Good grief! Has it really been over a year since I posted last?? Ugh… Well, before I flog myself some more for being so bad at keeping up my blog and website, I’ll continue with my little personal history.
June 2001 I was reintroduced to Tarot through a friend, and in my obsessive way tried to find a great deck… without much luck. Then in August I found out that Barnes and Noble had an online university that offered free classes, and one of them just happened to be on Tarot. I signed up for the class along with a beginning Astrology class. If I had guessed, I would have thought that I’d gravitate to the Astrology class, that is a little more technical than Tarot, with charts to create and such. But I surprised myself when I ended up enjoying the Tarot class so much more.
I ended up purchasing the Universal Waite Tarot and Joan Bunning’s Learning the Tarot book that was recommended for the class. While visiting the message boards there, I found out about an MSN community group that was founded by some students from the class, and I joined up to find out what all of this online-stuff was all about. And the rest is history, really.
I “met” so many wonderful people in this group, people I’m still friends with today. Another big effect this group had on me was to trigger that Obsessive/Compulsive gene that causes me to buy every deck in sight, because I just “have to have it!”
Speaking of….. have you seen some of the decks coming out this year? I’m really excited about a few of them! The first several years of my Tarot fascination I must have gathered up almost any deck I could afford (and then some), as you can see from my list on my website. Then last year I became far more choosy. There were actually decks published that I didn’t purchase!
Let’s see… last year I acquired: from Lo Scarabeo - Circle of Life Tarot, Mona Lisa Tarot, Universal Wirth Tarot, Tarot of the Angels, Initiatory Tarot of the Golden Dawn, and the Dark Grimoire Tarot. I also finally got my hands on the Modern Medieval Tarot by AGM and mooned over the images of the Mystic Dreamer Tarot, published by Llewellyn.
There were a few more, but some that deserve their own paragraph is Kat Black’s Touchstone Tarot, her special edition published by Leisa ReFalo. Thank you, Leisa! What a wonderful deck! I use it a lot for relationship spreads of all kinds. With the focus on the person rather than the scene, this deck works well for that. I just checked, and the Tarot Connection doesn’t have any in stock, so I guess she sold out of her special edition. But never fear, because Kunati is publishing this deck later this year!
Another honorable mention is US Games’ Deviant Moon Tarot. What an incredible deck! I can almost guarantee you that you’ve never seen anything like this one! It’s fresh and maybe a little disturbing in some ways…. I need to get my review up on my site soon!
But the pièce de résistance this year is Emily Carding’s Transparent Tarot, published by Schiffer. You can see images and reviews of this deck here: http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/transparent/ This is Tarot taken to the next level, a totally innovative way to use the cards. I was not disappointed with this deck!
Now, for this year, my 2009 wish list is rather small (of course that doesn’t mean that I won’t buy more), but the decks that are coming out, I’ve literally been waiting for for years!
Paulina Tarot, published by US Games Systems
Shadowscapes Tarot, to be published by Llewellyn
Legacy of the Divine Tarot, by Ciro Marchetti, to be published by Llewellyn
Tarot of Sweet Twilight, to be published by Lo Scarabeo
I’m literally chomping at the bit for these babies! Got my credit card all ready for their release… just gotta hold on a little… longer….
Well, I could go on and on, but my lunch break is almost up, so I’ll say good-bye for now!
Happy Tarot-ing!
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