Tarot of the Silicon Dawn [Cards]

The Tarot of the Silicon Dawn (or Digital Dawn), by Egypt Urnash, is an unusual, but refreshing take on Tarot. There are many things going for this deck: slightly smaller cards, additional Major Arcana and variations, an additional suit, additional pip cards, swapped suit association, borderless,... This is a tarot that defines its own identity by defying tradition. However, it may be a great addition for some tarot collectors with a taste for the unusual.

If you are expecting a mild variation on other traditional decks, then look elsewhere. For starter, these cards are smaller than many LoScarabeo decks, measuring 4"x2.25". These seem to be of the thickness, but not as flexible. And with the extra cards, this is a mighty thick deck that I would hesitate to shuffle as other conventional decks.

The imagery in this tarot is abstract, akin to Thoth tarot, and contain nudity and explicit imagery as needed. In some cards, a transparent glue-like ink is applied, which upon light reflecting at an angle, reveal a hidden imagery. In the plus side, these cards are borderless, which maximizes the use of limited space. The back of these cards are almost reversible showing a galactic spiral on a black background.

According to the author, the Major Arcana draw inspiration from the Golden Dawn, which influenced the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot. These are labeled at the top and numbered at the bottom in Arabic numerals instead of roman, but the Fools are devoid of numbers. There are many intriguing cards in the Major Arcana and a few divert a bit from the usual labeling:

5. The High Priest - V. The Hierophant
8. Fortitude - VIII. Strength
10. Fortune - X. Wheel of Fortune
12. unlabeled - XII. The Hanged Man
21. Universe - XXI. The World

There are three additional Major Arcana at the beginning: one X. History and two Fools.

The Minor Arcana take ideas from Crowley, who designed the Thoth Tarot. These are composed of five suits: wands, swords, cups, pentacles and Void. Each suit is associated to the colors green, yellow, blue, red and black, respectively, and follow this correspondence: Swords-Air, Cups-Water, Wands-Earth, and Pentacles-Fire. This swaps wands and pentacles traditional correspondence.

The suit of Void is limited to five cards: 4 court cards (illustrated in landscape) and one 0 (meaning Void). Other suits include 15 cards: 10 pips, 4 court cards and one 99. Each 99 has a special meaning for each suit:

99. Starseed (wands)
99. Fission (swords)
99. Recursion (cups)
99. Extend (pentacles)

The Minor Arcana are labeled at the four edges of the cards. The pips are labeled with Arabic numerals and suit symbols. In another interesting twist, the aces are wearing a mask with the suit symbol. The court cards are labeled with P, C, Q, or K (prince/princess, chevalier, queen, or king) and suit symbols. The symbols of the suits are also integrated as part of the cards.

In addition, there are five spare cards thrown into the pack in case you care for them. As explained by the author of this deck, these "not-necessarily-proper images" are:

8 1/2: Maya - "A bastard child of the High Priestess and the Devil"
XIII: Vulture Mother - "A personal avatar of Death for a friend much is owed to."
VIII: She is Legend - "... sent to a friend who refused to lift the veil of the Internet."
0: The Fool - "... who went wrong."
Aleph: November - "... a fool learns to fly on the wings of her own stories."

All of these cards are well described in the guidebook included with these cards. This guidebook is organized as follows:

Some Notes on Tarot
Courts
The Numbered Cards
Cups
Swords
Pentacles
Wands
Major Arcana
The (VOID) and Beyond

Like a Little White Book (LWB), this book is translated into five: English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Dutch. As such, we are lucky if we get one page per Major Arcana. Surprisingly, the book does a good job on fleshing out the cards; most needed for the extra ones. Beware, there are no special layouts if you need them.

Of this book, "Some Notes on Tarot" is my most favorite section. In this section, the author presents a brief history of tarot (sort of) and an insight into her inspiration for this deck. I love this quote: "That's how I see Tarot: A historical trainwreck, pulled by about twenty-two decontextualized images."

The cards and book come in a box that opens like a coffer and closes with a magnetic contact. This deck's imagery may be too much for beginners, but this is a great kit for tarot collectors.

This deck surprised me ... and that was a while ago that a deck surprised and amazed me ... The booklet is so refreshing, and the cards ..... I haven't seen such fresh and original cards for a long time ...

I will not go in details, but I will be busy with these cards for long time because they keep surprise me over and over again.

This deck is made by a very original thinking, clever woman, playful, not afraid to take a fresh look, just like The Fool does ...

The prints ON the cards (not all of them, but a lot) make this deck extra special, they are sensational, I haven't seen this before.

This is a deck meant for intelligent and creative people, not for the people who like traditional tarot deck. These people can better buy the Gaian Tarot.

Tarot of the Silicon Dawn (Tarot Deck Ex 189)

This is one of the most amazing, original tarot desks I have ever seen. Though far from conservative, traditional decks in appearance, these cards, manifest all of the magic of the tarot. And they are a powerful expansion of what tarot can say to us in our fast changing, complex times.

I absolutely love this deck.

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