Created by Lucy Delics
RRP: £16.99 (US $19.99)
ISBN: 9778-1-64411-060-7
Published by Park Street Press, Vermont, USA.
Released December 2020
Lucy Delics is a visionary artist living in Peru, where she creates her art. Originally from the UK, she embarked on deep healing travels after losing both parents at a young age. Having spent several years working in myriad housekeeping positions, taking her from the Lake District to the Arctic Circle, Delics found her spiritual home in Peru. The Visionary Path Tarot deck was born out of her immersion into psychedelic plant medicines, including mushrooms, ayahuasca and huachuma, as well as shamanic dreaming and journeying.
The images are black and white and follow a psychedelic/zentangle style with additions of Mayan and Aztec design (and lots of mushrooms!). Delics doesn’t give any explanation behind the pictures, instead she encourages the reader to discover their own insights and inspiration. The deck follows a Rider Waite format of names and numbers and, even among the more unusual depictions (The Lovers, for example) familiar Waite archetypes are easily found.
Staring into the artwork reveals more and more tiny details, which is lovely for meditation and dreamwork. Below is a section from the Ace of Pentacles, where you can find plants, an insect, a cairn, some trees and a building structure amongst the wild contour lines and swirls.
I was drawn to the deck as I follow a shamanic practice which involves journey work (albeit without the plant medicines mentioned above!). The artwork intrigued me and I’m enjoying uncovering layers of story-telling as I experiment with reading these cards. As it’s a Waite-based system it’s suitable for anyone who follows RWS and associated themes.
I am a fan of tarot courts, and always check them out when looking at new decks. In the Visionary Path Tarot, the archetypes are easily recognisable even without their titles on the cards. It’s also worth noting that the Cups and Pentacles Queens display partial nudity.
It’s a chunky deck – the cards measure 127mm x 90mm and are a thick, high-gloss cardstock. Once released from the packaging and separated though, they’re pretty easy to shuffle. I do like a black and white deck, but my personal visual preference would be to lose the purple borders. I find they detract from the originality of the artwork, which is a shame. The 32-page accompanying booklet contains the creator’s biography, basic keywords for upright and reversed meanings, plus four ideas for spreads – 3 cards, a 5-card cross, the Celtic Cross and a 7-card horseshoe spread.
I came across a chat with Lucy Delics on Rune Soup from December 2020, where she talks about her life, adventures and the creation of the Visionary Path Tarot. Her art is also featured in the book, Women of Visionary Art by David Jay Brown and Rebecca Ann Hill.
Overall, it’s a deck I’m enjoying working with and it’s different from other shamanic-based decks I own. I think anyone who is interested in shamanic practices and is attracted to the artistic style will be happy to add this one to their collection.
Reviewed by: Treewitch
0 Comments