The Gilded Tarot Deck Review by Misha　

     Ciro Marchetti is known for his own style of deck creations that are unique to him. I have to admit that his past decks have been too “dark” in a lot of their images for me to use when doing face to face readings. Upon receiving this deck I had the thought of having to limit this one as well for over the phone readings only; boy was I wrong.

     You have to be careful when opening this box or you will end up tearing it or at the very least attempt to open it the wrong way as I first did. It is packaged in what appears to be a standard box, so I was attempting to lift open the top of it, to no avail. It took me a few attempts in my anxiousness to realize that it in fact had to be flat and the lid lifted.

     The colors are bright and vibrant and done in such a way as to draw you into each card. The Magician is the first card that did pull me in. The eyes of The Magician are as if he is looking out of the card and through you to your very soul. The High Priestess is different then what is normally seen because she is not seated between the two pillars. In the Gilded Tarot, The High Priestess appears to be a ballerina that is easily floating above the water in her graceful dance. There are two pillars behind her along with the evening sky and big crescent moon. The Hierophant is stepping out of a stained glass window that gives the appearance of being in the universe with a planet depicted in the background sky.

     For the minor arcana I have to say that the cups stood out the most to me. I am not sure why that is, perhaps because the cups seem to be the happiest and cheerful suit of the four minor arcana suits. In the cups even the sadder, less pleasant cards are almost uplifting.

     Pentacles are usually portrayed as round and in this deck when I view them shields is what came to mind. Ciro has chosen for the pentacles to be in the shape of pentagons with a smaller pentagon in the center of the main one.

     On the top center of each card is a colored oval that is framed in gold. For the Major Arcana they are colored black and the Roman Numeral for each is written in the center. I have to say that the colors chosen for some of the minor suits has me mystified. Wands I am sure is suppose to be red, but is more of a bright fuchsia. With the colors being so prominent I would have expected a bright fiery red. The suit of cups has be scratching my head because the color used is orange. Cups being the water element one thinks of the color blue, at least I do. Blue is actually found on the suit of swords. The color of the sky since swords is the air element, at least I think anyway. Pentacles is also obvious as that suit is green.

     The deck comes with two extra cards that shows a spread on each one. The Celtic Cross Spread using 11 cards is on one and a 5 card Daily Spread is on the other. The little white book is done simply with to the point meanings both upright and reverse for each card. The back of the lwb is shown the past, present, future spread as well as The Daily Spread found on the one extra card.

     This follows the tradition of Rider Waite with the exception of The Hanged Man being renamed The Hanging Man. This change in the name fits the card as he is not motionlessly hanging upside down. In this deck you find you upside down and in motion therefore the name change does fit. The Gilded Tarot will brighten up any reading with it’s vibrant colors and can be read by any level reader.

The Gilded Tarot

By: Ciro Marchetti

Published by: Llewelyn

Filed under: All Articles, Deck Reviews by Misha