A Deck Review: The Vision Tarot
The Vision Tarot
By Tim Thompson
I bought this deck twice, which shows how much I like it. The fact that I never used it for readings is how I forgot I already owned it and ended up repurchasing it. The cards are absolutely beautiful and different from my other decks. Photography is used with real people and settings on each card in the deck. For me that was the attraction of this deck. When you look at these cards you feel drawn into each Medieval scene as if you are there yourself. The titles of each card are written in French as well as English.
The major arcana cards have only the black border around each scene. This adds to the photography of the major arcana so that the scenes are not taken away from by elaborate borders. The Fool has no number and The Death Card has no name to it. The Moon and The Sun cards are different then what one would expect or are used to. Neither of them shows a real sun or moon. The Moon is depicted as looking like part of a stained glass window. The Sun is done inside a Roman looking room with pillars and cathedral ceilings. It is hanging on the high part of the far wall as decor.
The Minor Arcana cards is the reason that I never used this deck. When doing readings, I like the cards to be visually detailed for both myself and my clients. As elaborate and real that the Majors are, the Minors have only the suits shown (Aces being the exception). However, they are done better then other decks I own and have seen. In this deck the cups are different in size, shape and design. The swords and wands (Staves as they are called) are different shades and styles. The coins are shadowed and are not all shown with the same side facing upwards. This does give the minors some character and a personality but only to a small degree and with deep searching. The novice reader would have a hard time reading the Minors because there is no immediate indication to their meanings. All the cups are upright and filled, the swords are all in the ground with a few that lean. The staves are hard to see since there is a tree in the background that they lean on. The coins are all in a formation on sand, which makes these the hardest suits to read. Each suit has its own background which also has variations in it for each card. The Minors are shown with an elaborate frame around them to make up for the lack of detail in the actual photographs.
The little white book that comes with the deck is well done. It tells about the deck and the history of the Tarot. The upright meanings are followed by the inverted meaning for all the cards. At the end of the lwb there is a section titled How To Perform Readings and shows how to do a Celtic Cross.
This is not a deck I would recommend to the beginner reader because of the Minor Arcana cards. It is however a definite deck to have in one’s collection.