The Morgan-Greer Tarot is an excellent deck for Tarot beginners, this deck is of the Rider-Waite tradition, with far better artwork. The cards are borderless, for something different, and the characters are shown fairly close-up.
The Morgan-Greer Tarot is based on the classic
Rider-Waite deck drawn by Pamela Coleman Smith. The
Rider-Waite is so ineptly drawn that it has inspired numerous
attempts at improvement, often simply by use of different
colors than Smith's original. Greer's tarot deck starts
off with entirely new drawings painted in
exceptionally rich color. With no borders, the card images run
the full length of the cards. Rather than paint full
scenes as did Smith, Greer chooses to paint from a closer
perspective, so figures are often head/shoulders or three
quarters in length; this allows for more detail in the
painting of each character portrayed in the cards. The
symbolism follows Rider-Waite closely, with only a few
departures: the nine of swords, traditionally the nightmare
card in Rider-Waite, now shows symbols of bound hands,
which to me changes the meaning of the card.
Many of the people shown in the cards are androgynous,
this is especially evident with the Pages, they can
represent a girl or boy equally well, without offending
either. This sexual ambiguity is well suited to a deck
that will appeal to men and women alike.
I have a
"pet peeve" card in each tarot deck I purchase, and in
the Morgan-Greer deck it is Key 13, Death: Death is
shown in a black cape with a square of white at the
collar; this gives him the appearance of wearing a
priest's Roman collar, and is to me off-putting. A quick
touch-up with a Sharpie fixes this, however.
The
Morgan-Greer deck will appeal to fans of Rider-Waite and its
many variants. It is a handsome deck that will be well
suited to readings for other people.
This was my first tarot deck and I was drawn to it
intuitively. I'm not a "numbers" person so I need the
rich images to evoke a gut response, and these
cards achieve that end admirably. Major and Minor
arcana all have great artwork, original without
losing the classical connotations of the tarot. The
colors are bold, and the intended meanings are pretty
clear. There is nudity or partial nudity on only four
cards, all Majors, but the artwork is primitive enough
that it is not offensive at all.
I find the
illustrated Minors capture the imagination and allow
intuitive interpretation rather easier than other
decks. Someone gifted me a deck that had very simple
minor arcana (ten crossed swords on a blue field) and
it means nothing to me. In the Morgan-Greer the ten of
swords depicts a man lying facedown with ten swords
stuck in his back, much more evocative of betrayal!
Don't get me wrong, there are only two cards in the
deck where blood appears on the swords and only the
one where they enter the body. The images are NOT
terribly violent. This Deck is a great one for
beginners or experienced readers that want a
"traditional" deck with out being limited to good old
Rider-Waite.
The book that goes with the cards is informative, but not overly
verbose. Included are the usual connotations of each
suit and a short discussion on numerology as used in
the Major arcana. There is a description of the image
with a brief analysis of the elements included in each
image. There is brief discussion of the care and
keeping of the cards, although there is no mandatory
tone to it and these things are left to the reader's
discretion. In the back, several spreads are presented
with concise descriptions for each, then an essay on
how to read cards in combination with each other (i.e.
swords and pentacles together…) I don't personally
want more than a couple of pages on each card, reading
is a very intuitive thing. Some explanation of the
mind set of the artist is great and helpful, after
that let me alone and let me bond with my cards!
