The Sirian Starseed Tarot Review

Patricia Cori and Alysa Bartha
Publisher: North Atlantic Books
Review by: Misha

     For the first time I am at a lose as to where to begin in my review of this magnificent deck. The quality of the cards and the heavy and sturdy box they are packaged in outdoes any other deck I have ever gotten. North Atlantic Books spared no expense when they published this deck; the box certainly will not get damaged and the cards will last. That was my first reaction when I received this deck and I could not wait to have a look at each individual card.

      My second reaction was how large the cards are and wondering if I will be able to shuffle them. I also realized how much space will be needed if doing anything more then a three card reading; one will need plenty of space when using this deck. The cards measure the size of an average photograph (4X6), which is a lot larger then the average tarot deck. Possibly this was done on purpose since The Sirian Starseed Tarot is in fact a photographic collage deck. As I go through each card one by one I realize that space is not going to deter me at all from using this very powerful deck.
     Tarot is more then just memorizing card meanings, it is also about tuning into our higher self and using our intuition. If you are wanting to learn intuitive reading or already do intuitive readings you can’t go wrong with The Sirian Starseed Tarot. Once you have this deck in your hands it will not take long to understand why I am describing this as powerful. I am an intuitive reader and this deck opened that part of me up so quickly that I did experience a bit of a “head rush” for lack of a better description. One needs to be prepared to turn their “psychic switch” on even when only going through the cards individually as I was. I was not at all expecting my psychic switch to turn on, let alone full force since I was not using them for a reading at the time.

     When you put Patricia Cori, a new age author who channels interdimensional beings from the Sirius Star System together with metaphysical and intuitive artist Alysa Bartha you get an amazing and powerful tarot deck. The Sirian Starseed Tarot is a 78 card deck and comes with an 87 page book that explains what a starseed is and how to interpret these exquisite and unusual cards. The cards are referred to as keys rather then just simply cards, which fits with everything else regarding The Sirian Starseed Tarot.

 
     From the moment you open the box and see the first key (card) titled Starseed you know this is not going to follow the traditional images at all. A meteor falling out of the sky to Earth is a far cry from a Fool and his dog at the edge of a cliff. This by the way is the image that appears on the lid of the box as well as the cover of the book. The other name changes made to the Major Arcana are as follows: Indigo (Magician), Higher Self (High Priestess), Abundance (Empress), Reason (Emperor), Guidance (Hierophant), Reflection (The Hermit), Transition (Death), Alchemy (Temperance), The Shadow (The Devil), Luna (The Moon), Solar Deity (The Sun), Karma (Judgement), Ascension (The World) There are other majors that have had small changes made to their names and those are: The Great Wheel (Wheel of Fortune), Divine Justice (Justice), and Hanging Man instead of The Hanged Man.

     The Majors are not the only differences; the suits have been renamed Crystals instead of Pentacles, Chalices are Cups, Orbs instead of Swords and Flames instead of Wands. One may get Crystals and Orbs confused at first until realizing since crystals are found in the Earth they represent pentacles. The book explains that the purpose of the suit of Crystals is to go beyond the traditional materialistic thinking and raise the bar to a higher perspective of “manifesting spirit into form”. The suit of orbs represents the air element and with Sirian Starseed, Patricia explains that Orbs represent our thought process and how we relate it to others. Our mind can create it’s own challenges with what we think, and “each orb holds an aspect or perception that is the product of one’s own thought process (page 57).”
     The traditional names of the court cards are Page, Knight, Queen and King; in the Sirian Starseed Tarot they are Seeker, Adept, Sage and Master. They are called The People Keys and as the book explains “the People cards depict levels of spiritual maturity”(page 75). Master of Flames is the last key and the one that stood out of all the 16 people keys. It is a Native American leaning against a stone wall with the rising sun behind him with his many years of wisdom depicted on his face. The face of a very wise, old soul looks out at you.

 The people keys have no individual meaning given in the book; you are take the brief description of each Spiritual level and combine it with each suit’s meaning and apply them both when doing a reading.

     There is one page devoted to reversals and how they are to be used with this deck; no reverse meanings are supplied with each card description. Following that, Patricia Cori includes The Sirian Starseed Spread along with a diagram for the layout of the cards. The spread is followed by “About the Creators Of The Deck” where you can read a brief profile on both Patricia Cori and Alysa Bartha.
     The fact that these cards have two boarders may not be immediately noticed since for most of the cards it blends in with the image. Yes that’s right I said two boarders. The prominent one is the white outer boarder; however there is another one between that and the image. This boarder is of stars in the evening sky and for most of the cards blends well. It becomes noticeable the most in lots of minors where the images are on Earth rather then in space. I believe it was done to emphasis the connection we have to Universe and our own Higher Power as well as to help develop intuitive reading. The name of the card is also written across the bottom of the inner boarder. Is it a distraction having the boarders; or does it add to the magic of this deck? Only you can be the judge of that as it is an individual preference.

Filed under: All Articles, Deck Reviews by Misha