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5.0 out of 5 stars
beautiful deck, Aug 11 2001
This is my first tarot deck; I chose it in part for the strikingly beautiful artwork and in part because I am somewhat familiar with Kabalah (or Qabalah, as most new age/Pagan sources seem to spell it). Disks replaces Pentacles, Princess replacing Page, and Prince replacing Knight.The Major Arcana are richly detailed, retaining much of the original symbolism of the Rider-Waite decks. Also, each Major Arcana card is drawn taking place over the appropriate path between Sephiroth, along with the appropriate Hebrew letter and astrological sign. The included book indicates that all 78 cards can be arranged in a Tree of Life, but I didn't get the feeling that would work or be very attractive to the eye if it were done as I've messed around with the deck. Details on the Minor Arcana are somewhat sparse; usually a simple figure constructed with the number of the suit symbol, and the appropriate astrological sign somewhere. The circular border color is appropriate to the Sephiroth within Briah (as should be expected). Almost all of the Rider-Waite details are abandoned in the Minor Arcana, which will either suit you or not depending on whether you choose the Qabalistic interpretations or the traditional Tarotic interpretations. The court cards can be arranged in such a way as to construct the lower four sephiroth, all the Princesses combining for Malkuth, for example. Otherwise, some people may be offended by the propensity of the artist to display breasts hanging out of clothes wherever possible (mainly Princesses and Major Arcana, the Queens given a sort of additional respect in additional clothing). At first I found it somewhat awkward, but it was easy to get used to. I am finding that although it is a beautiful deck to work with and the cards are well-constructed and rich in their own sort of symbolism, it is rather difficult to learn from them. I'll be purchasing the Light and Contrast deck soon, which seems to deviate less from the accepted standard of interpretation (Rider-Waite symbolism). I think that most people these days have a strong reaction against the Rider-Waite deck as ugly and encouraging a strong negative reaction in people, but the symbolism does seem to be valid and standardized for the most part.
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