A Deck Review: Tarot
Tarot
Cards Illustrated by Colin Howard
Text by P. Hardy
This is the first and only mini deck that I have so far. I bought it at the only spiritual shop that was around my area, which has since closed. It was sealed and unable to be looked at prior to my purchase. The design on the box was what caught my eye at first. Then the fact that it was mini made me think how cute, compact and convenient they would be when traveling for my readings. Once I purchased it and opened them up, I was soon disappointed and knew that I would not be using them.
First, this is definitely not a deck for beginners since the minor arcana cards have no illustrations on them. Five of Cups just has 5 cups, and it is the same for all the rest of the minors. This is also the same reason I knew I would not be using them in my face to face readings. No matter how experienced of a reader you are, people having a reading done like the imagery when having a Tarot reading. They want to actually visualize a scene on the cards that they pull and not have just cups, wands, coins or swords on the cards.
Another problem is not just the fact that the name of the cards is small; after all it is a mini size deck. The names are written in a color that blends with the border. This makes it extremely hard to read and is another turn off for clients when reading for them in person.
The Moon card was the major arcana from this deck that captured my eye and is my favorite. This may be due to the fact that an actual scene is depicted on the card rather then just a person.
The borders are overdone and too elaborate for such a small size. On the border of each of the cards is a colored gem that is shown. The color is the same for all the majors and cups are red, wands are green, pentacles are amber and swords are blue.
The book that is included is a hardcover and contains 48 pages. All I was able to do was page through it due to the small size of the writing. To even attempt to read it was causing me to have a headache. The back of the book has three spreads that it touches on: the basic three card spread, the Celtic cross and the star spread.
This is one that I will keep and admire the box, but will not use at all to do readings with. I am glad of the fact that it was on sale when I purchased it.