by Annastacia Simon
The Transparent Tarot – clearly not your mother’s deck…
Well, not my mother’s deck anyway. Her’s was a trusty traditional Thoth deck which was the very first Tarot I ever experienced. To be honest, it was because of that first deck that I actually put away Tarot for most of my life. Perhaps I was too young, but I really didn’t get anything out of those first Tarot experiences; much as I loved simply flipping through the cards to enjoy their symbolism. Many of the cards felt negative to me, like the Tower and Death cards. Now that I am older and have tried more decks and learned of other’s experiences, I realise I’m not alone in getting a shiver when cards such as these surface.
When I sought out Emily Carding’s Transparent Tarot, it was because I wanted to support my great friend’s tremendous achievement as a Tarot artist. I figured I would dabble with them a bit, but I doubted that I would ‘bond’ with them beyond that connection of ‘Emily made these!’
The Rider Waite-Smith Tarot Variations
With so many variations of the Rider Waite-Smith Tarot in publication, how can you be certain which ones will truly be close to the ‘original’ 1909 tarot known as the Pamela A deck? Which ones are worth of your money, and which ones are not? Is it even possible to get close to the real original?
