Wizards Tarot Cards – May 8, 2011

I have waited years for the Wizards Tarot by Corrine Kenner and John Blumen, and I was breathless with anticipation when I got the shipping notice for it. This was easily my most anticipated deck in a year full of great ones.This deck is computer generated images, CGI, and done in the traditional style of 22 Major Arcana with 56 Minor Arcana divided into four suits, which are Wands for fire, Cups for water, Swords for Air, Pentacles for earth, nothing surprising there. The Major Arcana are stunning and original, truly adding a new flavor to the archetypes of tarot. Chiron, the ever suffering centaur from Greek mythology, strikes me as a particularly brilliant choice for taking the place of the more traditional Hierophant in this deck. Many Waite Smith derived decks have a harsh and cold looking man of God to represent him, but I feel much more comfortable approaching Chiron for the wisdom of the cosmos than a stuffy ol' bishop. Another amazing choice is Odin as The Hanged Man, surrounded by runes and ravens. These images make me want to delve deep into the myths that surround them, and the book is very obliging, giving a great start to any student. Traditionally "difficult" cards, like Death, here renamed Transfiguration, the Devil, The Dark Lord here, and the Tower, are all rendered powerfully, but without scary images. They are not needed to make the point.The Minor Arcana are heavily Waite Smith based, which is great for those new to tarot, as so many decks today are based on that deck. Generally, I urge my students to go to the source, and learn on a Waite Smith deck, but some people really do not get on with the art, and since tarot is all about images, enjoying the art is key to learning. The art of the Minors varies, from as stunning as the Majors, to at times being slightly stiff and awkward. I feel this is common is CGI decks, and in readings has not proved problematic. The court cards are represented by elemental beings - fiery, salamander/humanoid beings for Wands, merfolk for the watery Cups, fae for airy Swords, and gnomes for the earthy suit of Pentacles. I take personal issue with my significator card, the Queen of Pentacles, not being as traditionally beautiful as I would like to see myself, but that is personal preference only, and I am growing fond of her other charms. I find the court cards to be very expressive, which is helpful when trying to read these cards that generally represent people or facets of personality; just what they are expressing does not always jive with what I thought I knew about them, and that is okay. It's good to stretch and grow and see things from new perspectives.The book is one of the best I have ever read on tarot, and being that I have read hundreds, I think that is high praise. I prefer my students refrain from reading any books as they learn to read tarot, but the given meanings are concise and to the point. The real gem of this companion book, in my opinion, are the extra tidbits of information, mythos and magic, rune lore and astrology, that accompany each Major Arcana. The Minors are written about with affirmations, as well, and the spreads in this book are amazing. I want to try them all, all at once! The book is written in clear language, is well researched, and is one I would purchase on its' own were it not a companion book. It's that good!My readings with the deck have been accurate and flowing. The previously mentioned awkwardness of some of the Minors did not seem as evident when laying cards down side by side as it did when assessing the cards individually. I would read for anyone with this deck, although there is no denying The Moon is sensual and lovely, and the Queen of Cups is a mermaid in traditional mermaid garb, which is to say nothing but shimmery scales, so those who are opposed to the suggestion of the female breast might take issue with those cards. Personally, I would prefer my children to see pictures of nudity, of which there is none in this deck, than pictures of violence.There has been a lot of online chatter about this deck, and people seem to either really love or hate the possible correlation to the world of Harry Potter. I would just like to say that while using this deck, there is a feel of the Harry Potter world, but I think describing that world as a wizarding school world would be more apt. J.K. Rowling was not the first writer to take on the idea of a school for learning magic, nor will she be the last. It wasn't a unique idea for her, nor for the creators of this deck, but their take on it is what makes it special, in both cases.Physically, the deck and book comes packaged in a flimsy box that fell apart before I even opened it. The glue seems to be bad, and Amazon shipped it poorly packaged, so the box was smashed as well. This disappointed me, as a collector, but I also have a copy that came from Tarot Garden, in perfect condition. The inner box is basically useless, being extremely flimsy and far too large for the cards. I hope Llewellyn will get with the program soon and at least give us decent packaging for its' decks. They can look to Lo Scarabeo, who they distribute for in the US, for good ideas of snug fitting boxes and box sets with cunning spaces for the deck, or even better, Schiffer, with their sturdy boxes. The cards are backed and bordered with cobalt blue and gold scrollwork. The titles are unobtrusive, and the Majors are left unnumbered for those who like to order them in a particular way. The cardstock is satiny, not heavily laminated, and shuffles beautifully. The cards are what I would term a "typical" tarot size, about 4.5" x 2.75", and they fit nicely in my average sized hand.I think this deck would be good for beginners to tarot who enjoy the world of Harry Potter, and I feel like people who enjoy CGI of all reading levels would like this deck, for the most part. More experienced readers who want to add more astrology, runes, myth, and magic lore to their readings will benefit greatly from the companion book, no matter what deck they may use, and collectors will enjoy the original take on the Majors. What keeps this deck from being 5 stars, for me, is that I would have preferred interpretations of the Minor Arcana to have headed in a new direction in tarot, being based on but not exact replicas of the decks that have come before, and I feel the Majors demonstrated that the creators were fully capable of doing that. Overall, I find this to be an enjoyable, easy to read deck that will grace my shelves forever, and I, as ever, I find Corrine Kenner's writing to be succinct, knowledgeable, and relevant. Thank you!

"Welcome to Mandrake Academy--where you are the student, and tarot is the teacher. Sit down, unwrap the cards, and you'll discover a whole new world of magic and mystery. Mandrake Academy is an old-fashioned school, nestled in a rolling wooded plain. Here, where the four seasons move gently and distinctly through their cycles, modern professors train a new generation in the ancient arts of witchcraft and wizardry." - From the companion book to the Wizards Tarot by Corrine KennerSeveral years ago, an online buzz swept the Tarotsphere: A Harry Potter-esque deck, set in a school much like Hogwarts, was under production. Created by Corrine Kenner and illustrated by John Blumen, early Major Arcana images of this deck, called the Wizards Tarot, were placed upon a special website dedicated to this special academy.I couldn't wait to know more, to see more! To get this deck in hand!Being a fan of the Harry Potter books (which were still in progress at the time the Wizards Tarot was announced) I was stoked: A Tarot realm akin to J.K. Rowling's magical world? A Mandrake Academy populated with seers like Sybill Trelawney, potion masters like Severus Snape and instructors like Firenze the centaur? Count me in!You'll find those kind of knock-offs in the Wizards Tarot, to be sure, but, unfortunately, the Wizards Tarot doesn't dazzle, reveal or present anything special. As soon as this deck and book set was available for order, I plunked down my money at Amazon, but now that I've had it in my hands, buyer's remorse gnaws at my stomach.Here are but a few things that bother me about with this book and deck set:* Other than the Five of Wands showing five arms, wands extended, towards a conjured fire and a student asleep on a bench in the Four of Swords (and the kids in the Four of Wands getting ready for a hoe-down) there is nothing fresh in the Minors. Most images are essentially a poorly replicated Rider-Waite imitation--right down to the student in the Four of Pentacles sitting in a chair with a huge coin on his head, in his arms and under his feet.* The Minor Arcana figures look static and staged. There's no sense of movement in most of the cards. The Six of Swords, for example, show two bored "students" sitting in a boat on calm water.* It appears there were only a few models used for this deck, especially the Minors, so there's a drab sense of sameness with the cards...students wearing the same bland, blank look on their faces.* The poor Pentacles suit gets the royal shaft with their Court Cards, each "gnome" looking like dull-witted, grumpy, fat and lazy oafs. Can you imagine a person with an Earth Sun sign identifying with those images? The Courts give us an opportunity to see ways of doing and being, approaches that may, or may not, be working for us...and need modified, changed, or emboldened. But the expressionless salamander creatures of the Wands Court, the "let's bring back the 80s hair!" Cups Court, and the constipated looking Swords Court? Yikes! And doesn't anyone smile in this deck?!* Some of the Major Arcana cards are neat, like the old man standing in front of rows of books for The Hermit card (tons of books always look good!). I love The Hanged Man who has an upside-down version of the card on his wall. The Runic stained-glass windows and the one-eyed professor, an obvious nod to Odin, is brilliant. Death is re-named Transfiguration, and a figure begins to morph into a moth, which is very cool. However, the heavy-handed placement of Hebrew letters and astrological symbols often distracts from the image (case in point, the huge curtain tie emblazoned with Tzaddi in The Emperor card).* The updated "Samantha on a broom" ala Bewitched looks pretty as The Chariot, but there's no sense of the determination, will and power of this archetype; in fact, the blonde ingénue atop the broomstick looks scared, unsure and lost. And The Sun? There is no playfulness in this card, nor the vibrancy or virility of masculine energy. What you have is yet another bored-looking figure, staring at a metallic wheel with blooming sunflowers towering behind him and a white horse outside the window.* The borders are too busy, but since there's not much too look at in most of the cards (Minors and Courts), I guess that's a moot point.The Wizards Tarot may have worked pre-2004, before the dawn of Ciro Marchetti's best-selling debut of the CGI Gilded Tarot and during Harry Potter madness, but in 2011, the deck feels dated. The imagery feels sterile, staged and devoid of emotion. Hardly anyone smiles, and the range of most of the expression goes from sleepy to apathetic.The 239-page companion book contains a lot of great information connected to the Major Arcana--explanation of the Runes, interesting spreads, a crash course in astrology, charts of Greek and Roman pantheons, Court Card decans and so on. But most of the card explanation, especially the Minors and Courts (which have very little written about them compared to the Majors), are merely bullet points describing every color, detail and symbol and what each card should, and does, mean.Which begs the question: To whom, exactly, is the Wizards Tarot geared? If newbies, as the introduction suggests, then the assault of esoteric information will overwhelm, and likely discourage, a beginner. The Tarot is an already-difficult system of study if you take esoterica and symbolism into account, without adding all the extras that a Tarot reader doesn't need to understand (or use) the cards effectively out of the gate.So, then, is the Wizards Tarot for intermediate or advanced users? Well, I don't know about you, but I don't think the market needs another Rider-Waite replica...especially one that's so down-to-the-details faithful to the original poses with the Minors, yet staged like mannequins on display (and, of course, devoid of Pixie's artistic talent for rendering a wide-range of human emotion). Most readers and practitioners falling into the intermediate and advanced categories already know that Jupiter means "luck growth and expansion" and that Justice's imagery is associated with Ma'at, the goddess who weighed men's heart against a feather.and that the Four of Swords can mean rest and recuperation.If you have Kenner's latest offerings (Tarot for Writers and the largely re-hashed version of that book in the form of Simple Fortunetelling with Tarot Cards), then you've already read her litany of regurgitated, common associations...which is largely found in the companion book to the Wizards Tarot.While you may enjoy looking at most of the Major Arcana cards, the imagery breaks down at the Minors and Court Cards. Had the Minors had more of a sense of "story"--and the Courts more approachability--this deck might have worked. If you're not familiar with Kenner's last two books and you'd like to bolster your Tarot knowledge with Runes, mythology, astrology, numerology and the like, you'll get great tidbits (and spreads) in this book.But if you're a beginner, you'll likely be overwhelmed by the book, and if you're a seasoned Tarotist, you may wonder how such a static RWS clone made it to the market. (And the box? This flimsy container came unglued right after opening it, after minimal handling!)Note: if you desire a gorgeous CGI Rider-Waite clone, try the Pictorial Key Tarot by Davide Corsi instead.(To see 18 images from the Wizards Tarot, visit the Reviews--Decks section at JanetBoyer.com)-- Janet Boyer, author of Back in Time Tarot

A Brilliant set of cards worth owning.I am really happy that i bought them The book is interesting and so are the cards Although i am still learning all the meanings of the cards i am glad to have them. I would say that this tarot card deck was and is a good buy and i would recommend them any time.

This pack works well for me and I really like the style of artwork and the colouring used. Perhaps being a big Harry Potter fan and all things 'magic' I was always going to favour this style and the idea behind its creation. The card isn't particularly thick but substantial enough and easy to handle.I immediately felt a connection and it is now one of my favourite packs to use from my many packs.

This is one of my favourite decks. Great for anyone coming from an 'Earthy' perspective.

ok

Gosh, I am have tried almost every deck lately. I am an avid fan of Ciro Marchetti decks but have been looking for an alternative to keep my mind amused as I use the tarot for readings every day.I really liked the look of the examples shown and waited with baited breath for the release. Once opened, I was slightly disappointed in their flimsiness. Not as stout as some and may not last as I use them several hours a day.Upon first glance, once I unwrapped them and looked at them one by one starting with the major arcana (as they were in that order) I really loved each and every one. The details were lovely and quite refined in some. The images were pleasurable and I began to feel my heart race as I thought, 'finally, I have found a new deck that I can link with' but then I reached the pip cards. I soon realised that these were simply updated imitations of the standard pips. You know 8 of swords being a blindfolded woman surrounded by swords etc and with very little embelishment. In fact, it seemed that they were an afterthought and very little effort had gone in them. So apart from their standard meanings there is little to work with with regards to intuition and minor details. It is so nice to work with cards that have intricacies in which you can find new symbolism that you have never seen before, even after using them for weeks or months. For this reason, my enthusiasm sooned waned and I put the cards back in their box.I may give them another go another day but I don't expect that the appeal will increase any.