Title: Sun and Moon Tarot
Artist: Vanessa Decourt
Dimensions: 7.62 x 3.18 x 12.07 cm
Publisher: U.S. Games
Date: 30th May 2010
Style: Dreamy and Elemental
Drag or Hype: Declared at the end.
So i asked a friend to lend me one of their decks, something they weren't using which I didn't have.
So they lent me this!
I've seen this deck in use by my friend, but I've never had it in my own hands before.
First impressions...
Card stock and Box
Thin, typical card game stock. Easy to shuffle so no hassle there.
Box is standard and I'm not judging this one on its condition because I've loaned it from someone who has used It a lot.
I have seen on Amazon that you can buy it in a tin.
This comes with a little guidebook but no reversals, I'm not of the school of thought that reversals don't matter. Especially to people who are learning.
The deck is very Dreamy, with no harsh imagery
Usually I hate getting the 10 of swords but when I see this I am OK about it, stab me in the back it's cool I'll float in the clouds thank you for your time, I'm gonna be fine.
What I quite like on these decks is the small attention to detail, such as the Elemental signs subtly drawn into the work, and on other cards small symbols with deep, relevant meaning. The cards are full of symbolism and the style is really quirky.
I really love the Trees in this deck.
There are also a lot of Cows and i love cows so frigging much!!!
The whole thing feels very earthy and homely, as if you're transported in to a dream.
(Heartbreak isn't so bad in the Clouds)
It's inclusive in the sense that the imagery contains various shades of human beings.
Not inclusive of body shapes but it's an unusual style of art so i can give it a pass because of that.
However, i have a couple of gripes that I can't get out of my head.
For example I like this card. It is clearly a depiction of Nataraja (Who is another face of Shiva) but it's very white washed. This deck is 11 years old at the moment but this kind of appropriation is a bit old hat now. The Spiritual world is waking up and moving on and paying proper homage to the cultures that it borrows from. So the question is, how well is this ageing?
Same here with the Eye of Horus being on the Tower
It seems that on some of the cards she's grabbed aspects and merged them with other images. With no thought about how that could be perceived by the wrong mind. The Eye of Horus is not a negative symbol, but the tower can be.
Not everyone is open minded enough to look, and also it doesn't come with any Egyptian imagery that could justify that.
Hope I'm making sense here!
Also, some of the animals in the deck seem really child like, and I can't decide if this cheapen the artwork. The wheel is one of my fave cards but I don't like it.
I kind of feel this was not really well thought out.
With such beautiful imagery throughout the deck this one kind of let it down.
In conclusion
This is a cute deck, that's totally Undeniable.
It's soft, the art work feels like it was made with love, and this would be a great deck for teenagers to learn from as the imagery on the cards make it easy for you to remember the meanings.
For example
Makes total sense to me
However, i would like to see a revised version. That is even more inclusive and even breaks gender norms, and above all is less appropriating in some of the imagery.
Perhaps that's something for her to think about, as it would be lovely to see it age nicely.
Until then I'll leave you with my fave card of the deck, it's not a DRAG but it's only 50% HYPE
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