Absolutely Divine! Acquired 2020, self-appointed FAVORITE DECK OF 2020! 

Obligatory Nudity Warning: Mild nudity and one hidden penis in the cards.

Overall: 10/10 This was my self-chosen deck of 2020, and it still holds up and continues to be one of my favorite decks in my collection. One of my goals with this blog is I want to review Tarot decks, BUT I want to review them after several years of use. It’s really easy to get a deck and use it a few times and love it in the moment, but it’s an entirely different thing to see how it holds up to years of use and to see if the initial good feelings wear off. When I use this deck, it still feels just as magical as those first few times I used it years ago.

Yoshi Yoshitani’s art has withstood the boom in Tarot deck productions post-pandemic. Their art is still very unique, bright, fresh, inclusive and, while it’s been done now a million times over (partly because of the wildly positive reception of this deck), unique and vast in its selection of myths paired with the Tarot card meanings.

I’m not one to tell people “oh, if you collect Tarot you need to have this deck” but this deck is as close as I’ll get to saying it’s a deck that is both kind and will 100% teach you something as you learn decks, no matter who you are or where you are in your Tarot learning journey.  

Card Quality: For the price, 4/5. Even some of my spendier decks don’t get this good. A flexible, linen finish cardstock (which was at publication a relatively new thing to the mass market) that holds up to heavy handed shuffling and resists edge chipping, though I do not believe it has a core. Despite the linen finish the colors are superiorly vibrant! My only complaint (which honestly given the affordability of this deck is hardly a complaint) is the deck does want to hold a bow in the cards.

Readability: 4/5 By and large you don’t need to know the stories to understand what the figures in the cards are doing or represent. The booklet and the companion book deepen your readings all the more. Unfortunately, there is no order/rhyme or reason with the companion book in relation to the cards, so if you want to look up the full story, it frustratingly takes forever to find it in the index. The LWB is great, but the bigger book of stories is really excellent. The art style is beautiful and reads like a graphic novel with fantastic colors that bring emotion and meaning to the images. The symbols, though non-traditional RWS, still shine through readily. It has enough little details though that if you wish to sit with the cards for a longer time, you will certainly pickup on little things here and there.

Even though I consider this a kind deck, I wouldn’t say its cripplingly polite, nor one I’d use to read for everyone! This deck has some BIG feelings!

I do find this deck does not mince words; it’s to the point. That said, I think this is a personable deck that tends to be kind, and it does a great job hearkening back to childhood imagery with a fresh, cutting-edge.

I tried to pick some favorites, but I love all the art in this deck.

Art: 5/5 I mean, people like different art, but this is pretty accessible and stellar all around. There’s a lot of white and blue as the standard theme of this deck (partly why I think of it as an “Air” deck) and vibrant colors throughout make these cards visually pop. The people are definitely characterized, but their expressions are clear and range from the frightening to the endearing. I LOVE the vast diversity of the characters in the cards and nothing feels forced. This is a very authentic feeling deck and part of why I adore it so!

Favorite Card: It’s really hard to pick one! There’s so so many!

Least Favorite Card: Five of Swords. The Five of Swords is always an important card for me, and I don’t think of betrayal as one of the primary meanings for this card. The Five of Swords as I tend to interpret it, is the cost of winning. I’d also prefer to have had Osiris’s and Isis’s relationship as a more Love oriented card (maybe the Ten of Cups?) rather than focus on Set’s betrayal of his brother. HOWEVER!  The True Black Tarot’s Five of Swords also uses the Egyptian Khopesh–very interesting!

Card I Identify As: The World. My husband and I spent some time in Rotorua, New Zealand and we fell in love with the Hinemoa and Tutanekai story. This card feels so niche and also speaks to me personally.

The deck Identifies me as: Page of Swords (interestingly)

Season: High Winter/Late Winter (when we should gather around the fire to tell tales and myths)

Boxes it Checks: Diverse, Fairy-tale, Story-Telling, Bright, Bold, Cohesive, Blunt, Avatar TLA-esque, Graphic Novel

Similar Decks: The Star Spinner Tarot, The Dark Woods Tarot, The White Lotus Elemental Tarot, Forgotten Legends Tarot, any one of the million myth-based Tarot decks out there, Oracle 11