One-Stop-Shop for Tarot Correspondences: The Quest Tarot deck

Again, I faced that look on my boyfriend’s face at the store that clearly said “You’re buying ANOTHER Tarot deck? Really?”

Yup!

The Fool from the Quest Tarot

I’ve seen some of the Majors of this deck and was immediately intrigued. The images were interesting but what immediately grabbed my attention was the border. Often the border is rather useless and unfortunately can take up a lot of valuable real estate. But in this case, the Quest Tarot has turned the borders of this deck into a wealth of correspondence information to help your study and readings.

For example, the Fool card’s border tells us:

• planet: Uranus
• stone: Amazonite
• Hebrew letter: Aleph
• rune: Wyn

In the companion book that comes in the set (I was upset that no bag came with this deck, just the little cardboard box – looks like this was pre-organdy bag era), the author/artist includes not only discussion over each card, but also offers quick, reference chapters over each of these correspondences. These correspondence explanations take up the first part of the book and are a good balance between overwhelming us with too much/deep info and skimping.

Things to know about this deck:

Notice I-Ching and astrological sign correspondences in the Pips.

• Pip cards do not have pictorial representations of the cards’ meanings – they only depict the actual number of cups, wands, etc. Though the images are still beautiful and a joy to look at, if you require imagery on this card to help guide the meaning then this deck would not be helpful.
• Court Cards are renamed and reordered: Mother (Queen), Father (King), Daughter (Page), and Son (Knight) in that order. These cards do depict people.
• Some Majors have been renamed: Temperance is Alchemy, Judgment is Aeon, World is Universe (think Thoth-style)
• New Major Arcana card – Trump 21 – The Multiverse – this card is of the artist/writer’s own creation, which has it’s origin in the new quantum physics (this deck is billed as “21st Centry Tarot”)
• Each card has a keyword beneath the name of the deck. Pip cards are Crowley/Thoth deck-inspired. Keywords chosen for the Majors are expected. The Hanged Man, however, has the keyword “Uniqueness” which may not jive popular interpretations.
• The Blank Card - Another insertion by the creator, there is a blank card added to the deck that includes the decorative border but the rest is white space where you can add your own art and correspondences. He writes about three ways to use this card – make it your own personal “Significator” card, create your own additional card to the deck (another Major?) or simply leave it blank and read it as it comes up in your readings (such as using a blank rune when runecasting).

Verdict:

A beautiful deck. The borders remind me of the Guilded Tarot, but the all the art is done with 3-D rendering for a more computer-generated, alternate plane kinda feel.

The correspondences info will provide a wealth of knowledge to my study. My intention now with this deck is not so much for conducting readings but to use as a deck of study. I’ve never really delved into Tarot correspondences, and this deck provides a way to see how other disciplines integrate into the Tarot.

The companion book is tremendously helpful. While I was initially off-put by the price of this deck and book set (retailing at $34.95), the deck and book really make it worth your while. The companion book is an excellent resource that can be applied to any Tarot deck and will be a great thing to have on hand if you’re stuck wondering about a certain correspondence for a card and what it means in the card’s context.

Anyone else own this deck? How do you use it? Do you read with it? How does the correspondence information integrate into your working with this deck and others?

Thoughts on the Mystic Dreamer Tarot

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.