Showing posts with label Dan Craig. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dan Craig. Show all posts

Animal Tarot Cards by Doreen Virtue, Radleigh Valentine & Dan Craig

, 19 Mar 2021

GOOD
> Stunning deck and concept. Beforehand, I thought that it would be difficult to convey the usual Tarot suits and characters in an animal Tarot, but the authors and illustrator had done a stupendous job at capturing and putting together the essence of each card and the animal qualities that could be associated to them.
> The design and artwork are fantastic.
> Great quality card printing.
> The card back is absolutely gorgeous, especially if you're a cat lover.
>  The cards have the meaning summary at the bottom of the card, which makes it perfect to use them without having to consult the guidebook.
>  This deck is not as heavy as other Hay House decks and the glossy coating makes handling and shuffling very pleasurable and easy.
>  The packaging is really good, with a sturdy box that will keep the cards safe. Besides, it's really beautiful inside and out.
> What I like the most about this deck is that can be used as a tarot deck (following the arcana and suits structure) as an intuitive oracle (free association of feelings and thoughts to the animals/ scenes on display) or a as channelled message (by reading the meanings displayed at the bottom of each card) depending on what you want.


 DECK STRUCTURE

> Major arcana have some adaptations, which I find good and true to the Rider-White major arcana: 5 Unity (the hierophant), 12 Awakening (the hanged man), 13 Release (death), 14 Balance (temperance), 15 Ego (devil), 16 Life experience (the tower), and 20 Renewal (judgement).  
> The deck suits are the four seasons, each of them coloured with a different identifying colour that refers to the four elements. Spring is dark read (wands, fire). Summer is light blue (cups, water). Autumn is dark green (coins, earth) and Winter is dark blue (swords, air).
 > Court characters are prince/ss instead of page/s.


SO-SO

> Bulky deck.
> The images on each card not always connect well with the meaning written in them.
> The back illustration gives away whether the card is coming upright or reverse.
>  The cards are on the large side and not easy to shuffle if you have small hands.
> The cardboard is a bit stiff and the coating seems to peel off quite easily.
> As per the photo uploaded  the card back has a pixel dot that appears on all cards. Not sure whether is a printing issue or a pre-production issue.
> Guidebook printing quality and paper are average.
> Choosing a cat as the representation of The Devil is an insult to cat lovers. Just saying!
> It would have made more sense to me if the Summer/water deck had just fish and or water animals, the  Autumn/earth, just earthy underground animals, the Winter/air suit just birds, and the Spring/fire just grassy animals. I would have used big archetypal animals for the major arcana.

 

 

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Angel Wisdom Tarot by Radleigh Valentine & Dan Craig

, 8 Feb 2021

This is is a triple-juicy deck that mixes the Tarot (without reverse meanings), archangel guidance and chakras knowledge. You can use the Tarot straightforwardly or combine the associations that Valentine has enable between the major arcana and the angels, and the minor arcana with the major arcana and the angels as well.
 
The suits used are as follow: Air (Swords, Intellect), Earth (Coins, Material stuff), Water (Cups, emotions, relationships) and Fire (Wands, passions). 


One of the things I like the most about this deck, it's the mix of old and new. This Tarot deck, as any others, is anchored in centuries of human psychology and vital knowledge, but it has been translated, so to speak, into 21st-century language, so it feels fresh, charming and approachable.

THE ARTWORK

> Dan Craig's artwork is wonderful. He has created clean wondrous images in vibrant but soft colors. Images are a modern twist on the classic Tarot imagery, but without distorting or reinventing them beyond recognition and all our Tarot heroes are still recognizable.
> The four elements are clearly distinguishable by the cards colored frames and symbols: green for earth with a leafy symbol; blue for air with a wind symbol; orange for fire with a fire symbol; dark blue for water with a water drop symbol, and the major arcana are in a gold-ish ocher. The summary of the meaning is at the bottom within a marquee, clearly distinguishable and readable.  
> I love how diversity shows in this deck. We find characters from different ages, races, skin colors, genders and eras, (from the almost-medieval characters, passing through the 18t century, to the late 1950s and early 1960s, to today's hipsters). The result is an organic human ensemble, a magic world where angels watch over us, but are part of our daily settings.
> The imagery is, overall, full of positive energy. I cannot understand some reviewers saying that they have negative vibes. To me, is just a very joyful playful deck.  
> For whatever reason, there is a mix of the 1950s and 1960s fashion vibe in there as well.
 > Gorgeous card back.


THE GUIDEBOOK

This is a terrific mini-guidebook to learn the basics of Tarot. It doesn't only explain the structure of the deck and of each card, and how to start using Tarot, but it also provides with the basic meanings of each suite and card, plus the main attributes of each archangel used in the deck (Ariel, Azrael, Chamuel, Gabriel, Haniel, Jeremiel, Jophiel, Metatron, Michael, Raguel, Raphael, Sandalphon, Uriel and Zadkiel).
 
Valentine offers instructions on how to do do a Celtic Cross spread and a three-card spread. One of the things that you'll notice is that the card interpretation is very current, very 21st century, concerned with issues that affect us today. 

I miss, though, a bit of info about the Tarot numerology.

  
 

THE DECK

> Sturdy packing box. 

> Over-200-page guidebook.  

> Mate printing. 

 

 DOWNSIDES

> Large bulky deck, difficult to handle, especially if you have small hands. 

> Cards are thick, stiff and difficult to shuffle. 

> The back card illustration gives away whether the card is coming upright or reversed, so it is not good if you want to use the deck with reverse meanings and choose the card totally blind.

 > In the guidebook I miss mention to the meaning of the numbers in each card.

.


IN SHORT
A visually stunning Tarot and guidebook that will delight new and old generations of Tarot lovers. This is a great deck for beginners who want to familiarize themselves with the cards without having to deal with reverse meanings. However, the deck is bulky, heavy and stiff and not easy to shuffle.



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