The Cosma Visions Oracle Deck (first edition, indie), Prisma Vision’s artistic younger brother, acquired 2021

Overall: 8/10 First, let me say that I think its one of the coolest, most beautiful decks I own, and after composing a review I think I need to bring it out for exercise this next month. I will be reviewing this as a Tarot deck, NOT as an Oracle as its labeled. It is not exactly RWS, or Marseilles, or Thoth. It has its own complete system that shares many similarities with the various traditional Tarot, and I use it in the place of a Tarot deck. That being said, this for me is not at all an easy reader and even after using it for years I still rely on the book. It’s easier than say, the Mary-El Tarot, but its still a challenging deck.

Some of the challenging major cards—say goodbye to all your fools journey, we’re on a metaphysical journey to life!

This deck is deep—it’s concerned with the process of rebirth into life (as seen with it’s progress through the majors) and the key players and processes through life. While the imagery is more grounded in the minors with lots and lots of beautiful earth based paintings, the supernatural portrayals in the majors can at times feel a bit jarring, and odd with all the birds (we’ll get back to that). I suppose if you are vehemently unwilling to entertain the idea of this sort of belief system, this probably isn’t the deck for you.

Throughout, the concepts are highly abstract and beyond the standard Jungian imagery I tend to associate with standard RWS Tarot. This makes the deck a) difficult for me navigate without it’s big companion book, and b) ensures that this is only a deck that I’m going to pull out when I have time and a serious enough query. These things mean that I do not reach for this deck often, and thus that slows my learning process. On the other hand, the art work is some of the best in my collection, and I do find that this does read very well when you have the book in hand with you to help guide you along the journey, and the characters in the courts are absolutely enchanting. 

Some of the “court” cards, which are represented by these portrayals of various roles. Some roles, like The Peacemaker, The Entertainer, The Commander, make sense to me as I see this in everyday life, but others like The Weaver, The Wanderer, The Pathfinder, and The Geomancer I have no personal experience with and therefore feel like their meaning eludes me. But, it’s an intriguing take on the traditional courts! I see some idea of the Jungian Archetypes being portrayed in these court choices. Also, you can see all the courts will line up in a paneled story like the minors.

The general feel of the deck is highly innovative, sensitive, artistic, and introspective, but it doesn’t come off as overly serious nor full of its self. It also somehow manages to be whimsical without being “silly.” There is something very romantic about the imagery, even in the rather nebulous major cards, that invite you to really sit and enjoy the reading. But expect reading it to take a good degree of time.

At the end of the day, I’ve had this deck nearly five years, have used it extensively, and I still struggle to feel comfortable with knowing all its ins and outs, but I very much enjoy using it and continue to learn its system!

Even after years of aggressive shuffling the edging has retained its integrity.

Card Quality: 5/5 Stellar. Matches its 6th edition brother deck. Flexible but still stiff enough to retain its shape, the colors are rich and printing is sharp, and the edging is probably my favorite with its rich blue-black rainbow holo. This is a sumptuous deck for sure, and the extra card isn’t the wrong size!

The minors also when laid out will make a continuous scene! It may feel a bit to “picturesque” but look closely and you will see hints here and there that give more meaning to the card (check out the skull-clouds in the Five of Trees).

Readability: 2/5 I’d say this is an intermediate deck edging into advance reader. You can see how this isn’t a traditional Tarot in any sense (especially in the majors) but I’m hesitant to call this an oracle deck because its natural progression amongst the majors and minor suits feels very much like a Tarot deck. It’s basically a Tarot without the modern systems’ interpretation encumbering the card meanings. It’s far more spiritual, and feels a lot like The Witches’ Wisdom Tarot, except its more expansive of the collective experience rather than the individual’s journey, and there’s the heavy metaphysical, cycles of rebirth themes. I had to skim the entire little white book and delve into the Big Book (which is sold separately) to really start to “get” the deck and its system, so this is a hard one to pick up and run with.

The “cycle of birds” as I call the early major cards. I am an avid birder so I really love this, but it is certainly quirky and can feel a bit removed as the imagery becomes more abstract in the later major cards.

Art: 10/5 It’s glorious, even more so than its older brothers. Obviously the style of art isn’t for everyone, but its beautiful even if you don’t jive with the deck otherwise. Using many bright, pastel colors contrasting with deep dark colors the images really pop off the card with warmth.

Favorite Card(s): The Romantic (Knight of Cups), Four of Embers (Four of Wands), these two images really stick with me!

Least Favorite Card: I don’t have any, but I personally feel a bit sad that the art often in this deck views birds as challenging subject matter having birds in the early majors of this deck, and “The Suit of Birds” is a stand-in for the sword suit. I personally think very positively of birds, so some of the challenges of the swords are amplified (Five of Birds hits me hard) and others are blunted (Ten of Birds I see as a positive act of nature rather than a complete ending I typically associate with the Ten of Swords). This is perhaps why the artist chose to call this an “Oracle” verses a “Tarot” as there are these hard deviations.

Card I Identify As: The Romantic (Knight of Cups)

The deck Identifies me as: XXI Life on Earth (The World)

Boxes it Checks: Impressionist, Romantic, Non-standard Tarot, Past Lives, Shamanic, Abstract, Nature Oriented

Similar Decks: Crystal Tarot, Prisma Visions Tarot, The Oracle of Many Paths, The Endless Tarot, The Witches’ Wisdom Tarot

Seasons: All seasons, though I get some major spring/summer garden vibs from the art work.