Review by Lin Barrett
The "Navigators of the Mystic SEA" deck is
descended from the Golden Dawn decks developed in the early
part of this century - Aleister Crowley's deck and that
of the New Order of the Golden Dawn are the two
best-known decks of this type. This deck is very modern in
feel and composition, while utilizing the card titles
of NOGD; in some cases its minor arcana differ
radically from Pamela Colman-Smith's designs for the
Rider-Waite Tarot. The Trumps are more consistent with other
decks, although NotMS' major difference is that it
reverses the order of the Major Arcana cards, starting with
the World and working backward to the Fool.
I did not
purchase the book with the deck, as I had recently devoted
myself to getting "out of my head" while reading, and
letting the cards speak, instead of putting someone else's
words into their mouths, to coin a phrase. Therefore I
can't discuss the philosophical stance the deck's
designers derived their order from. In a reading, it didn't
seem to matter.
These cards have, in readings I've done
for others and for myself, consistently discussed the
deep reasonings of the soul, the actual personal
impetus behind one's acts, rather than commenting on
shallower levels of development. They have been accurate in
terms of physical-world outcome, and equally accurate in
discussing a person's internal motivations.
My first
reading with them, done for myself, was rather startling
in its depth, like telephoning a casual friend and
getting into a soul-baring conversation. I find the
"feel" of the cards rather unemotional, not cuddly and
familiar; but then I was totally dedicated to Rider-Waite
and its descendants before making the acquaintance of
NotMS. NotMS doesn't feature nice fuzzy pictures of
pseudo-medieval scenes; the cards are accurate emotional shorthand
for the energies and situations under study for a
particular reading.
NotMS is probably best suited to someone
who has studied Qabbalah, number theory, and Tarot
theory as well. Anyone who is familiar with Rachel
Pollack's work, Jungian psychology, or the innovative
number/suit theory studies of Gail Fairfield, will find this
deck rewarding to work with. Those whose reading is
totally "intuitive" rather than rote-based might also find
"Navigators of the Mystic SEA" informative and broadening to use. A beginner might be better served by utilizing
Rider-Waite for a while, or an accurate derivative of it, and
then moving on to "Navigators of the Mystic SEA."
My bias, as I mentioned, is toward accurate derivatives of
Rider-Waite, and I am fairly strict about what "accurate" means - the Robin Wood deck is unarguably lovely, but
doesn't meet my standards - Wood made many errors of
omission in her deck's details. I found the artwork in
NotMS solidly grounded in the cards' meanings, and
well-done to boot - few people nowdays get their equine
anatomy correct, but NotMS does. The deck is not
gender-balanced in its minor depictions, which will aggravate my
fellow feminists.
It's not a deck for looking at and
understanding on a logical basis; "Navigators of the Mystic SEA"
speaks to the emotions directly, and I recommend it to
non-beginners whose approach is extrapolated beyond the logical.
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