Sacred Art Tarot [With 17" X 20" Spread SheetWith Instruction Booklet] [Paperback]

I have over 300 Tarot and oracle decks. This one is one of the very worst I've ever had the displeasure of purchasing! What a let down.

It looks like someone cobbled it together in a couple weeks or less. The images are VERY blurry, colours washed out. It's hard to make out the pictures on ALL but a few images. The suit implements are extremely obvious in that they're added in. It seriously looks like bad photoshop from the mid-90's! No excuse for this with technology of today! The suit of Wands are the absolute worse in this regard, just horrible and cheesy looking.

The whole thing is just ridicuously BAD in every way. I can't believe USG let this deck be put out there, a shame! They usually produce such high-quality decks and art.

If you're drawn to fine art and are tempted by this deck, please save yourself the $$ and time....and the disappointment! I sure wish I had.

Like the previous reviewer, I am extremely disappointed in this set of tarot cards. My collection of cards currently totals over 100 decks, and my main intent now is to find decks that are unique and of high quality, which, from the description given, I believed this deck to be. Talk about misleading advertising! I bought this deck believing the cards were replicas of true works of art, not cut-and-paste depictions of those works. The quality of these images, in addition, is very poor. I will be much more careful in the future before buying decks sight unseen, or those lacking reviews from trusted tarot card readers and/or collectors. All in all, this deck is not worth the price of admission, whatever its cost.

The Sacred Art Tarot is comprised of manipulated classical art masterpieces from the Middle Ages to the Pre-Raphaelites. Many of the images are spiritually oriented, though you don't need to be religious to work with this deck. As someone who knows virtually nothing about art history and little about organized religion, I was able to read with the deck very well. The images are beautiful and do indeed invoke a gentle spiritual vibe.

The first thing I noticed when opening the deck were the ornate gold frame borders. I usually don't care for borders, so I was surprised to find that I actually liked these. The frames give the feeling of being in an art museum. And I can just see myself walking through a museum reading the artwork. Shuffling the deck and laying out the cards becomes an instant rearranging of the paintings on the wall. I was also reminded of the paintings in the Harry Potter series, and how the painted characters would interact with each other, even moving from one painting to the next.

The Aces in this deck each feature a person, rather than just the singular suit symbol, my favorite being the Ace of Swords which appears to be a disembodied head. Here's where the art history would have come in handy, or an accompanying book, because I have no idea who this painting depicts.

The suit symbols (Cups, Wands, Swords and Coins) are all added to the paintings, some more obviously than others. While most of the images are well incorporated, there are a few that miss the mark. It's really just the Wands suit with the troublesome cards. The Eight and Ten of Wands, in particular are the two which stand out the most. The stark black lines which serve as wands look like simple computer generated straight lines, and are unnaturally placed in the scenes so that they stand out like sore thumbs in otherwise beautiful and natural looking paintings. They are lined up parallel to each other in ways that they just wouldn't fall if someone were really holding onto them. They are too obviously foreign to blend in.

Some images have been changed in other ways, but I wouldn't recognize the changes if I wasn't familiar with the original painting. For example, the Princess of Swords is "Judith with the Head of Holofernes" by Lucas Cranach the Elder. In the original painting, Judith is holding the head of Holofernes, whom she has beheaded. In the manipulated Princess of Swords card, we see her hand resting on a gold box instead. This transformation looks seamless, which makes me even more curious about the sloppiness of the Wands cards.

This is a deck which would greatly benefit from an accompanying book. There is no mention anywhere of the artists featured or who is depicted in the paintings. I recognized "The Crystal Ball" in the Six of Cups only because I love John William Waterhouse. However, I found I was able to read the images intuitively without any knowledge of the paintings' origins or background stories. Though a book would have been a nice addition, it isn't necessary to successfully read with the deck.

I find it easy to be swept away in the images of these cards, as they transport me out of modern day life, and back into the very different world of the past. Emotions will always translate through the ages, so it is very easy to transfer the feelings you get by looking at these cards and apply them to the situation you are reading for today.

I have found these cards to deliver readings with a very serious tone. Gentle yet firm. While there are other decks which are comfortable cracking jokes and poking fun, this is not one of them. It would be a good choice to consult for serious or spiritual matters or those close to your heart. The cards have a romantic feel to them, in a slightly somber and controlled, old world way.

The readings I have done with the Sacred Art Tarot have been very accurate and easy to understand. The paintings work very well together, and allow for well integrated stories to emerge. The cards have a beautiful and natural flow to them when spread out side by side.

The Little White Book offers general meanings for the cards, and are not specific to this deck. Andre St. Dryden has included a brief commentary which mostly addresses tarot in general. There is also a foreward written by Jeannette K. Roth. The LWB features two 10-card spreads, the Celtic Cross and the Qabalistic Cross. Two blank pages are provided for notes.

The Spread Sheet included with the Premier Edition is custom designed for the Sacred Art Tarot, and displays a layout which differs from both of the spreads included in the LWB. Spread sheet measures approximately 17" x 21" and folds up for easy storage.

I would recommend this deck for anyone who appreciates the beauty of classical art. (If you can get past those few ill-edited Wands cards.) It's a gorgeous deck that lends a beautiful atmosphere to a reading. And for those who aren't well versed in religion or art history, don't let that be a hindrance. If you connect with the images, that's all you will need to be able to read successfully with this deck.

Suits: Cups, Wands, Swords, Coins
Court Titles: Princess, Prince, Queen, King
Justice/Strength: Strength 8, Justice 11
Cards: 78
Card Size: 2 3/4" x 4 3/4"
Card stock: Glossy (heavily laminated)
Backs: Reversible
Border: 1/8" outer white border, 5/16" inner frame border
Deck-specific LWB: No

(See my blog for images of the cards and readings I've done with this deck.)

~Kiki (TarotDame.com)

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