The medieval English style artwork has a has a wonderful soft, old-fashioned look. The majors are quite simple figures, while the minor arcana show the suit elements and a tiny scene at the base of the card.
When I first came across this deck in a bookstore
I was not really looking for another Tarot Deck.
However, being a medieval history buff who is into the art,
cooking, music etc. of Merry Olde England, I simply
couldn't resist. Old English Tarot? This just had to be the
deck for me!
So I brought it home and cracked it open
and was immediately delighted by the images of the
major arcana. The colors are rich, bold, and deep. The
lines are simple, but the pictures are still detailed
enough to be pleasing to an art lover. What struck me the
most was the background of the major arcana. It is a
warm and creamy golden brown with very artistically
drawn curlicues twisting through it. What I found
particularly interesting was the way in which the artist worked
off of some older tarot interpretations. For instance,
The Lovers shows a young man trying to choose between
two women, often representing virtue and vice, while
cupid hovers above them, waiting to let his arrow fly.
This is typical of older tarot decks, and shows more of
the choice and duality that is inherent in the meaning
of the card.
The court cards were also beautiful.
The minor arcana are broken up into the familiar
swords and cups and also include the somewhat more
obscure suits of coins and batons (which stand for
pentacles and wands/rods, respectively). One of the things
that I loved about the court cards was the way in which
the artist themed the color and style of the clothing
in each suit. For instance, the King, Queen, Knight,
and Knave (Page) of coins are all draped in robes of
navy blue whereas the members of the Court of Batons
seem to favor lighter blue and crimson robes. I also
liked the backgrounds that she used with the court
cards, the court members in the suit of cups, for
example, were all pictured against a background of draping
bowers of purple grapes.
Now on to the pip cards. For
me, this was where everything started to fall apart
upon first inspection. I was expecting something more
along the lines of the Rider-Waite tradition, but to my
slight disappointment the pip cards more closely resemble
ordinary numbered cards. The three of cups being basically
an arrangement of three cups. Each pip card has a
small picture running along the bottom of the
arrangement of objects. In some cases it is only a tiny person
playing a tiny lute and in other cases it can be a scene
that depicts people picking fruit in an orchard or
harvesting grain. When I began to take a closer look at these
pictures I became more pleased. The little pictures are
quite nice and hearken to images found on tapestries or
in medieval books of hours. The only thing that I
didn't like, (aside from the fact that they are generally
very small pictures and at times hard to make out) was
that while some of the images had something to do with
the meanings of the cards, like the ten of swords
(ruin, sorrow)pictures a wrecked ship sinking into a
stormy sea, others seemed to have no relavance, the three
of batons, a card of success, shows three little
bunnies popping out of rabbit holes. Cute, but not very
helpful. Perhaps least helpful of all are the images on the
cups which depict people playing a wide range of
medieval musical instruments. Very nice, but again not very
helpful.
I have gotten some good readings from this deck,
although it is not my main deck. Because of its simplicity,
I find it especially helpful for general advice and
usually use it for simple one card and three card spreads.
All in all this would not be a recommendable deck for
beginners since the pictures on the pip cards offer little
help with the meanings. It is, however, recommendable
for those who have an interest in medieval Europe as
well as those who enjoy decks based upon an older
tradition.
This is one of my favorite decks. I love most
things (well-done things!) that are Medieval themed, and
this is definitely well-done. It takes me back to the
pastoral days of the mid-1300's so much so that I would be
bet if they unearthed an English Tarot deck from that
time, it would look very much like this.
Especially
considering that the Major's don't stray hardly at all from
Marseilles-style, except for the controversial Strength as VIII and
Justice as XI. The Fool is facing the reader's right, The
Lovers shows a young man faced with a choice, The Wheel
of Fortune shows babewyns from Medieval illuminated
texts, as well as Marseilles decks hanging on to the
wheel, The Sun shows two children displaying affection in
a garden, Judgement shows three figures rising from
their grave rather than the more modern six, for a few
examples.
The Minors are where the deck gets tricky, and the
only reason I would dock any points from this otherwise
wonderful deck. They appear that they could be older-style
pips, but then they do have a small image that in some
cases obviously show the card's meaning, and in some
cases appear to be completely unrelated. If you don't
know much about Medieval art, specifically the
illuminated Luttrell Psalter, than these images can be
baffling. The bottom line is, this is a VERY obscure source,
and unfortunately, all we are given is a LWB. Had
Maggie Kneen written a more detailed book, explaining
these images, I would give this deck a full five stars,
no question. But after several weeks of online
research, as well as purchasing two rather expensive books
on the Luttrell Psalter, I can say that I finally
understand these Minors: They correspond exactly to RWS
meanings. In some cases looking at them closely helps, but
the Suit of Cups in particular requires some real
study. I found many images from the Minors in my books on
the Luttrell Psalter, and am left to wonder if they
were all directly recreated from this text or if some
were merely inspired by it? The Minor Suits are:
Swords, Cups, Batons, and Coins, again avoiding the more
modern Wands and Pentacles. The Courts are King, Queen,
Knight and Knave.
The entire deck has a very quaint
hand-drawn appearance, not only the repetitive images of the
pips (the 10 interwoven swords, the 5 cups falling out
of place), but the tapestry on the backs share this
as well.
They are standard US Games size, and pretty
standard card stock. (I have small hands and they aren't too
difficult to shuffle.)
If you're willing to do some
research, and love medieval themes, I highly recommend this
deck. Once you're comfortable with the images, it can be
studied with any book that uses the RWS decks.
