Deck Review: Tarot of Echoes

I’ve felt thoroughly spoilt this year with the release of not one, but two, decks by(/with the involvement of) the incredibly talented Ana Tourian (on top of news of a mass-market Bonestone release :-)) I’ve reviewed Ana’s deck with Claire Duval, Le Tarot Arthurien, here, and in this post I’m going to talk through her recent solo deck, the Tarot of Echoes.

I love all of Tourian’s decks. I think her art style is perfectly suited to the Tarot – it just clicks together. Bonestone is my all time ride-or-die deck, and now Tarot of Echoes is right up there. It’s a really beautiful, thoughtful, wonderful deck, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. Currently you can buy the indie version of the deck through Tourian’s website, but there will also be a mass-market release via US Games in the next year or so.

The Tarot of Echoes comes in a sturdy, clamshell box. There’s no guidebook in the indie version (there will be in the mass market version), but the creator has recorded a Youtube video guide to the deck, where she talks through the symbolism, her design choices, and the creative process. Edges are plain, and the backs feature this gorgeous flower design. Card stock is fairly slim, but good quality, and the cards are mid-slippery and shuffle well.

The artwork is stunning, especially the way the artist conveys luminosity. It’s hard to explain, but to me it feels like an ‘evening’ deck. Many of the pictures have that thick, treacly, golden light you get mid-evening on a fine day in high summer. Really beautiful. Cards like the Three of Pents remind me of the way the Old Masters (and their contemporary admirers) paint summer light in the fields. This really is one of those decks where it feels like you’re holding 78 miniature pieces of art.

One of my favourite cards in the deck is The Hermit card. While some Tarot decks show the Hermit alone in his cave or contemplating the world from the top of a hill, others show him as on the move, emphasising his journey. The anonymous author of ‘Meditations on the Tarot’ wrote of The Hermit: “It is the heart which is simultaneously active and contemplative, untiringly and unceasingly. It walks. It walks day and night, and we listen day and night to the steps of its incessant walking. This is why if we want to represent a man who lives the law of the heart… we present him as walking, steadily and without haste”. I love what Tourian has done with this card, and how cleverly she shows that the journey The Hermit is going on is an internal journey. As she explains, “he needs to get to know himself… Look deep within and learn from his mistakes”. And the endlessly repeating image inside his lantern shows that what’s guiding him forward is his own knowledge; hard-won knowledge that he has gained through the deep, difficult work of introspection.

I also really love the Judgement card, re-imagined here as ‘Awakening’. Tourian talks about how she decided to draw a “tear in the fabric of reality” as a way of illustrating the card’s call to step into a different way of seeing the world, as well as a realisation that we are answerable to something beyond our every day experience (be that our conscience, our calling, or our faith/spirituality).

The Four of Swords shows a figure retreating into her shell like a little human hermit crab and hibernating – gorgeous. The figure’s hair merging into pinky brown rivulets in the foreground is meant to represent the fluidity of her thoughts: because, as Tourian explains, “if you do take the time to rest then you are going to think more clearly”.

Given the suit of Swords deals with the mind and intellect, Tourian wanted to depict a Five of Swords that shows a battle within the mind, as opposed to the aftermath of a literal, physical battle. So here we see a King worrying about being cheated out of his crown. The tense expression on the figure’s face, plus the super sinister shadowy claw, remind me of the lines from Shakespeare’s Henry IV where he is lamenting the pressures and responsibilities of kingship (and war) and how they keep him from sleep: “Then, happy low, lie down! Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown“.

A really dramatic, powerful rendition of the 10 of Swords, showing both the severity of the figure’s predicament, but also the resilience within her. Tourian talks about how the figure in the card has previously had the swords in her back, but now they’ve fallen out. She is badly wounded and in a desperate situation, but nevertheless she’s still hanging on to the ledge, she’s not given up. The footsteps we see in the foreground leading away from the cliff edge indicate that the person who stabbed and pushed her has gone, thinking she’s finished – but she’s not: “she’s in a situation which is a very precarious one but… the swords that were piercing her have gone”. 

Gorgeous 8 of Wands. In the video guide Tourian talks about how this is “not an easy card to show”, particularly if you don’t want to draw the standard RWS flying batons. She had to “sit with this [card] for a while” to think about how best to convey the idea of swiftness, of things moving fast. I think the flaming arrow shattering the hourglass conveys this really well – instead of slowly trickling through the funnel the sand is now pouring out everywhere. Time is suddenly hurtling forward.

I also love the firey figure dancing in the candle flame of the Ace of Wands. Tourian notes that this figure represents creativity “that once lit will spread through the entire suit of Wands”.

Instead of depicting an adoring crowd celebrating the figure’s victory, the Tarot of Echoes’ 6 of Wands shows the delight that all who came before you can take in your achievements. I love this, as I think making our ancestors proud can be a powerful motivation when we set out to accomplish something – even without an audience we know our accomplishments are being seen, they do matter. The whole ethos of the card reminds me of the gut-wrenching scene in The Sixth Sense where the character of Cole explains to his mum that he can see dead people, and has spoken with his maternal grandmother’s ghost:

Cole Sear : [of his grandmother]  She wanted me to tell you…

Lynn Sear : Cole, please stop…

Cole Sear : She wanted me to tell you she saw you dance. She said, when you were little, you and her had a fight, right before your dance recital. You thought she didn’t come see you dance. She did. She hid in the back so you wouldn’t see. She said you were like an angel. She said you came to the place where they buried her. Asked her a question? She said the answer is… “Every day.” What did you ask?

Lynn Sear : Do… Do I make her proud?

Tourian explains “that your ancestors are watching over and are proud of you and your achievements”.  You don’t need an active audience for all your victories, not when you are being “held in the palms of [your] ancestors”.

A beautiful Page of Cups returning the fish to its natural environment, and more excellent use of colour to depict moving away from a situation that is no longer good for you in the 8 of Cups.

For the 6 of Pentacles Tourian explains that she wanted to take a “little bit of the stigma out” from the traditional RWS depiction of the rich man handing out charity to the poor man: “giving should not be that way”. The old woman delighting in the birds feeding from her hands instead shows “the act of finding joy in helping someone or something else”.

I love the 10 of Pentacles showing a wise old grandfather handing down gardening knowledge to his grandchildren, and the teamwork inherent in the 3 of Pentacles – we cannot harvest a field alone. Tourian explains that she chose a rural scene for this card to demonstrate the “very real connection between the human being and the earth”, which is important as the suit of Pents deals with the element of earth and of connections to resources and Mother Nature.

This deck is absolutely stunning and reads like a dream – I recommend it wholeheartedly!

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