The Steampunk Tarot Cards – May 8, 2012

The Steampunk Tarot, designed by Barbara Moore and illustrated by Aly Fell, is a themed tarot based on a Victorian era when archaic steam machines coexisted with mystics and spiritualist. This is not just a redressing of the Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) Tarot with Victorian clothes, but instead a masterful re-imaging of the classic tarot. This unique tarot is accessible to everyone, and a definitive must-buy for tarot collectors.I have been waiting for this deck to come out since I spotted a few sample cards over the internet. I'm not a fan of the Steampunk genre other than a few movies like Steamboy, but once I got my hands on this deck I was spell bound to it for nearly an hour.If you are used to the RWS Tarot, then you are in familiar territory with this deck. The Steampunk tarot reinterprets the RWS symbolism in the light of a fantasized Victorian era. This is done so well, that at first I didn't realize these cards were labeled. A thin black border surrounds the image of each card that provides just enough space at the bottom for labeling and numbering. The back of these cards show a chalice, a rod, a sword and a pentacle arranged on top of a mechanistic background similar to the inside of a clock.The Major Arcana are numbered with 0 for the Fool and roman numerals for the rest, and labeled following the RWS convention. The imagery of most of these cards is inspired on the Steampunk theme. For example:* The Lovers - the lovers are properly clothed for the time period,* Death - Death is still on a horse but the rider is now a black winged woman, the angel of death.* The Devil - the devil is a huge mechanical golem.* The Sun - a couple dressed in time period clothes plays under the sun instead an innocent child riding on a horse under the sun.* The World - the elements of fire, air, water and earth are represented with symbols in mechanical cogs instead the head of creatures.Of course, a few images remain closer to the original RWS Tarot's scenes; The Hermit and The Moon come to mind.The Minor Arcana follow the standard suits of swords, wands, chalices and pentacles. The court cards are labeled as page, knight, queen, or king. One thing to note is that the pages and knights in this deck are mostly female characters (The Knight of Pentacles is the only male character), where all of these are male characters in the RWS Tarot. On the pips, you may expect to see a number of the suit symbols depicted within the imagery of the card.This kit includes a book, which is organized as follows:IntroductionChapter 1 Tarot BasicsChapter 2 Major ArcanaChapter 3 Minor ArcanaChapter 4 Court CardsChapter 5 SpreadsFarewellThis guidebook is an important tool for learning the Tarot, but it is also a key to understanding this specific deck. I particularly enjoy reading the introduction where the origin of the Steampunk Tarot is presented. Chapter 1 is dedicated to explaining how can you use the Tarot, which is very useful for beginners. Chapter 2 to 4 present each card of this deck, starting with a key phrase, core meaning, a description with a full-page black and white image of the card, and occasional reading tips. Chapter 5 describes various spreads, including: The One-Card Wonder, Three-Card Draw, A Most Excellent and Sensible Spread (7 cards spread), Panoramic Photograph (6 cards spread), The Difference Engine (5 cards spread).The only negative about this kit is the packaging. The box is good looking, but is made out of thin cardboard and offers minimal protection. Unlike some other recent kits from Llewellyn, this box opens from the top, instead of the side (like a book) and it doesn't come with an organdy bag for the cards.Overall, this is an amazing themed tarot based on the RWS classic and an easy recommendation for beginners and Steampunk fans. This is certainly a must-have for tarot collectors.

I love this deck! Paired with this book:https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1419692887/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1It's so much fun to learn and build a relationship with your deck. I have had this deck before, and it was just me using the included book. That approach didn't seem to fit how I PERSONALLY saw the cards so I couldn't understand why I wasn't learning and kinda gave up on the deck after a while. So I didn't learn much (with any deck until I found this book, because I kept trying to apply somebody else's definitions to a card deck I was using. Which just doesn't work for me.) just kept trying to memorize the stuff.Also, my experience with the deck is it's really snarky (in a good way). One of the exercises is to take the "minor" arcana, separate them into their houses, then try to read by just looking at the pictures what each card could possibly be doing or mean by putting yourself into the picture. I'm very good at that and was having fun with the wand suite but then decided to take a nap. After putting the wands suite under my pillow to get more information in my sleep close my eyes and what starts playing in my head but Fergalicious by Fergie which made me lose it! This has been the only deck to ever make me laugh. But never this hard because I didn't get why I was laughing, like someone cracked a joke but I'm alone in the room. Until now, now that I'm listening properly it's a song that truly suits the wands.To me The Suite of Wands, are the entrepreneurial firey part of the deck. The inventors, the merchants, the victorious, the scrappy underdog, the start up/over-ers. You'll find all of them in the suit of wands. And they're all going out and getting something they want (violence optional). The Wands are the "go out and do/find the thing and bring it back" people. So if you think of the lyrics of that particular song (Fergalicious) not as someone trying to catch a man but someone who's starting a business (doing a thing/job) and is thinking"Yeah I want to get to the place where everybody wants what I make, but only I get to pick and choose who gets it, cuz I'm that popular. Now I have all the power."I Love that. It's funny to have fell asleep with that in my head. I have a wonderful working relationship with this deck, and I'm the type of person who prefers to have living tools. So even though the book that I have recommended (as to not exclude the people who don't learn that way) doesn't really see them that way. I do so I adapted the information in it.