Review by Lisa Silver Crow Perreault
Anna Klaffinger is an Austrian artist who has been working with tarot since 1998. She finished the first edition of the Anna K tarot deck in 2004 and self published the deck in 2008. This review is of the second edition published in 2010.
There’s so much to say about this deck, but let’s start at the beginning.
The size of these cards at 2.75 x 4.00 inches fits comfortably in the hand, and with no borders, there is still plenty of room for the clean artwork. The card stock is smooth and silky, and breaks in beautifully, with smooth edges that show no perforation nubs that were an issue for some with the first edition. It seems the more you work with these cards, the better they feel. This deck also features a dark brown back with four trees and a star type pattern that is reversible and pleasing to the eye. The deck comes in a sturdy box with deck and guidebook.
The deck follows the RWS tradition with some departures. The LWB is 80 pages in black and white with easy to read print, which is a pleasure compared to some that try to fit too much in a small space. A small picture of each card is included with the card meanings.
There are some departures from normal RWS meanings. The artists view of the court cards and aces are quoted from the book as follows.
The Aces can be seen as changes that lie within us or in our environment.
The Pages I usually read as invitations to cultivate certain attitudes or to inwardly prepare for certain ways of feeling, being, thinking or doing.
The Knights can be seen as certain spirits or moods.
The Queens I hardly ever interpret as actual (female) individuals but as the values, the habits, the philosophy of life or typical moods (in other words: the inner life) of a person regardless of whether the person is female or male.
The Kings I likewise don’t usually read to be actual (male) individuals but the typical way of acting, the job, the lifestyle (or, in other words: the outer life) of a person, regardless of whether the person is male or female.
Even if you don’t agree with these definitions, the aces and court cards are done in such a way that standard interpretations can easily be seen.
The artwork in this deck is done in soothing mid-tones, neither pastel or garish in coloring it is easy on the eye. The images are earthy and of a time past, but easily identified with in the now. The images seem to mean what they say, and say what they mean in such a way that even a new tarot reader would be comfortable with. This is a very honest deck in that negative situations are not glossed over, nor accentuated any more than they need to be. The deck presents the cards in such a way that you can feel the pain, happiness, sadness and joy of the people in the images and relate it to your own life. This is also a deck that can be used to read for those that are more sensitive to some of the more traditional tarot imagery.
My two favorite cards in this deck are the Lovers card and the Wheel of Fortune. The Lovers are an older couple that allow a different view of this card an in many ways, is more meaningful than many other decks. The Wheel of Fortune card shows a water wheel with someone on their way up, some dancing on the top, and the ones that were on top falling down again. It epitomizes the meaning of this card in a way so clear, you can imagine yourself in any of the positions.
There are some departures from the normal RWS major arcana as well. For example, the moon, star and sun cards, in the second edition, are done with no human images. At first this was off putting of my normal intuitive reading, but soon became comfortable and actually allowed me to see these cards from a different angle.
Overall, I highly recommend this deck for new or seasoned readers. If a new reader, I would suggest learning this deck alongside a similar RWS deck to compare meanings and find your own way with them. If this was to be a first deck, it may make it difficult to understand the symbolism normally seen in RWS clones.
This deck is one of my favorites, and will continue to be so for some time, due to its many positive attributes, but more so, its ease of reading.
Silver Crow has been reading tarot for over 30 years. Taught by her trial grandmother she has continued the tradition of intuitive reading as a professional tarot reader.
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