When I recieved my Sept/Oct issue of Llewellyn’s New Worlds catalog, I flipped through to check out what new things were coming out when I came across the page featuring a new deck – the Mystic Dreamer Tarot.

After reading the page and checking out the deck’s art online, I knew this would be my next deck purchase. When I found the deck set at my local metaphysical store, I grabbed it up.

This deck is beautiful. I really appreciated the Artist’s Note in the companion book, where Heidi Darras explained the process of creating a few cards at a time starting with the Majors and showing them off on deviantART, an online social networking and portfolio site for artists. After being encouraged to complete the Majors, she was then encouraged to complete the deck.

This deck is based off of RWS imagery, with a lot of the religious symbolism purposefully removed. Though others scoff at the number of RWS-based decks, I found this deck a very modern and deep interpretation that has resounded with me on a surprising level.

Agreed – the borders are too big, the images too small. Popular criticism in forums are that the brown borders that surround the cards take up too much real estate on the card. Similarly, the subjects in the cards are often small and you reallllly have to look at the card close sometimes to see details or facial expressions. However, this is pretty nitpicky for me and has not affected the usefulness or beauty of this deck to me.

Again, the deck feels too papery for me. Arrrgh! I really hope this isn’t a trend. This is the same (and only) complaint I had about the Universal Goddess Tarot – the fagile, papery feel of the cards. Is it a budgeting thing? Screw lamination for long-term use and preservation? I may just have to laminate the deck myself

The companion book is well done. Barbara Moore does it again – I love the way this book was written. I also liked that she includeded possible reversal meanings, which are trendy not to use (even the author acknowledges her surprising compulsion to include them). The unique selling point of this companion book is the “Use Your Intuition” questions at the end of every card description which ask you to question elements of the card’s art – also a fun journaling activity. Also, I also enjoyed the dream interpretation section of the Spreads chapter, which I will definitely be using.

Anyone else own/have thoughts about this deck? Share your experiences by leaving a comment please I’ve yet to read with them (mostly just studying and feeling out the cards) – I’d love to know how this deck influences (if at all) your readings.