Review by Sezo aka Sarah Kral-Lindberg

So, the premise of this deck is that it is set in the time period of the hey-day of English Magic, which they state is between the periods of the reign of King Henry VIII to the death of  Charles II. The creators see this period as being a great time of magical, religious and scientific innovators and philosophers. A few of the key characters of this period do appear in the Majors by name; Guy Fawkes, Dr John Dee, Henry VIII and Issac Newton. Issac Newton I guess had to pay a visit in this deck somehow, as the creation of the deck was inspired by the idea of ‘if Issac Newton used a deck of Tarot cards, what would they look like’ – and the English Magic Tarot was the answer.

The deck was created by two artists – Rex Van Ryn who is a comic book artist who drew the outlines of the cards, and then Steve Dooley who coloured the images. The book states that Rex painted all the cards at their allotted astrological time, drum journeyed and invoked the energies of the English Magic to then receive the images for Steve to later colour. The book is written by Andy Letcher, although with insight, I believe, from the two artists. Whilst the two artists working on one deck might seem a little ‘odd’, actually it does seem to work with the art style. The cards are very much in a comic book/graphic novel style, which for some may seem rather incongruent with the time-period,  but the images do ‘work’ for me!

There is a real feel for the period in this deck. My only way to describe it is a mixture of ‘Mr Norrell and Jonathan Strange’ meets Phillip Carr-Gomms ‘Book of English Magic’. The Majors are borderless images, Stength VIII and Justice XI. Each of the majors (and minors) has a line of script in the card in either enochian, runes or ogham, the idea being that they are little pieces of a puzzle for the reader to work out if they so wish. I have been doing a little of scripting and googling and found …. well, I shall leave the secret for you to find out 😉 But it is a very clever little level of focus and hunting to add to a tarot deck (which I gather is inspired from Kit Williams and his treasure-hunt book ‘Masquerade’. But the working out of the little scripts is not integral to the cards.

The deck is created so it can be what I call a ‘plug and play’ to those who already read tarot cards. There is no complex new system or hidden concept to have to get your head around. You can just pick up the cards and read – although I have to say there are some beautiful and inspiring changes to the normal Major cards. The Fool looks like a cunning and slightly anarchic fool, ready to be a lovable rogue to cause some mischief to the cards. He has a questing and challenging ‘Loki’ look about him which is very poignant to this period of history (the Fool looks a lot like Andy Letcher too!). I also love the Tower card with the Ravens and the Tower of London, the hell of all places during the historical period. The executioner style of Death is a little haunting, Henry VIII as the slightly paranoid and tyrannical Emperor is perfect, and the secret darling love-tryst in the Lovers where you can make up your own story of how two people come together before Old Puck and a broomstick! The symbols are easy for anyone to use who have read tarot before, but can go deeper with study and reflection. My favourite (closely followed by the Judgement’s Wicker Man image!) is the Magician card as to me is really captures that moment when the spirit soars out of the body, the magician goes beyond the veil or skrying mirror in this case and goes into the magical dimensions…. its a powerful image of a man performing and exploring his Great Work, as countless have done in the history of English Magic.

The Minors are fairly standard. Coins (not Pentacles considering its a magical deck), Cups, Wands (as fire) and Swords (as air). However all the minor cards are bordered in the colour of their suit, which means that anyone who loves the deck for its borderless style will be upset at the minors. Plus, it also makes it impossible to do a ‘border-ectomy’ to the whole deck. I personally would have preferred them all borderless, as the colours in the cards reflect their suits well without the borders. The borders to my mind are also too big, shrinking the images of the minors – which is just such a shame! Considering this deck is not a RWS clone, there is a lot to enjoy about these minors, only they are cloaked by these bothersome borders.

However, the illustrated majors are very ‘Rider-Waite’ inspired (but not cloned) and so easy to ‘plug and play’. My favourite cards include the 10 of Coins – the master constantly hunting for answers in his memory place/library, and yet it is the floor of his lived experience that is the alchemical gold he seeks. The Queen of Coins and the King of Wands are both lusty types who love life and enjoy it through their elements of fire and earth – and whoever thought Earth wasn’t a sexy element needs to remember all of nature is fertility and fertility magics! The 4 of Wands shows us two women together sitting as though they are working magic together and is fabulous to see women doing magic in this period, as it wasn’t all just about the boys!  The roses and golds in this card speak of something powerful going on between these women.

The card stock is fairly good, slightly matt backed and will stand a fair amount of shuffling as the card stock is fairly flexible but not flimsy. The only other thing I’d add about the cards themselves is that the backs, to my mind, are awful and could have had something with a far more suitable flourish or flare of the period rather than two hands and two decks.  Also note that due to the design the backs are not reversible – I state this for those who read reversals and would be bothered by this.

The book is well written and by someone, Andy Letcher, who has an obvious passion for magic, the cards and the artists. The book gives a 2 page spread for major cards and a single page for minors and very similar in style to other companion books like the Druid-Craft Tarot. The book has no hard or fast descriptions of the cards or who everyone is in the images, so there is a lot of scope for the reader to draw intuitively from the deck and the essence of the period, rather than sticking to ‘historical truths’ (whatever they may be haha!)

Overall – I think this is a beautiful deck. Not the normal style I’d go for, however I feel glad to have it in my collection. It speaks of a time when everything was pulled into question, politics, religion, social strata,  the law, and therefore the philosophies which shaped them. Throughout Europe there were lots of magical people plugging into this energy at that time, not just in England but in Spain, the Italian states and even some of the Baltic states, that all later added to the great wave of energy we now call the ‘Western Magical Tradition’. But here in merry England is where the foundations of everything were shaken, questions dared to be asked and many died for their exploration of their beliefs – and I feel this deck does a great job at reviving the feelings of this magical time into our modern tarot world.

Created by Andy Letcher, Stephen Dooley, Rex Van Ryn

Published:  Red Wheel/Weiser