by Cherie Gerhardt at www.mysticmoonmedia.com

Publisher: US Games

Rec’d Retail Price: £24

ISBN: 978-1-64671-083-6

Date of Publication: 2022

Holding my hand up, this is not a deck that I would have bought for myself based on the name and the cover art. I’m not really into witchiness and the triple goddess or even the lunar calendar. So am I glad that when no one else expressed an interest, I offered to review it because I love it! As soon as I opened the box and started flicking through the cards, I realised this is a deck that gives more than it appears on the outside. So it was no surprise to me to discover that it was originally a limited edition deck published in 2020 by the author/artist, which then got picked up by US Games.

The deck, as you might have guessed, is themed around the Lunar Calendar and the Triple Goddess. There are 39 cards and each of the 13 months (because as the guidebook explains the number of lunar month cycles doesn’t quite match our 12 month calendar) is represented by three cards. The first is the Waxing energy, correlated with the Maiden. The second the Full Moon, correlated with the Mother, and then the third, the Waning energy, correlated with the Crone. If you don’t know much about the lunar calendar and moon energies, this would be a great deck to learn from.

One of the reasons the cover art didn’t appeal to me is because oh look, it’s a picture of another slim young white female (says a definitely not slim or young reviewer). But inside lies artwork that honours all sorts of feminine bodies, diverse in age, size, ethnicity, and even, I was surprised and delighted to see, visible differences in other ways that are not often included. There is one card where the person has a port-wine stain on their face, one of a person with Albinism, and another where the person has mastectomy scars. The artwork is beautiful, including the back of the cards, owls being a particular theme. It’s digitally created and the artist describes their work as fantasy/pagan realism.

The guidebook of 64 pages is small but packs a lot in, including providing information at the start about the core themes, a couple of spread ideas and some suggestions on how to approach the deck. Each lunar month description gives an overview of the moon that month and the names the moon is called by such as in May, the Hare Moon, the Dryad, the Flower or the Winnemanoth (a word I have never heard before!). Then there is a description for each of the three cards in that month and what their meanings are.

I decided to do a quick New Deck Interview of 3 cards and came up with:

  1. What will our relationship be like? 25 Harvest Moon: Balance (Waxing, Maiden) – Great this deck is one for me to work with to help find my balance.
  2. What are you good for? 37 Cold Moon: Reach Out (Waxing, Maiden) – Offering a compassionate hand to me. I’m liking the sound of this.
  3. What is your weakness? 32 Blue Moon: Communing With The Dead (Full, Mother) – My first reaction was, well that’s ok because I’m not really into communing with the dead! But as I read the book I got from it that the deck would not be so good at helping me to empathise at a deeper level with my old self or others, as well as perhaps those who have passed on.

So overall a nice nourishing deck for when I need some self-care time. It’s definitely a deck that a beginner could happily use as there’s enough information in the cards and card titles to glean meanings without the book but the book provides useful further insights.

On a practical note, as with all the US Games decks I’ve come across the cardstock is of a decent weight and easy to handle. The box is a simple standard rigid box with lid, nothing fancy but serves its purpose. I happily recommend this deck whether you are a neopagan like the author/artist or just someone who is interested in the moon, the triple goddess or simply likes the artwork.  The more I look it the more I am drawn to the Crone cards. I’m not yet at that stage in my life but I’m nearing it and I think if I can grow up to be like one of these Crones, I will be very happy.

Reviewer: Alison Clayton-Smith

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