About this item
- The medieval English style artwork in the Old English Tarot has a has a wonderful soft, old-fashioned look. The majors
- are quite simple figures, while the minor arcana show the suit elements and a tiny scene at the base of the card.
Specifications
Name
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Old English Tarot
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Creators
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Maggie Kneen
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Publisher
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US Games 1997
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Deck Type
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Tarot Deck
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Cards
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78
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Major Arcana
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22
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Minor Arcana
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56
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Deck Tradition
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Mixed
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The Fool
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is 0
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Strength
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is 8
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Justice
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is 11
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Card Back
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Reversible
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Reviews
lder tarot decks, and shows more of
the choice and duality that is inherent in the meaning
of the card.
The court cards were also beautiful.
The minor arcana are broken up into the familiar
swords and cups and also include the somewhat more
obscure suits of coins and batons (which stand for
pentacles and wands/rods, respectively). One of the things
that I loved about the court cards was the way in which
the artist themed the color and style of the clothing
in each suit. For instance, the King, Queen, Knight,
and Knave (Page) of coins are all draped in robes of
navy blue whereas the members of the Court of Batons
seem to favor lighter blue and crimson robes. I also
liked the backgrounds that she used with the court
cards, the court members in the suit of cups, for
example, were all pictured against a background of draping
bowers of purple grapes.
Now on to the pip cards. For
me, this was where everything started to fall apart
upon first inspection. I was expecting something more
alon
g the lines of the Rider-Waite tradition, but to my
slight disappointment the pip cards more closely resemble
ordinary numbered cards. The three of cups being basically
an arrangement of three cups. Each pip card has a
small picture running along the bottom of the
arrangement of objects. In some cases it is only a tiny person
playing a tiny lute and in other cases it can be a scene
that depicts people picking fruit in an orchard or
harvesting grain. When I began to take a closer look at these
pictures I became more pleased. The little pictures are
quite nice and hearken to images found on tapestries or
in medieval books of hours. The only thing that I
didn't like, (aside from the fact that they are generally
very small pictures and at times hard to make out) was
that while some of the images had something to do with
the meanings of the cards, like the ten of swords
(ruin, sorrow)pictures a wrecked ship sinking into a
stormy sea, others seemed to have no relavance, the three
of batons, a card
of success, shows three little
bunnies popping out of rabbit holes. Cute, but not very
helpful. Perhaps least helpful of all are the images on the
cups which depict people playing a wide range of
medieval musical instruments. Very nice, but again not very
helpful.
I have gotten some good readings from this deck,
although it is not my main deck. Because of its simplicity,
I find it especially helpful for general advice and
usually use it for simple one card and three card spreads.
All in all this would not be a recommendable deck for
beginners since the pictures on the pip cards offer little
help with the meanings. It is, however, recommendable
for those who have an interest in medieval Europe as
well as those who enjoy decks based upon an older
tradition.
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