Medicine Woman Tarot - tarot decks

Price: US $14.47

ProductID: alt0364

• The artist draws on the energies of Mother Earth in the Native American fashion, using pastel, positive looking artwork
• to create a feeling of harmony, reverance, and wonder in the Medicine Woman Tarot.

I acquired this deck mostly by chance and certainly not through planning, when I came across a post on the Aeclectic Tarot forums offering to trade it for another deck. I decided to check it out, and fell in love with it instantly! Within two weeks, I was cradling it in my arms and praising the day I responded to that post!

This deck, created by Carol Bridges, is another treasure. The artwork on its own is gorgeous, being simple enough to appeal and be open, but still being detailed enough to convey meaning in an evocative and very inventive way. Every single thing in the cards seems to have meaning of some sort: Even the way the titles of the Major Arcana are written!

To give a brief background to this deck before I got into details however, I shall say that its purpose, other than to be a deck for people to read with, is to help people, both men and women, regain the feminine healing energy that many people in the West are brought up to neglect nowadays. The creator takes pains to reassue that this deck is not specifically aimed at women only, despite its name, which came about due to the idea of the feminine healing energies that we are trying to reclaim. As Carol says:

"I feel that the division of humans into two sexes is arbitrary. We exist in a spectrum of sexuality and body types... A Medicine Woman is any person who has recognised and actualised their female powers, acting with intuition, love, and creative force to make this world 'home' for all generations to come."

This deck has the traditional 78 cards, and the ordering of the Majors is traditional aswell. However, Bridges has renamed each Major, and the new titles of these Majors are written in what I was taught was called 'Bubble Writing', in a way that fits the meaning of the card. For instance, the new title of the Hermit, 'Guide', is written as though it were a 'Guide' shaped book. The traditional titles of each Major are to be found on the cards themselevs though, in small black writing in an unobtrusive place, which helps a lot for beginners who are trying to work out the correlations between this deck and the more traditional decks. The images on the cards, whilst not being traditional, are easy to interpret and read, and the meanings are mostly traditional anyway.

The Minor Arcana are one of the strengths of this deck: Each suit tells the story of its 'main character', for instance, the suit of Stones (Pentacles) tells the story of how a young woman sets up her own small jewellery 'business' from scratch. The suit names have been changed, but are still recognisable: Bowls for Cups, Arrows for Swords, Pipes for Wands, and Stones for Pentacles.

The Court Cards have been changed quite dramatically however, with the traditional King, Queen, Knight, Page becoming Exempler, Lodge, Totem, and Apprentice. In all of the suits, the Apprentice is represented by the 'main character' of the suit's story, as they began their journey, and the Exempler is represented by that same character when they are older, and have the benefit of their experience. The Totem bears the image of an animal which represents that suit, eg- Eagle for Pipes. The Lodge, which bears a correlation between the womb of the Queen, usually holds resources used in the 'story', or shows the harvest which came from the 'story'. This is a wonderfully insightful way to view the Court cards, and I found it very easy to read the cards in this way. However, it could prove difficult if one wanted to use Significators, as often these Court cards do not represent people or personality traits, but situations and consequences.

It becomes apparant after sifting through this deck a couple of times that the images a figures within them are primarily female, and indeed three of the four suits have women as their 'main characters'. However, this should not be misinterpreted as feminist overtones: As mentioned above, this deck is aimed at both men and women, and includes both men and women in its purpose. The images also show tribal settings, but this is not based around a specific tribal culture: Something that surprised me when I received the deck, as I was expecting it to focus on the Native American culture. This deck has focussed largely on what the creator calls "tribes of the future", where humanity has blended what can be learned from the past cultures. It shows some tribal scenes which are quite modern: the people in it are wearing modern clothes for instance, and some which are not modern, where perhaps the character is a Shaman, kneeling in his circle with his tools in front of him. It is certainly a refreshing and interesting blend, and one which distinguishes this deck from most others of the same theme.

Overall, this deck is easy to use once it has been explored, and has artwork which I personally find very open, honest, and attractive. The new titles for the Majors offers the reader of this deck a whole new way of looking at the cards, and the stories played out within the Minors are a beautiful way to craft their meanings. A beautiful deck, and one which I'm sure many will benefit from.