Tarot of the Silicon Dawn Cards – September 8, 2011

This deck surprised me ... and that was a while ago that a deck surprised and amazed me ... The booklet is so refreshing, and the cards ..... I haven't seen such fresh and original cards for a long time ...I will not go in details, but I will be busy with these cards for long time because they keep surprise me over and over again.This deck is made by a very original thinking, clever woman, playful, not afraid to take a fresh look, just like The Fool does ...The prints ON the cards (not all of them, but a lot) make this deck extra special, they are sensational, I haven't seen this before.This is a deck meant for intelligent and creative people, not for the people who like traditional tarot deck. These people can better buy the Gaian Tarot.Tarot of the Silicon Dawn (Tarot Deck Ex 189)

In this deck you will find many beautiful cards. Some are thought-provoking, some are subtle, some are sexy, some are whimsical. This deck is my favorite of the many decks I have on my shelf.Before the positives, I want to give a brief mention of yhe main negative about this deck, for me. The texture of the cards, it doesn't feel as loose as it should, but it is not a huge issue to me. It just means shuffling is not as fluid a motion as I'm used to.Positives: the deck's structure is refreshing. It extends and shakes up the prototypical 78-card, four suit tarot structure by adding more cards, including a suit of black, embossed images. Two of the prominent themes of this deck are technology and body acceptance. The art is so modern and cartoony, I love it. It reminds me of Steven Universe's art style in ways.Overall, five stars, fantastic deck!

I've had this deck for about a year now and had a good chance to play with the cards.The cards themselves are smaller than a playing card. Ms Urnash has had many of them embossed with subtle patterns so that further study brings out more detail and richer meaning. There are a ton of cards in the deck, including four versions of The Fool, several Void cards, and additional cards (such as number "99", among others). The 2 of Swords is my favorite, with a depiction of a bride holding two swords with a cowboy in the background, reminiscent of Kill Bill. (Pictured)The imagery is gorgeous, colorful, original, and creative, referring to pop culture as well as timeless images. There are several cards with explicit nudity, though it is certainly ART and not pron.The box is genius and can be used after the cards are opened, a failing of many other decks. They rest in two stacks inside the box with a short ribbon so you can pull them up without flipping the box over and spilling the cards everywhere. The box closes with a magnetic flap which holds the lid tightly closed with the book inside. Super easy to put away, it's one of my favorite tarot sets as a whole. (Pictured)As to the cons, there are really too many cards (100 in all), plus she reverses two of the major suits, the Wands and Pentacles. This makes for a difficult problem: it's truly a deck for advanced tarot users, and also really difficult for an experienced tarot user since it upends several core assumptions that are second nature. But that's part of the beauty of this unconventional deck, too.All in all, this is a MUST-HAVE deck for every avid collector, but in my experience it's more of a novelty than a deck I can use every day. I still love it though, and love the comic-like artwork and scifi vibe!

The Tarot of the Silicon Dawn (or Digital Dawn), by Egypt Urnash, is an unusual, but refreshing take on Tarot. There are many things going for this deck: slightly smaller cards, additional Major Arcana and variations, an additional suit, additional pip cards, swapped suit association, borderless,... This is a tarot that defines its own identity by defying tradition. However, it may be a great addition for some tarot collectors with a taste for the unusual.If you are expecting a mild variation on other traditional decks, then look elsewhere. For starter, these cards are smaller than many LoScarabeo decks, measuring 4"x2.25". These seem to be of the thickness, but not as flexible. And with the extra cards, this is a mighty thick deck that I would hesitate to shuffle as other conventional decks.The imagery in this tarot is abstract, akin to Thoth tarot, and contain nudity and explicit imagery as needed. In some cards, a transparent glue-like ink is applied, which upon light reflecting at an angle, reveal a hidden imagery. In the plus side, these cards are borderless, which maximizes the use of limited space. The back of these cards are almost reversible showing a galactic spiral on a black background.According to the author, the Major Arcana draw inspiration from the Golden Dawn, which influenced the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot. These are labeled at the top and numbered at the bottom in Arabic numerals instead of roman, but the Fools are devoid of numbers. There are many intriguing cards in the Major Arcana and a few divert a bit from the usual labeling:5. The High Priest - V. The Hierophant8. Fortitude - VIII. Strength10. Fortune - X. Wheel of Fortune12. unlabeled - XII. The Hanged Man21. Universe - XXI. The WorldThere are three additional Major Arcana at the beginning: one X. History and two Fools.The Minor Arcana take ideas from Crowley, who designed the Thoth Tarot. These are composed of five suits: wands, swords, cups, pentacles and Void. Each suit is associated to the colors green, yellow, blue, red and black, respectively, and follow this correspondence: Swords-Air, Cups-Water, Wands-Earth, and Pentacles-Fire. This swaps wands and pentacles traditional correspondence.The suit of Void is limited to five cards: 4 court cards (illustrated in landscape) and one 0 (meaning Void). Other suits include 15 cards: 10 pips, 4 court cards and one 99. Each 99 has a special meaning for each suit:99. Starseed (wands)99. Fission (swords)99. Recursion (cups)99. Extend (pentacles)The Minor Arcana are labeled at the four edges of the cards. The pips are labeled with Arabic numerals and suit symbols. In another interesting twist, the aces are wearing a mask with the suit symbol. The court cards are labeled with P, C, Q, or K (prince/princess, chevalier, queen, or king) and suit symbols. The symbols of the suits are also integrated as part of the cards.In addition, there are five spare cards thrown into the pack in case you care for them. As explained by the author of this deck, these "not-necessarily-proper images" are:8 1/2: Maya - "A bastard child of the High Priestess and the Devil"XIII: Vulture Mother - "A personal avatar of Death for a friend much is owed to."VIII: She is Legend - "... sent to a friend who refused to lift the veil of the Internet."0: The Fool - "... who went wrong."Aleph: November - "... a fool learns to fly on the wings of her own stories."All of these cards are well described in the guidebook included with these cards. This guidebook is organized as follows:Some Notes on TarotCourtsThe Numbered CardsCupsSwordsPentaclesWandsMajor ArcanaThe (VOID) and BeyondLike a Little White Book (LWB), this book is translated into five: English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Dutch. As such, we are lucky if we get one page per Major Arcana. Surprisingly, the book does a good job on fleshing out the cards; most needed for the extra ones. Beware, there are no special layouts if you need them.Of this book, "Some Notes on Tarot" is my most favorite section. In this section, the author presents a brief history of tarot (sort of) and an insight into her inspiration for this deck. I love this quote: "That's how I see Tarot: A historical trainwreck, pulled by about twenty-two decontextualized images."The cards and book come in a box that opens like a coffer and closes with a magnetic contact. This deck's imagery may be too much for beginners, but this is a great kit for tarot collectors.

I love, love, love this deck. It is one of the most interesting decks out there. The unique texture of the cards and the additional cards (including a whole new Suit of Void) is actually much more than just a gimmick.Also, while the additional cards make the deck much thicker, the cards are much smaller than a typical deck, making them quite easy to shuffle.

les cartes sont un peu petites, mais elles ont quelque chose de génial - des surimpressions en vernis transparent qui ne révèlent leurs motifs que sous certains angles et éclairages, ce qui donne une deuxième couche de symboles bien sympa. le livre est à mon sens excellent et hilarant, mais si vous êtes prude vous pourriez être mal à l'aise par moments. je précise que je n'ai lu que la partie en anglais, qui fait p'tet 2/3 du livre, tandis que le dernier tiers est partagé entre l'allemand, le français et l'italien.

Imaginative, creative and beautiful- what more to wish from a set of tartot cards. Give it some bonding time and you will be great into reading if not your future, your present and emotions. I luuuuv the little booklet too.

Artísticamente es espectacular, pero en términos de lectura es dificilísimo. Bebe de distintos tarots sobretodo del de alistair crowley, y además incorpora iconografía y simbolismo de otras culturas como la maya , griega o medieval italiana... El manual esta muy bien pero esta en un inglés dificilísimo, que hasta para mi que me manejo más que bien en el idioma es un poco complicado. Es muy interesante que traiga 21 cartas extra, un palo de figura de la corte que es el "vacío" y varias interpretaciones del loco y otras cartas en plan " toque de atención". Es un desafío interesantísimo pero creo que es muy muy difícil de saber interpretar dentro del arreglo. Merecerá la pena aprenderlo.

As much as i like the Art and Illustrations doesn't help the fact that those Cards are too small and printed on really thin Cardboard.Just taking them out of the Box and looking through them caused some edges to get ugly dents.They have no weight or stiffness to them and makes me feel sad for the Illustrators that put so much work into them.The quality of the material is in no form suited for the art.This set is purely for viewing only. Or if you want to take some pictures and need Tarot Cards as an element.