deck?

Root of Thunder (Knight of Wands): First off, I found it pretty amusing that the deck chose one of the few cards I’d just singled out as not really resonating with me as its identifier! This deck wants to teach me its ways – even those I resist – and bring me firmly under its wings. It is about direct action, drive, and clarity.

2. What are your strengths as a deck?

Two of Cups. Working and bonding closely with me to help bring about intellectual and spiritual awakenings. This deck will help me be true to myself. It’s a tender and loving deck.

3. What are your limits as a deck?

Seven of Cups. I’m interpreting this pretty literally – this deck is not great at helping me choose between various ideas/fantasies/options. It’s a deck about my inner self, not stuff going on in my day to day life.

4. What do you require from me in return? How can I best collaborate with you?

Ten of Stones (Pentacles). I need to release myself from fear and remember my strengths. I am capable of both material and spiritual wholeness. This deck is not here for my negativity or self doubt!

5. What is the potential quality of our relationship?

The Unseen. Wow! I was super excited to get the deck’s ‘unique’ card in this spread! Had to consult the guidebook, obvs: “Let yourself fall into the loving arms of this colourful darkness. Its blood is your blood. Its magic is your magic”. Folks, I think this deck likes me 🙂

6. In what space / with what type of query will you best communicate?

Seed of Stones (Page of Pentacles). I need to be prepared to work with what I have to gain what I need. I can be a very negative person (super doom spirally) and what I’m hearing quite clearly here is this deck isn’t for when I’m in a dark place. But when I’m ready to hear its message of hope, it’ll be right there waiting for me! As the guidebook says “we cannot receive with a clenched fist”.

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