This is another beautiful tiny deck by Rockpool Publishing. It has the house trademarks:
> Small stylish deck.
> Motivational messages.
> Gorgeous illustrations/photos/artwork.
> Portability.
> Great quality glossy card stock
> Sturdy practical keepsake box with upper self-closing lid.
> Pleasurable shuffling
ALSO GREAT
> The illustrations are all beautiful Aboriginal motifs in earthy colours. The deck has artistic congruence, as well.
> However, what stands out to me, having as many motivational decks as I have, is that the messages in the cards aren't the same-old messages. On the contrary, the they are original nuggets that will make you ponder.
SO SO
> Aboriginal artwork has a multitude of ocher and earthy tones that makes it both rich and earthy, but this deck lacks colour depth and feels a bit flat in that regard.> A bit pricey for what they are.
> Perhaps, not good for people with big hands.
This is really a tiny mini deck, perfect for people with small hands or children, and you can fit it in your pocket or in a small handbag. It comes with a mini-booklet that is surprisingly good. If you want a portable RWS this does the job to perfection.
US Games Systems consistently produce cards that have the perfect card stock thickness and coating, so shuffling is natural and pleasurable. This deck is another example of the house savoir faire in that regard.
ON THE FLIP SIDE
> The RWS imagery is in the public domain, so not artistic effort was put to produce this deck. Besides, the keepsake box is not especially good. This being the case, I regret not buying a similar RWS mini deck from Lo Scarabeo as the latter printing house produces better quality mini decks for a similar price.
> Perhaps because I'm used to the Radiant RWS, this deck feels a bit too pale and not as appealing.
This is a cute small oracle deck devoted to Kuan Yin, the Divine Mother.
I LIKE
> Beautiful imagery by the talented Chinese fine-artist Wan Yiguang with an atmosphere that captures adventure, youth, playfulness, and has a marked Tibetan/Mongolian vibe.
The young Kuan Ying,seems to be floating over the Earth playing with her yak, moving around happy and free with her loyal companion as The Fool in the Tarot would do.
> Fairchild's texts in this deck really resonate with me. In this deck, Fairchild's usual writing is deprived of her usual flourished never-ending verbose style and the meanings goes to the point without losing depth.
> A great oracle to start your day.
> No need of guidebook as the oracle message is written in the card back.
> Light, easily-to-shuffle deck.
> Hard keepsake box.
> Perfect for people with small hands.
ON THE FLIP SIDE
> The Divine Mother is a bit too young in the imagery. The character is not a woman yet. The story seems that of a young spirited girl who travels the world with her yak in a very playful mood more than that of the Asian goddess.
> The imagery and the text on the cards do not relate much. Other images might have been used, unrelated to the Asian goddess, and it would have not mattered. This being the case, this is more a text oracle than an intuitive oracle that relies on imagery, as the latter seems more decorative that intuitive.
> Cards coating makes them stick together, which is very annoying.
> Not many cards in this oracle.
> The quality and overall product does not justify the price.
This is such a well-known oracle, ubiquitous on YouTube tarot-reader channels that is difficult to say something that it hasn't been said before.
The oracle is personified in the human head/face that appears on the back as well as blended in in most front cards.
THINGS I LIKE
> Beautiful digital artwork by DellaGrottaglia, a digital artist with whom Colette collaborates and has a wonderful eye for intuitive imagery in divination decks. Overall, the whimsical surrealist clean imagery is wonderful: polished, simple but rich enough to be used on its own or with the guidebook interpretations. The deck has a strong presence of spirit animals and fairies, and it's embedded with tenderness and sense of humor.
> Presence of racial diversity in the characters depicted on the cards.
> The symmetric colorful back is a stunner.
> The guidebook contents. Each card has an oracle message, a relationship message, a prosperity message (career, business, work, projects) and a protection message, so it's not only practical but versatile and in-depth.
> Good quality card stock
> Sturdy keepsake box.
I DON'T LIKE
>
At the end of the day, what matters the most when using any oracle
deck is that things flow and your answers are replied with precision. You ask a query about work and the card imagery and/or guidebook
text are spot on and go to the core of the matter. I tend to ask any
deck, when I first start using it, questions about things I know the answer about or things about myself that I obviously know. Unfortunately, I have a mix bag of results with my queries on that regard and the oracle has been less magnificent than expected.
> The beautiful flourished numbering is not positioned on the same spot on each card. Sometimes, it's on the right hand side (in most cards) but not always at the same height. In one case, it's on the middle tip, while in other cases, the numbering is located on the left hand side but at different heights. This is simply bad design.
> The card stock isn't flexible enough and the glossy coating makes cards stick to each other, and, as a consequence, shuffling it's not natural or pleasurable.
> Average guidebook printing quality and paper stock.
> 23 cards have a flag garland on the top while the rest have none.Why? Does the flags signal something different on those cards that have them?
> The cards are on the large side so they're easy to shuffle if you have small hands.
This is one of the most interesting oracles I've come across lately. The deck relies and draws on a very-strong feminist array of women archetypes. All of them are writers with lives that are/were out of the ordinary. Their life and work is the basis for the symbolic portraits (major arcana if you wish), while their materials (symbols associated with their writing and/or lives) are in the sepia simple icon-like cards.
CLAP CLAP CLAP
> Original concept. > Amazing 'odd' women and writers from different cultures, races, sexual orientations and historical periods (from historical figures to living legends), so the deck feels contemporary and in tune with the need of cultural diversity in our world.
> Beyond some renowned female writers, you'll get to know some others that are equally remarkable but not so well known.
> Horan's art is just great. The illustrations of the witches are the most evocative and helpful for intuitive readings. I'll give you an example:
I asked, 'What I have to know in my relationship with guy X?" The card that came up was Octavia E Buttler's The Future. The image depicts a woman opening a young man's chest, at the heart level, as if she was healing a wound or just a opening his heart. The man seems to be dreaming, surrounded by darkness and subject to the hold of subconscious tentacles. The man is white and the woman is black, so she might be his shadow side. Can you see the beauty of the card and how this would work on a romantic question? You don't really need to know who Octavia E. Buttler is to use the cards because the imagery is rich and multi-layered. You can still go to the booklet, look up Octavia's story and add some further elements. The summary says, for example, that she wrote novels that reflected on power dynamics about sexes, so you could see that the woman on the card has the upper hand in this relationship, she's bigger than the man perhaps she has power over him, she has power over his heart or is more mature, or more conscious. In other cases, the enquirer might find that the image depicts a woman breaking the guy's heart, for example. I took two other cards to clarify the message and I got the cat (a being that comes and goes, who attaches to people freely but needs its own space) and the snail (a being that is slow in movement, has a shell, and has a small house). Just beautiful, isn't it?
- Indie wonderful design.
- Elegant practical keepsake box, beautifully designed inside out. The box has an inner pull-up ribbon to help get the cards out.
- Great quality card stock with flexible textured luxurious cards that shuffle beautifully and don't stick to each other.
- Good printing quality.
> The deck seems to works for me. It gives precise answers to my questions. I have tried it with questions about people I know well, and then asked the cards, and boom, the answers have been spot-on.
THUMBS DOWN
> I get that this is a spin-off of the eponymous book, but this booklet doesn't say much. The summary about each artist is good enough, and the Wikipedia surely has more information. The booklet basically says, use your intuition with this deck, which is great, but doesn't help explain the concept behind the oracle. So, what's the point of producing an oracle that has no oracle guidance? And really, I don't want to buy the book just to understand the deck.
> Some design issues. For example, the witches cards have their name and keyword on the front; however, the materials cards have the keywords in the booklet. That's bad design because it doesn't seem to show design congruence.
> The materials cards relate to the witches, yet, we aren't told why and which materials belong to to each witch.
> The keyword attributed to each writer isn't always intuitive for me. Emily Dickinson is the epitome of the hermit and solitude. However, she's given the keyword 'soul' instead of 'solitude' which is given to Alejandra Pizarnik. This would not matter if both writers were unknown, but Dickinson is well known for her solitary life.
> Lettering in the booklet is diminutive and you might need a magnifying glass to read the text.
MIND
> The strong feminist blueprint might not be some people's cup of tea and men with strong male energy might not relate to the deck at all.
> This deck is bulky and the cards are on the large size so people with small hands might struggle shuffling.
GOOD STUFF
> Ceccoli's amazing artwork, which is a mix of toned up pastel oneiric surrealist art that is just my cup of tea. Each card is a piece of art.
> For whatever
reason I see this deck as very in tune with subconscious themes and
matters, and something that can be used in therapeutic settings as an
oracle or conversation started for people with trauma.
> Stunning printing quality.
> Great quality cardboard.
> Cards shuffle wonderfully.
> Sturdy keepsake box.
> Booklet in several languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German.)
> Perfect for people with small hands or when you want to have a deck to carry around in a small purse.
> A wonderful collectable.
DISAPPOINTING
> Despite the beauty of the deck, this feels like an odd Tarot deck and more a collection of beautiful art cards made fit in into a Tarot and not images created to be part of a Tarot. This is just my impression, at least with some of the cards. Some of them fit well with their RWS counterparts at least in spirit, but others do no do at all.
> Not a beginners tarot.
> As the booklet is so small and limited, one gets lost in the beauty of the imagery and gets lost in it.
MIND
> If you really love this Tarot, get the full edition with the guidebook.
> If you have big hands this might not be your size.
GOOD STUFF
> Good-quality glossy flexible cardboard.
> Cards shuffle well.
> Good quality printing.
> Nice keepsake box.
> Some of the quotes are beautiful and are a good start to my day.
> The flower garlands illustrating each card are just beautiful.
> A Motivational pick me up in the morning or afternoon.
DOWNSIDES
> Artist/s of the artwork aren't mentioned anywhere.
> This is a collection of nice quotes. The Internet is full of free of quotes. Google Play has gazillion apps with free quotes. Just saying.
> A bit larger than I would have loved the deck to be.
> A product more than anything else. Something to sell,
> A bit expensive for what they are.
This is a beautiful colorful set of motivational cards that will remind you that your thoughts are responsible for your life, that you can change your life by changing your thoughts and that you have to love yourself as you are.
The deck was illustrated by five different artists (Anne Smith, Diane Bicda, Ann Boyajian, Donna Incemanson and Suy Pilgrim Waters) and I think one can clearly distinguish their five different styles. Despite this, the deck has artistic coherence and cohesiveness. The artwork is naive and looks a bit artcraft-ish but it has a wonderful positive vibe. The cards have messages both on the front and the back.
THUMBS UP
> Great quality printing and card cardboard.
> Beautiful sturdy keepsake box with upper lid.
> Good cards to boost your confidence and remind yourself how to change your reality.
> Perfect to start your day or go to bed with a positive affirmation.
DOWNSIDES
> Deck is unnecessarily bulky and heavy.
> Cards shuffling is deficient as the coating make the cards stick to each other.
> The contrast between the background and the lettering is not always good.
> The deck was first issued in 1999, so when this came out was very innovative. Today, it is another deck with Law of Attraction, New Age and Self-Improvement affirmations.
MIND
You can use this with other decks like Moon Magick, Chakra Love, Let Go, Inspired by Frida, and Don Miguel Ruiz's The Four Agreements Cards, among other motivational decks, to create a positive mindset each day.
Sandra Anne Taylor is really a master in creating decks that resonate with me, and this is another example.
This is one of the best decks I've purchased from Hay House in a long time regarding the quality of the artwork, deck design and production. It is overall a very feminine oracle, but also a very shamanic one, both very earthy and magical. Images of spirit animals, powerful feminine archetypes, natural forestry settings and Indigenous shamanic imagery blend together to perfection to bring us an oracle that will speak to people with strong feminine essence and into alternative spirituality.
THE ARTWORK
Webber's fine-art paintings for the deck are amazing. They are multilayered and richly metaphoric, exuberant but still sophisticated. The imagery has a predominance of earthy colors: ocher, golden, browns and greens that convey well the connection with Mother Earth and the world of spirit/totem animals. You could have any of the images in large format hanging from your walls. OTHER GOOD STUFF
> Although there are many oracles and decks devoted to the divine feminine, this one shines over the rest because of its mix of Gaian, Pagan, Wicca, Native-American, shamanic and reiki-like elements, which will resonate with anyone into alternative forms of spirituality and energy work.
> I love that this oracle imagery doesn't relate to Tarot major arcana as much as other oracles do. In that regard, this is not only an original deck, but also a true oracle.
> Imagery is potent enough to be used on its own in intuitive readings.
> A contemporary diversity-sensitive deck that depicts characters from several races and color skins.
> The cards stock is wonderful.
> Despite its size, the deck is not heavy or bulky.
> Very pleasurable easy shuffling.
> Great design and production from the interior of the keepsake box to the quality of the paper used to print the guidebook.
> Guidebook is wonderful. The quality of the paper is great and the texts are good. Each card meaning ends with a lovely affirmation.
OK STUFF
> No surprise, but except for the divine masculine card, all cards are feminine, so this is not a deck for men with strong masculine essence and energy.
> Cards are large-ish, so, people with small hands might find shuffling them a bit difficult.
> The card edges deteriorate easily with little shuffling.
> There is a lack of synchrony between some of the images and the meanings given to them. I'd say that the deck is 50% congruent and 50% non-congruent. In some cases, the concepts the cards relate to are difficult to convey visually. In other cases, the connection is not clear to the user even though it might have been for Taylor. Take for example cards 38 sensuality (not very sensual), 25 go with the flow (character seems concerned and apprehensive more than going with the flow), 22 Telepathy (it takes two to tango for telepathy), 49 Achievement (It looks more like power/strength) or 33 Building your World (it looks like an hermit) , just to mention some of the cards that I don't think represent well the concepts. would loved more if they had not keyword associated as they don't seem to match. For the rest, card 14 seems out of tune with the rest of the lot, and looks more like a painted photograph. It reminds me of some countryside scenes that I saw in Turkey or the Middle East years ago. Taylor says that she chose the artwork and then channeled the energies to create the deck, so the artwork wasn't specifically created for the deck, or so it seems.
> In the guidebook, I miss a reproduction of each card before each card meaning..
MIND
> The authors recommend reading the whole guidebook before using the cards.
> Order of the cards was chosen randomly and intuitively and some of them, looking very similar, were put together, even though they relate to different matters.
GOOD STUFF
> Nice concept: put together the phases of the Moon with specific affirmations.
> Great affirmations.
> Great portability.
> Very small deck, so it's perfect for people with small hands and very portable.
> Beautiful digital moon-related imagery on the front and very elegant design on the affirmation side.
> Good quality glossy flexible cards that shuffle well and keep dirt and stains at bay.
> Very good quality keepsake box with upper non-detachable lid.
> Good value for money.
NOT SO GOOD STUFF
> Tiny deck, so if you have big hands, it might not be for you.
> There is no guidebook or booklet. The instructions are provided on the inner lid and on the cards themselves.
> This might not be your deck if you really want a deck that relates to the different phases of moon. I had the vibe that you could have used other images, concept and title and put the same affirmations and it would have not mattered.
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