Review by Emma Sunerton-Burl
On opening the deck I see it comes in a beautiful and very sturdy box, which can be a little stiff to open at first but is well presented. Inside is a good size guide book to the deck 10cm x 15.5 cm and almost 1.5cm thick, so much more substantial than a little white book to feel, though there is not a huge amount said on each card. Most of the book is colour pictures of the cards themselves, and the writing just elaborates a little more than a standard LWB. It is, however, of good quality, and feels good to use despite its brevity. The comments made are useful and to the point.
The cards themselves are longer than average but quite narrow, so easy to handle and of good quality card stock: 8cm x 14cm.
The images are absolutely beautiful. Bright and subtle colours brought together in innovative and unusual ways, there is a peacefulness about the deck as a whole as well as a richness and it hangs together well pictorially. Nino Japaridze is a contemporary Franco-Georgian artist painting surrealist pictures in acrylic, gouache, ink, oil, collage – sometimes all together, sometimes just one or two of these mediums in a painting. The deck has a cohesiveness, though, with bright yet mature colours. The artwork itself, though based on Rider Waite Style decks, is very creative and innovative and can intuitively lead to more reflective and unusual interpretations within the normal theme of any card. In particular, War is interesting in its colourlessness, The Devil in its brightness.
The deck has changed names for the suits
Disks are Gardens
Swords are Winds
Cups are Tides
Wands are Fire
So, the elemental attributions are the same as for other decks and the names more clearly reflect this. Most of the Major arcana are as would be expected for the tarot – with just one or two exceptions – War as The Emperor with a darker interpretation of the masculine force within us. The Lovers are simply Love; The Hanged Man is The Drowned, reflecting the connection this card has with water and the unconscious.
The court cards are:
Jester (Page – RWS or Princess – Thoth Style)
Stranger (Knight – RWS or Prince – Thoth)
Queen
King (Knight- Thoth style)
There is an additional emphasis on the Jester and Stranger cards that is not usually associated in standard decks. The Jester is also someone who amuses assists and comforts others, someone familiar and safe feeling, whereas the stranger is the opposite – someone who opposes, or who challenges and is unfamiliar. This brings an added dimension to the deck not normally seen, which can be useful predictively as well as with internal work.
The artwork itself, though based on Rider Waite Style decks, is very creative and innovative, and can intuitively lead to more reflective and unusual interpretations within the normal theme of any card. I really enjoy working with this deck and its unusual yet connected imagery, and could really relate meaning to the shapes and images chosen for the cards. The cards are accurate and clear in their meanings in response to a focus and give more creative meanings than the familiar decks. I personally felt that there are a number of cards that have imagery relating to death directly and the Death card itself portrays a very positive image of death, with the rebirth aspect strongly depicted. Other cards relating to death, I felt, were 8 Tides, War, 5 Tides and 5 Fire.
One other card that really jumped out at me was 4 Gardens with the image of a puppeteer controlling the puppet. I see this card in the Thoth deck as very much about personal power and having the courage to set boundaries rather than allow other control and this image really spoke to me about how we can allow ourselves to be controlled by others unwittingly and even could be controlling others ourselves.
I also liked the touch of having the puppet and puppeteer dressed in the same manner really emphasising that the issue of personal power is one within ourselves, how we control and boundary ourselves appropriately.
In all I loved this deck and will continue to use it, it is refreshing and innovative.
Artwork by Nino Japaridze
Text by Steve Lucas
Published by U.S. Games
Emma works as an intuitive psychic tarot reader and runs online training courses on reading with the Thoth tarot deck using a unique blend of intuition and psychological techniques. This has now been extended to working intuitively with RWS style decks too. She also mentors other professional and non-professional tarot readers. She offers visualisation MP3 downloads for intuition development, tarot readings F2F, telephone or distance, and healing – see her website for details.
Emma has a Bsc in Psychology and is a trained counsellor, counselling supervisor and trainer. She integrates this experience in her Tarot work, and in her self-written training courses for personal development, Tarot, and Tarot mentoring.
She is also offering guided mountain walking with a spiritual focus. See website for details. http://www.emma-sunerton-burl.co.uk
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