A beautiful and terrifying deck. Acquired 2020, 2^nd Edition

You can see in the above image the printing of the backs is quite poor and inconsistent, but the stunning art makes up for the frustrating card stock and print quality.

*Obligatory Nudity Warning! This is the Mary-El, please be warned there is lots of full frontal nudity in this deck. Also please be aware that there are some triggering images in this deck as well, so do proceed with caution.

Before I get into the review, I want to make an important note: I use my decks thoroughly before writing a review. Typically I will only review a deck after a couple years of using it, and with no less than fifty full blown spreads under my belt with that particular deck. I find that this allows me the time to really understand a deck so I can review it beyond my first stage of loving the art and concepts. Almost always at that stage I feel very comfortable picking up that deck, even if I don’t particularly adore it like I might others. That is not the case for The Mary El. While I have used it extensively, I still find this deck eludes me. It is like a shapeshifter in hand. My emotional connection to the cards changes so rapidly depending on what is going on in my life and the context of my draw that I really haven’t learned the deck inside and out like I have many many others that have been in my collection this long. So! Please keep this in mind while reading this review! Thanks for being here!

Overall: 7/10 The Unbridled Shadow deck. First, let me say that the art in this deck is just plain stunning. In my collection, I consider this deck the counter part to The Witches’ Wisdom Tarot, partly because they have similar vibes, but I also purchased them at the same time as I was looking to expand my Tarot knowledge. Well, it took me over three years before I finally really dug into this deck and studied it intensively. This is hardly a Tarot deck that follows a traditional art structure, but it goes WAY above and beyond incorporating a plethora of esoterica related to the Thoth system, but also the Marseilles and RWS. It is so diverse in its choices of symbology that I find this deck absolutely needs of the book. Like the Witches’ Wisdom Tarot, this is a deck that follows its own drum and I typically use it as a more meditative deck, or at least I’m only using it when I have a LOT of time on hand to do extra reading and thinking!

There are many style of art showcased in this deck! We have these very balanced, Art Deco feeling cards with bold geometric shapes but also have a very Meso-America art feel as well, or perhaps Ancient Egypt or…

I personally feel like The Mary-El somehow manages to be both a very primal but also intellectual deck. Because of the diversity of people and myths and symbolism in this deck, it has a very strong Jungian, collective unconsciousness vibe to it. I think Benebell Wen on her blog does a good summation: “You’ll find strong Qabalistic influences in her design, astrology in the courts, Rosicrucianism, and Hermetic philosophy.” And due to these heavy references, this is a deck that very easily gets lost in the sauce.

Some cards feel hyper-realistic in their imagery. Look at how you can tell the age of the person so clearly!

Card Quality: 1/5 Honestly if the artwork wasn’t stellar, these would have gone back. They have been plagued since production at Hay House with poor card quality as seen in the reviews. The card stock is fine on mine, but the printing is atrocious. The backs are either scratched, dotted with missing ink, or the tone is off half way through the card. My copy’s backs really suffer which is a crying shame since the double ouroboros of colored snakes is lovely. The gilded silver edges are nice, but the cards stuck to each other to begin with. Luckily I read though jumpers primarily so I tolerate these shortcomings.

A sample of a couple cards that consistently tug at my emotions. These are just a few cards of many in this deck that have seesawed between positive and negative connotations for me personally in the past five years.

Readability: 2/5, not due to poor design or choice of symbolism, but because this is definitely an advanced reader that needs the book! This was my first Thoth deck and I would NOT recommend this as a first Thoth deck! But…it’s not a purist Thoth deck; there is traces of Marseilles and RWS in the cards just to keep you on your toes! It is not easy at all to dissect meaning from the gorgeous images, being it is non-traditional for a Thoth. BUT the art is very provocative, and at times upsetting, so one will definitely have immediate feelings about the card images. The book that the artist wrote is really great at guiding you in a poetic sense though the image, but it’s not as grounded as I’d personally like and I end up finding my own meaning and sometimes I do not like the meaning. But, it leaves an impression nonetheless. The second edition changed several cards from the first edition, which I think is a shame since the first editions cards were very visceral and shocking, but the general theme is still there. The meaning and it’s accessibility to each person will vary greatly, but this is a good deck to use for shadow work and to meditate upon. I find it really likes to play with other decks as well. My initial impression due to the very realistic images of the human body and the intense emotions some images evoke was to keep this as a personal reader only, but I think for the right person at the right time, and maybe in that magical future where I feel like I really “get” this deck, I’d consider using it to read for select individuals.

More art styles. I could see this as being a deck used for dream work.

Art: 10/5 You either love it or you don’t with this one. Many cards shock, all cards bring about feelings, but there isn’t a single card that tells you how to feel. There is a mastery of ambiguity in the art that can change how you feel spread to spread, and day to day about the images. Also, each card seems to stand alone in itself. The “style” of the art varies dramatically from card to card, though each feels incredibly purposeful. Only after using this and continuing to be bamboozled by it for years have I finally realized that there is artistic discord, but it somehow is still cohesive as a whole.

Favorite Card: There more than I can count. But, I have a particular draw to the Two of Cups, and The Hermit.

Least Favorite Card: I don’t really have any cards I dislike, but I have plenty of cards that give me feelings of unease! Sometimes they were cards I liked yesterday!

Card I Identify As: Five of Cups

The deck Identifies me as: Queen of Swords

The radest 10s in any Tarot deck. The four horseman of the apocalypse.

Boxes it Checks: Dark, Shadow, vivid colors, esoteric, artistic, unconscious, unsettling, wild, Thoth

Season: Summer–a burning day with sultry nights

Similar Decks: there really isn’t anything quite like The Mary-El on the market that has the same complexity, but some similar vibes are The El Goliath Tarot, The WTNV Hayworth Tarot, The Bloodmoon Tarot, Somina Tarot, Goetia Tarot, The Lost Hollow Tarot, The Spirit Keeper’s Tarot, Tarot of the Imagination