About this item
- The Maori Tattoo Tarot has 78 cards themed around spirituality of the Maori people of Aotearoa, New Zealand. The
- illustrations set Maori symbolism and imagery into a tarot structure. Self-published and available from the artist.
Specifications
Name
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Maori Tattoo Tarot
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Creators
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Roxana Paul
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Publisher
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The Rising Sun Publishing House 2016
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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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Card Size
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2.76 x 4.72 in. = 7.00cm x 12.00cm
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Card Language
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English
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Card Back
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Reversible
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Back Design
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Maori tattoo designs in purple around a central circular sunlike design.
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Companion Material
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PDF companion book with meanings is available for free download, or a separate complete companion book is available for purchase.
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Reviews
Paul and published by the Rising Sun Publishing House
has two remarkable features: its theme is about an
ancient civilization with clear mythological focus, and
its brilliant digital performance with the big eye
illustrations and vibrant colors looks quite contemporary. There
is one more important side of the deck: for the first
time I hold in my hand the whole Tarot deck where all
cards’ pictures are tattoos on the human skin background.
It is all colorful, saturated tattoos on fine and
smooth skin. Plus, I found a free license to use all
tattoo designs of the deck for personal purposes. Yassss,
I love it.
The trumps numbering is traditional
(exactly, according to Marseille Tarot, so the Fool is 0,
Justice is 8, and Strength is 11), but three cards have
special names: the Empress in the Maori Tattoo Tarot deck
is called Ariki-Tapairu, The Hierophant – Tohunga,
and the Emperor – Ariki. To add more exotic, all court
cards are renamed: Apprentice instead Page, Warrior
instead Knight, Chieftainess instead Queen, and Chief
instead King. Suits are Swords, Wands, Discs, and Gourds
instead Cups.
As a collector, buying a new deck I keep in
mind three preferences. First, I’'m looking for
something special, even unique in style and design of the
cards (mass-produced decks are out of my interest). As
for Maori Tattoo Tarot, I can'’t even. It is special
indeed. Second, I'’d like decks with a real historical or
cultural connection. I call it ‘inner meaning. I was
provided with a free companion ebook to download, thinking
it’s basic but discover a lot of information of the
deck’s esoteric background there. No doubt, it’s a
historically (or better say culturally) significant deck.
Third, the art of the deck has to be not lower than a
certain level. The Maori Tattoo Tarot cards are definitely
above an average level of the modern Tarot art. The
cards’ images are well-balanced, the faces and bodies of
people and sea creatures are depicted on the cards with
excellent details.
The decks were delivered shrink-wrapped
in tuck boxes with a 50 pages black and white LWBs
inside (no point to discuss LWB, for I also received the
comprehensive companion ebook with a new spread and some
practical things well explained). The cards are borderless,
and I prefer it this way. Due to the symmetrical
backside design, the cards are able to be used reversed (I
think it is an important quality for practical reading).
The paper is good, so the cards are beautiful to touch
and easy to shuffle. The size of cards is just so that
convenient to handle them. I usually buy a couple of decks,
and what a pleasant surprise: the seller sent me the
second deck for free as a Christmas
gift.
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