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Customer Reviews
Stunning, glossy and
sumptuous
I am quite new to Tarot & I deliberately started off with a 'beginner's
deck' - the excellent Sharman-Caselli deck. Although I personally found
it a brilliant, easy deck to initiate me into the ways of Tarot, I also
found it a little bland: soft colours, quite plain drawings and I found
myself looking for something a little more glossy, more attractive and
more sumptuous.
That's where the Gilded Tarot came in and not only ticked those boxes
but blew them right out of the water. I cannot fault the artwork of
these cards. Everything about the colours used, the images chosen & the
design on the back of the cards just fits perfectly. My only slight
criticism would be that sometimes the faces of the characters are a bit
distracting as they are real photos whilst the rest of the body is a
drawing which can be a bit weird but on the whole it is a beautiful
deck.
The cards themselves pretty much stick to the traditional names for
both Major and Minor Arcanas. In this deck, Strength is numbered 8 and
Justice is numbered 11. The images themselves are, I find, quite
different to the Rider Waite tradition (although the artist says he has
tried to stick to it) thus many of the well known figures appear quite
differently in this deck - the Fool is pictured as a court jester
juggling signs of the zodiac with a gold hoop about his legs, the
Emperor is also clutching the signs of the zodiac, the wheel also
depicts signs of the zodiac around it with a big sunburst at the centre
of the wheel. There are also a lot of references to machines and
machinery throughout the cards which the author and artist explain in
the accompanying booklet.
Court figures have usually lost their thrones and the backgrounds tend
to be quite minimal although there are a lot of animals appearing in
this deck which has a comforting feel - I am thinking about the 10 of
swords where a stag looks over the body of the man stuck by swords.
The cards themselves are quite thick and glossy, relatively narrow &
really lovely to hold but very slippery to shuffle! The cards have a
black border which contain the gem that is coloured according to the
suit that it belongs to e.g. green for pentacles etc etc. The borders
are a lovely touch to the drawings and the gem helps you identify the
suit immediately. Pip cards are illustrated.
The reverse of the cards shows a vibrant sunburst but are not
reversible (i.e. you would not be able to tell if the card was upright
or reversed until you turned it over).
The booklet provided also contains basic meanings for the cards and
luckily includes meanings for the machine imagery included on the cards
which actually turns out to be quite interesting. An organza bag is
also included and is very handy for keeping the cards in but they also
thoughtfully include a plain white box that you can illustrate yourself
if you choose.
All in all, this deck of cards gets the 5 star treatment because of the
artwork and presentation of the cards and the booklet. They are
absolutely stunning. However, they are not my favourite deck, because
the images are pared down and have lost a lot of the traditional
symbols, I find it really hard as a beginner to intuit the meanings of
the cards, they just simply do not speak to me. I have tried to do a
reading for a family member and whilst they really enjoyed it and said
it was really relevant, I felt quite uncomfortable and not confident. I
don't think that I am ready for these quite yet, but because they are
so attractive, I think that once I become more confident with the Tarot
as a whole, I would be more drawn to using these.
If you love Tarot, if you are a reader or even if you
just collect, you will love having these in your collection. The Fool
in this deck of cards really looks like George Bush though - have a
look for yourself, you'll see what I mean!!!
Enchanting
I have only started my Tarot path, and this is the second deck that I
have in my collection. The Gilded Tarot comes in a nice presentation
box with its own little bag, but what impressed me was the book that
came with it. Not one of those tiny books you get in a small deck, but
a nice big book where you don't need a magnifying glass to read it. It
even has half-a-dozen spreads to try out at the rear of the book.
Although Rider-Waite based, this deck does have its own meanings but
generally, an enjoyable deck which beginners would be able to handle.
The Gilded Tarot
This new Tarot deck has caused something of a sensation in Tarot
circles, and when you look at them it is easy to see why. I have seen
some colourful decks before that have been gorgeous in imagery, but
this deck has that little something extra. Part of it is the
presentation. The black and gold borders give the deck a very elegant
look. Partly also it's that these pictures really draw you in, and make
other decks look very flat by comparison. But what I like most about it
is the attention to detail in each picture.
There are intriguing little touches, such as the
galleon in the moonlight behind the man holding the Two of Pentacles,
the owl peering in at the young woman suffering heartache in the Nine
of Swords, the Hermit walking along what appears to be a very narrow
mountain ridge, the dolphins jumping behind the Lovers, the Art
Deco-style beauty of The High Priestess, and the Fool (depicted as a
Harlequin Clown) juggling the symbols of the Zodiac. Quite simply, a
wonderful deck which should become much-loved by Tarot readers
everywhere. |
