Tarot Leaves [Cards]

Following the tradition of the Major and Minor Arcana, Seilonen adds a new personality to the tarot with this deck. Showing the images through the silhouette of tree leaves, through a prism of nature, she takes one step toward making this deck unique, but goes a little further with her artwork. The soft pastel colors and the gentle scenery take the tarot to a new level.

The packaging of this deck is also an amazing aspect. The deck and accompanying book come in a hard cardboard laminated box, which closes firmly with a magnet. The sturdy book includes interpretations for both the upright and reversals of each card, along with suggested spreads. The cards are of sturdy card stock. And again, everything fits right back into the box for storage.

This deck would make a wonderful addition on any collector's shelf. A tarot reader would also find joy with its images and soft pastel coloring. I wouldn't highly recommend this deck to someone new to the tarot, but I also wouldn't say a straight out no. The book's interpretations and the images within the cards make perfect sense; it just may take longer to be able to do a reading without the book's help.

It is suggested the images overlap within the leaf artwork giving hidden meanings that `pop' forth when required. I haven't had this happen yet, but do look forward to the excitement of such an occurrence.

One of the latest offerings from Schiffer Publishings, Tarot Leaves by Beth Seilonen, has some pluses and minuses that make this deck a mixed bag for me. I really wanted to like it and I did find some good things about it - but ultimately, this is not a deck that I can give an enthusiastic recommendation.

Let's start with the pluses first: like US Games, Schiffer never skimps on quality - the cards are smooth with a nice, glossy finish that provides a great slip when shuffling. The card stock is fantastic - strong and firm, making this a deck that can take a lot of wear and tear.

It comes in a high quality box with a ribbon pull and a magnetic button closure. (I love the snap of that button!) This box is perfectly constructed - you certainly don't need to buy any special boxes to house your decks when you purchase one from Schiffer!

The deck comes with a little white book - again, well made and not flimsy at all. In fact, the book is like a "regular" book with a nice cover and solid binding. The book includes short interpretations for each card plus meanings for reversals (important to me as I read with them). The author's writing is warm and gentle much as I think she intends this deck to be.

And here are the minuses: Although the art isn't bad, it wasn't appealing to me at all. Each card has an image of a leaf (Maple, Apple, Oak and Birch) with an image hidden within the leaf. The idea is clever but on execution it does not always work.

For example, we can clearly see the image in the 2 of Swords as a blindfolded person reaching for two swords. One can quickly grasp that this is about making difficult decisions. But then when you look at the 5 of Wands, the "tree" images blend in and just look like veins in the leaf. This may not be a problem for a seasoned reader - but for a newbie, this may pose issues.

I liked the art on some of the cards such as the Magician and the 3 of Pentacles - but sometimes it veered towards cartoonish such as in the Death card.

Aesthetically, this wasn't the deck for me. Although I had no trouble reading with it, I didn't feel inspired by the images. I'm a very visual reader and this deck just didn't do the trick.

The deck contains 78 cards and is based on standard Rider Waite. Seilonen keeps it true to RWS tradition with the Majors and Minors - plus the suits (Cups, Wands, Swords, Pentacles) and Courts (Page, Knight, Queen, King). The back of the card has a pretty image of leaves that is reversible.

Although I think some nature lovers or deck collectors may enjoy this deck, many of us will be left scratching our heads and wishing for a bit more than what we find here.

I love this deck from the artwork and the texture of the cards as they are good stock quality. The deck comes with a nice quality book and box to hold the cards. The Schiffer decks are always top quality.