Tarot of Innocence (color)
Fey
78 cards, with 12 additional cards that include a title card and various other information and guidance. <br /><br />No box was included; I store my copy in a small blue plastic box with a clear, snap-on lid.<br /><br />The cards are smaller than average, measuring 2.5" wide x 3.5" long.<br /><br />The card stock is sturdy yet flexible, with a linen (slightly textured) finish.<br /><br />The card back design is very colorful and non-reversible.<br /><br />Strength is 8 and Justice is 11. The Fool is numbered 00. That's not a typo -- all of the majors have 2-digit numbers.<br /><br />Suits are Chalices, Pentacles, Wands, and Swords. The court cards are Page, Knight, Queen, and King.<br /><br />The minor arcana are scenic and often referential to the RWS, but I wouldn't classify this as a RWS-style deck.<br /><br />No physical (printed) LWB was included; however, a 262 page LWB was provided to all purchasers, in PDF format, sent via email.  <br /><br />I paid $43 USD for my copy in 2015. The deck's creator, Davina Penny, promoted the deck on the Aeclectic Tarot forum, which has since closed, though an archived version remains online. Davina's screen name was Shadowdancer.<br /><br />A black & white "sketch" version of this deck was made available for sale at the same time, for the same price. (I have a copy of it, also.)
Penny, Davina (creator & colorist)
Polsz, Steve (artist)
<a href="https://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=238401&page=4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Discussion of the deck on Aeclectic Tarot</a>
Self-published
2015
78 cards
English
Other
#7 of 150
Tarot of Innocence (b&w)
Fey
78 cards, with 12 additional cards that include a title card and various other information and guidance. <br /><br />No box was included; I store my copy in a small blue plastic box with a clear, snap-on lid.<br /><br />The cards are smaller than average, measuring 2.5" wide x 3.5" long.<br /><br />The card stock is sturdy yet flexible, with a linen (slightly textured) finish.<br /><br />The card back design is non-reversible. Curiously, the backs are the only part of this deck that aren't black and white (they are blue and black instead).<br /><br />Strength is 8 and Justice is 11. The Fool is numbered 00. That's not a typo -- all of the majors have 2-digit numbers.<br /><br />Suits are Chalices, Pentacles, Wands, and Swords. The court cards are Page, Knight, Queen, and King.<br /><br />The minor arcana are scenic and often referential to the RWS, but I wouldn't classify this as a RWS-style deck.<br /><br />No physical (printed) LWB was included; however, a 262 page LWB was provided to all purchasers, in PDF format, sent via email.  <br /><br />I paid $43 USD for my copy in 2015. The deck's creator, Davina Penny, promoted the deck on the Aeclectic Tarot forum, which has since closed, though an archived version remains online. Davina's screen name was Shadowdancer.<br /><br />A full color version of this deck was made available for sale at the same time, for the same price. (I have a copy of it, also.)
Penny, Davina (creator)
Polsz, Steve (artist)
<a href="https://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=238401&page=4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Discussion of the deck on Aeclectic Tarot</a>
Self-published
2015
78 cards
English
Other
#3 of 150
Cat's House Tarot
Cats
78 cards, with a softcover guidebook (in Japanese), in an upright, lidded tin box.<br /><br />The cards are longer than average, measuring 7 cm wide x 13 cm long. The card stock is flexible, with a semi-matte finish that is smooth on the back and very slightly textured on the front.<br /><br />The card backs feature a reversible black and white design.<br /><br />Strength is VIII and Justice is XI. The Fool is numbered 0.<br /><br />Suits are Cups, Swords, Wands, and Coins. The court cards are Page, Knight, Queen, and King.<br /><br />The minor arcana are plain pips.<br /><br />There is no date, or at least none that I can identify, on the cards or box. Adam McLean has mentioned this deck online a couple of times, both times listing a different year (2000 as well as 2001). <br /><br />Likewise, I'm not sure of the publisher's name. The name "SSS Factory" appears in English on the last page of the booklet.<br /><br />I don't know the original retail price of this deck, nor do I recall what I paid. But for the sake of reference, I wrote a note that a copy was for sale in July 2015 on eBay (offered by the seller known as baby_dream) for $78 USD. This was at some point after I'd bought my copy.Â
Hiroko, Miyamoto
SSS Factory (?)
[2000] or [2001]
78 cards
Japanese
Plain pips
Tarot Box (mini Sharman-Caselli)
Gift set
The "Tarot Box" set consists of 3 parts: a 78-card mini deck, a 336-page guidebook, and a snap-together cardboard mat offering a visual aid for laying out and reading the cards. The 3 components are housed in a clever cube-shaped box that flips open diagonally.<br /><br />The cards measure 5 cm wide x 9 cm long. The card stock is very flexible, with a smooth semi-matte finish on the front and a slightly textured finish on the back.<br /><br />The card backs are dark blue (or purple?) and fully reversible. A copyright line (<strong>Copyright</strong> <span><strong>© Giovanni Caselli 2001</strong>) </span>appears in the upper right and lower left corners.<br /><br />The deck is a mini-sized version of the Sharman-Caselli tarot, which has been published in multiple sizes and as part of multiple sets over the years. From what I can find, the Sharman-Caselli was first published as part of the <em>Beginner's Guide to Tarot</em> set in 2001. (Read more about it <a href="http://www.tarotpassages.com/sharmancaselli.htm" target="_blank" title="Sharman-Caselli tarot" rel="noreferrer noopener">in this review</a> by Diane Wilkes on her <em>Tarot Passages</em> site.)<br /><br />The major arcana are unnumbered, but the book lists Justice in the eighth position and Strength in the eleventh. <br /><br />The suits are Cups, Wands, Swords, and Pentacles. The court cards are Page, Knight, Queen, and King. <br /><br />The minor arcana are scenic and closely follow the RWS style/system. <br /><br />Pinning down a year of publication for this set is challenging, as different sites list different publishers/imprints and different years for what is essentially the same "Tarot Box" set. No copyright year appears on the box, but the publication information in the book lists the "BOOKINABOX" Barnes & Noble edition as © 2005.
Sharman-Burke, Juliet (author)
Caselli, Giovanni (artist)
Barnes & Noble Books
© 2005 (appears only in the book, not on the box)
78 cards
English
RWS
ISBN 9780760774373
ISBN 0760774374
White Sage Tarot
Animals
New age spirituality
78 cards + 2 chakra/reference cards + a 63-page LWB in a 2-part, lidded tin box.<br /><br />The cards are pocket sized, measuring 5.1 cm wide x 9.6 cm wide.<br /><br />The card stock is flexible, with a smooth, slippery semi-matte finish. Indeed, the cards are so slippery that shuffling becomes a challenge.<br /><br />The card backs feature a reversible, basket-weave design, with copyright information printed in the upper left and bottom right corners.<br /><br />Strength is 8 and Justice is 11. The Fool is numbered 0. No humans appear in any of the majors (or in any of the cards, for that matter). Many, though not all, of the majors feature animals.<br /><br />Suits are Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. The court cards are Page, Knight, Queen, and King. Instead of human courts, each suit features a different animal: raptors (birds of prey) in the court of Wands, otters in the court of Cups, big cats in the court of Swords, and elephants in the court of Pentacles.<br /><br />The minor arcana are illustrated, but not fully scenic. Some of the minors hint at RWS-style meanings, but others are little more than arrangements of suit symbols.<br /><br />To me, the White Sage tarot falls into the general category of "clean and contemporary" decks marketed to people who know nothing about tarot, but want something soft and pretty and Instagrammable. <br /><br />I can't see any way to read with this deck other than consulting the LWB, or applying memorized, rote meanings; there's not enough "there" in the images to spark intuition.
Hutch, Theresa
U.S. Games
© 2018
78 cards
English
Other
ISBN 9781572819542
Tarot de Marsella
78 cards + 2 title cards (Spanish and English) with an LWB in a thin cardboard tuckbox that fits inside a wooden outer box with a hinged lid. The name of the deck is woodburned on both the top and the inside of the lid.<br /><br />The cards measure 7.1 cm wide x 12.2 cm long. The cardstock is flexible but quite flimsy, with a shiny finish. I would not risk shuffling this deck by ordinary methods; even with delicate handling, the card corners are prone to chipping.<br /><br />The card backs are reversible.<br /><br />Justice is VIII and Strength is XI. The Fool is numbered XXII.<br /><br />Suits are Swords, Batons, Cups, and Coins. Interestingly, the cards themselves bear French titles, while the LWB assigns them Spanish titles. The court cards are Valet, Cavalier, Reyne, and Roy -- again, though, the LWB gives the Spanish version of the titles.<br /><br />The minor arcana are illustrated in the TdM style.<br /><br />I would put the publication year somewhere between 2000-2015, or more probably between 2005-2012. However, no date appears on the cards, LWB, or box(es). <br /><br />Likewise, very little is given in the way of an artist's name or publisher's name. The only name on the tuckbox is "Industria Argentina" and the only name on the title card(s) is "Babaji." A gold sticker on the right front corner of the wooden box reads "Legitimo Tarot A. G." -- the same sticker is on the clear plastic wrap that was around the tuckbox.<br /><br /><strong>Note</strong>: A round version of this deck was also made available; I own a copy. I don't have records of the purchase, but I recall buying both the regular and the circular versions at the same time.
Babaji
Discussion of this deck can be found here: <a href="http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=103863" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=103863</a>
Industria Argentina
n.d.
78 cards
Spanish
French
TdM
NaturalTarot Wooden Rider Waite Smith
Rider-Waite-Smith
78 thin wooden cards with a printed, single-page FAQ. No title card. No LWB.<br /><br />The deck didn't ship wth a bag or box, but I store my copy inside a cigar box, with the cards wrapped in a yellow cloth for an added layer of protection.<br /><br />The cards measure 7.2 cm wide x 11.8 cm wide. Though made of wood, the cards are quite thin and light. They are slightly transluscent. <br /><br />The card backs are plain wood, and therefore reversible.<br /><br />Aside from being made of wood, this is a standard copy of the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, with the same majors, suits, courts, and minors.<br /><br />Very little information is available about the deck's origin, publication, or creator. According to the "About" information on the NaturalTarot site from 2012: "NaturalTarot LLC is run by Del DeJean. His friends and family help him with their love, time, and expertise. Del lives and works in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA."<br /><br />The contact email from 2012 was given as follows (<em>I have no idea if this is still current</em>):Â NaturalTarotLLC@gmail.com
DeJean, Del
<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120713082825/http://www.naturaltarot.com/" target="_blank" title="NaturalTarot" rel="noreferrer noopener">Wayback Machine: Archived copy of the NaturalTarot site from 2012</a>
NaturalTarot
Unknown (probably between 2011-2015)
78 wooden cards
English
RWS
Rust Belt Arcana
Natural history
Art
Industrial midwest
Ecology, conservation, and environmentalism
78 cards in a sturdy, 2-part, lidded cardboard box. I purchased the companion book at the same time, but it is possible to purchase the deck and book separately. <br /><br />The cards measure 2.75" wide x 4.75" long. The card stock is nicely flexible, with a smooth, matte finish. <br /><br />The card back design is not reversible, in that there's an eye in the center and you can tell if it is upright or inverted.<br /><br />Strength is VIII and Justice is XI. The Fool is numbered 0.<br /><br />Suits are Pentacles, Wands, Swords, and Cups. The court cards are Seer, Knight, Queen, and King; however, there seems to be a mistake in the labeling of the courts in the suit of Wands. Unlike the other suits which all have a Knight, the suit of Wands has a Seer, <strong>Page</strong>, Queen, and King. Each court card depicts a real person and includes a quotation from that person.<br /><br />The minor arcana are illustrated, but not scenic. The minors each include keywords that aid the reader in applying diviniatory meanings to the cards, but the illustrations don't really "fit" with those meanings.<br /><br />The book has a copyright year of 2018; however, no date is given for the deck. Some online sources give 2019 as the year of publication for the deck, which makes sense based on the information I've seen. As far as I know, the book was published first, and the deck came afterward.<br /><br />The book can be considered a companion to the deck, but it isn't a traditional guidebook. The book discusses only the 22 major arcana, and makes no mention of the minors.<br /><br />Though the bottom of the deck box lists a retail price of $50.00, I acquired both the deck and book together for less than this amount, on sale in March 2020.<br /><br />Overall, this is okay as an art deck, but not particularly usable as a reading deck.
Wilson, David (artist)
Stansberry, Matt (author)
Belt Publishing, Cleveland OH
[2019]
© 2018 (book, 1st edition)
<em>Rust Belt Arcana: Tarot and Natural History in the Exurban Wilds</em> by Matt Stansberry and David Wilson. ISBN 9781948742122
English
Other
ISBN 9781950843060
WPA Tarot
WPA posters
78 cards in a plain white cardboard tuck box with a see-through window on the front. A small slip of paper accompanied the deck, providing basic details (title, artist, and Etsy shop URL).<br /><br />The cards measure 2.75" wide x 4.75" long. The cardstock is flexible, but doesn't "bounce back" as well as it might; I'd advise caution when shuffling. The cards have a smooth, matte finish with a barely discernable texture.<br /><br />The card back design is non-reversible, feauturing a red, white, and blue "Exhibition" poster.<br /><br />Justice is VIII and Strength is XI. The Fool is numbered 0.<br /><br />Suits are Cups, Pentacles, Swords, and Wands. The court cards are Page, Knight, Queen, and King.<br /><br />The minor arcana are not scenic; like all of the cards in the deck, they feature largely unedited pictures of WPA posters. <br /><br />Had this been produced as a majors-only art deck, I might be able to recommend this tarot -- but as a 78 card deck, it fails. The minor arcana simply aren't the same quality as the majors, in that the art doesn't seem to be intentionally matched with suits and numbers. Also, on some cards the art is stretched out of proportion.<br /><br />After being so disappointed by Bobby Alexander's "Golden Age of Horror" tarot, I was on the fence about this deck, but decided to give them one more chance. But I made a poor gamble. This is the last of Alexander's decks that I will buy.<br /><br />This tarot was initially marketed and funded via a Kickstarter campaign in 2020. I was a backer at the $25 level, for one copy of the deck. Following the conclusion of the campaign, the creator also began offering copies for sale in their Etsy shop.
Alexander, Bobby
<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1468389582/tarot-card-deck-based-on-1940s-wpa-posters-major-and-minor/description" target="_blank" title="WPA Kickstarter" rel="noreferrer noopener">WPA tarot - Kickstarter campaign</a>
Self-published
2020
78 cards
English
Other
Color Your Tarot
Adult coloring
78 cards + a 64 page softcover companion book + a set of 10 colored pencils in a large format, 2-part lidded cardboard shelf box.<br /><br />The cards measure 8.1 cm wide x 13 cm long.<br /><br />The cardstock is literally like cardstock that you might use in an office; lightweight, relatively thin, and bright white. The cards are uncoated, so that the art can be colored in.<br /><br />The card back design is reversible.<br /><br />Justice is VIII and Strength is XI. The Fool is numbered 0.<br /><br />Suits are Cups, Wands, Swords, and Pentacles. The court cards are Page, Knight, Queen, and King.<br /><br />The minor arcana cards are just pips. <br /><br />On a personal note, as someone who does a lot of coloring -- like, a LOT of coloring -- the line art of these cards is less than ideal, and the colored pencils included with the set are of poor quality. <br /><br />Yes, it's a "gift shop" type of set, so there's no point in having high expectations. But this seems like a set designed solely to cash-in on the adult coloring craze that was growing at the time. In that respect, they clearly succeeded--I wouldn't have purchased this otherwise.<br /><br />I'm having trouble finding a year of publication for this specific set; there's no date or copyright year on the set box. The publication information in the book lists a copyright of 2008, but that was for the original publication, and not specifically for the "Color Your Own" set.<br /><br />According to listings on Amazon.com and AbeBooks.com, this set was published in 2015.
Dean, Liz (author)
Launay, Melissa (artist)
Sterling Innovation, New York
[2015]
78 cards
English
Plain pips
ISBN 9781435162297
Simply Tarot (New Century)
78 cards + a title card + an informational card, with a 160-page softcover companion book and a purple, polyester spread cloth in a large, sturdy cardboard shelf box. The shelf box has a hinged lid with a velcro closure.<br /><br />The cards measure 3" wide x 5.25" long. The card stock is marvelous -- very flexible, with a smooth, glossy finish.<br /><br />The card backs are reversible.<br /><br />Strength is VIII and Justice is XI. The Fool is numbered 0. Interestingly, the companion book suggests that The Fool could be 0 or 22, but 0 is printed on the card itself.<br /><br />Suits are Cups, Wands, Pentacles, and Swords. The court cards are Page, Knight, Queen, and King.<br /><br />The minor arcana are a combination of <em>illustrated</em> and <em>scenic</em>. In some cases, the arrangement of suit symbols is given more prominence than the scene below it. The scenes follow the RWS system for the most part; someone who is comfortable reading with an RWS deck would be able to read with this tarot.<br /><br />I'm flummoxed and disappointed by how large the card borders are with the Simply Tarot set; it takes away from the beauty of the art.<br /><br />However, as a "gift shop" type of set, this is pretty good -- the book is okay, and at least the minor arcana aren't plain pips (as is commonplace with gift-set decks).<br /><br /><strong>Note</strong>: This tarot is a reprinted variant of the New Century tarot, first published by U.S. Games in 2003. The 2003 printing is far superior to the version included with the Simply Tarot set; the art is clearer, and the borders are much smaller and less distracting. The title card indicates that this version of the deck is still a USG publication; however, the set box lists only Sterling Innovation.<br /><br />Likewise, the book was first printed earlier, prior to being published as part of this set.<br /><br />No distinct publication date or copyright year appears on the set box, but Amazon suggests the set was published in 2008.
Eichelmann, Rolf (artist)
Greenaway, Leanna (author)
Sterling Innovation, New York
[2008]
78 cards
English
RWS / Other
ISBN 9781402745638
Tarot Basics
78 cards in a thin cardboard tuck box, packaged together with a softcover book in a 2-part, lidded shelf box.<br /><br />The cards measure 6 cm wide x 11.7 cm long. The cardstock is very flexible, with a glossy coating on both sides. <br /><br />The card backs are blue with a pattern of stars, and are fully reversible.<br /><br />Strength is VIII and Justice is XI. The Fool is numbered 0.<br /><br />Suits are Cups, Wands, Swords, and Pentacles. The court cards are Page, Knight, Queen, and King.<br /><br />The minor arcana are just pips with arrangements of suit symbols.<br /><br />The 10 of Pentacles was printed off-center, with the image running into the right border, all the way to the edge of the card.<br /><br />There's no clear-cut publication or copyright year listed on the set box; however, Amazon, AbeBooks, and other retailers give 2005 as the year of publication.<br /><br />The deck, illustrated by artist Jacqui Mair, was first published in the year 2000 by Collins & Brown Limited. (Note: This information doesn't appear on the set box, but is given on the side of the deck's tuckbox.)<br /><br />The book, by authors Evelin Bürger and Johannes Fiebig, was first published even earlier -- in 1994 and then again in 1997.<br /><br />The book, by the way, has no specific connection to the deck. The book's illustrations are of the standard Thoth, RWS, and TdM decks.<br /><br />Honestly, the book stands nicely on its own; it's far better than most tarot books that are packaged with "gift shop" sets. The deck itself, though, is a disappointment. The minor arcana are plain pips, and the major arcana are flat and uninspired.
Mair, Jacqueline (Jacqui)
Bürger, Evelin (author)
Fiebig, Johannes (author)
Barnes & Noble Books, New York
[2005]
78 cards
English
Plain pips
ISBN 0760795215