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Tarot Readings: The Green Man Festival
My blog and Instagram account will probably be a bit quiet for the next couple of weeks, because I am off to the Green Man Festival in sunny (hahahahaha) Wales! We have settler’s passes, so we’ll be there for a whole 8 days (14th – 20th August), not just the 3 days of the main festival. I love reading at festivals, and last year I managed to get some practice in (though it’s hard with two demanding small people who want 24/7 mud kitchen time), thanks to this sign and, I think, the fact that our tent looks so much like a magical circus tent from days of yore. I’ve…
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Currently On Kickstarter: Pamela Smith x Midjourney Tarot
And in our next episode of ‘backing decks that in theory I don’t like’ we have: The Pamela Smith x Midjourney Tarot! I’m not a big fan of AI decks – not only do they de-value the bread and butter work of jobbing artists and designers, but I also just… don’t really like the hyper-realist style of image that AI produces. It’s a bit too uncanny valley for me. Having said that, I really like what this creator has done with the traditional RWS deck, and you can see they have a real talent for re-imagining and re-stylizing images. This is NOT just your bog standard AI produced deck, IMO,…
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Deck Review: The WayHome Tarot
I got the WayHome Tarot after it had sat on my wishlist for a little while. I was a bit uncertain about it, and now I own it I do find it a bit of a mixed bag. I feel some of Autumn Whitehurst‘s art, while gorgeous, is internally incongruent and it gives a haphazard vibe to the deck I don’t always connect to. But there are so many cards where the imagery is so clever that I am OBSESSED. Simple. Perfect. On point. You can tell the co-creator, Bakara Wintner, has a deep affinity with the message of the Tarot, and she has an uncanny knack for making difficult…
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Currently On Kickstarter: The Not So Classic Doré Tarot
I don’t know what’s going on with Tarot Kickstarter at the moment, but there’s been a sudden flurry of great projects going live that I feel compelled to back (which is NOT convenient as I am in the process of moving house right now and am broke af). This deck, the Not So Classic Doré Tarot, has lots of features that I’m traditionally not that keen on – it’s black and white, it’s a bit dark/murky, it’s not ‘original’ art created to suit the message of the Tarot but instead re-purposed stuff (which I can often find a bit of a reach for some cards)… but, nevertheless, I found myself…
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Currently On Kickstarter: The Journey Deck
EDIT: Since I wrote this post, my deck has arrived :-). You can read my review here and buy the deck here. I LOVED the ‘Journey’ Tarot Deck by Teagan Michael Turner when it launched on Kickstarter a few months back, and was gutted when it didn’t reach its funding goal. Thankfully the creator has relaunched it, and this time it has already reached its (more modest) target, which I’m super pleased about, as I think it’s going to be a brilliant addition to my collection. This deck is quite an abstract take on the Tarot, but I really love the artist’s interpretations, and the art style is lush, dense,…
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Deck Review: The Everyday Enchantment Tarot
The Everyday Enchantment Tarot is a mass market deck that is readily available (either new or secondhand) from a range of online retailers . I’ve linked to W. H. Smith’s here, as they’re slightly less horrifying than Bezos’s Evil Empire, but it’s available from a whole range of sites. It’s really different from the style I usually like, but I was totally in awe of how amazingly the creator has managed to interpret some of the minor arcana cards through her artwork. I looked at some of the images and was like “yes, that’s it! That’s it exactly. That perfectly captures the mood of that card”. It was like I…
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Currently On Kickstarter: Liberation Tarot Deck
Edit: Since I wrote this post, I’ve received the deck :-). You can read my review here and buy the deck from the publishers here. Any deck that features contributions from the amazing adrienne maree brown instantly gets my attention, so I was very excited to see the Liberation Tarot Deck come up on Kickstarter. This is a collaboration project from a collection of artists and writers, and describes itself as being “in the lineage of projects like Slow Holler [and] the Collective Tarot” – hell yes! It’s a 79 card deck, and comes with a rigid box and a guidebook, and, you guys, *each card has a poem recommendation*…
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Tarot Card Meanings: The Star
In a tree by the brook, there’s a songbird who singsSometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven…And as we wind on down the roadOur shadows taller than our soulThere walks a lady we all knowWho shines white light and wants to showHow everything still turns to goldAnd if you listen very hardThe tune will come to you at lastWhen all are one and one is all, yeahTo be a rock and not to roll ‘Stairway to Heaven’ by Led Zeppelin (Page/Plant) Welcome to my Circle of Stars! The Star is the seventeenth card of the Major Arcana, and represents hope, healing, faith, and the long path back to wholeness. In…
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Deck Review: The Botan Tarot
The Botan Tarot by Addi Miyako is just super beautiful, really dreamy and soft, like falling into a bed of petals. I was really lucky to come across a reasonably priced secondhand copy, as at the time the deck OOP. The artist has now launched a second edition which you can (pre)order here (UK) as well as some other online stores (please check the artist’s webpage for authorised stocklists). The Deck: Look, Feel, and Finish The deck comes in a simple but stunning deep purple slipcase/shell and slide box, and the cards are then further held by a lovely peach ribbon. My one tiny quibble with the box is that…
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Deck Review: The Twice Told Tarot
I fell in love with the Twice Told Tarot when I saw it on Kickstarter last year, and immediately backed it. Created by Travis McHenry, alongside artist David Scaglione, its quirky style really appealed to me. Unfortunately the Kickstarter was cancelled – boo. But then the deck was included as a possible add-on to McHenry’s next project, the True Oracle of Nostradamus – hooray! So I bought the TOoN just to get my hands on the Twice Told Tarot (as I thought that would be the only way to get hold of a copy). Turns out you can currently pick up a copy via the Bloodstone Studios online store –…
