- Author and artist: Duy Khánh Võ
- Production: Bydala Divinations and Estrella Montien.
- IG: Bydala_divinations
- Website for purchase: Bydala Divinations
- Dimensions: Standard Tarot card size (2.75” x 4.75”)
- Review by Janine Worthington
First things first, this is the CARTA awards winning Tarot deck of 2022 which won best Tarot deck and best self-published Deck. No mean feat! As a result, I have a lot of high hopes for this deck and I am not disappointed.
The system is based on the Rider Waite deck which is good for beginners as you can clearly see similarities and link it across. There are, 85 cards in this deck with some interesting bonus cards which can be seen in the attached images. The story line for this deck is based in Asia and features the places that a person called Vy visited and that another person called Dan feels compelled to redraw in searching for her true love. I would recommend reading the storyline first in the first part of the electronic handout so you can then get a feel for the flow of the deck.
In order to get to the handout you need to take the authenticity card and scan the QR code to access the accompanying PDF document. Unlike its partnered deck – the Quên Oracle – this PDF doesn’t have a hyperlinked contents page which means you have to scroll up and down to find your card, but this is still quicker than flicking through a physical book.
Each card in the digital booklet features a part of the story and the associated key-words for that card. The court cards and majors have featured locations so on those cards you get an explanation of how they add to the feel of the card (based on the author’s experience) which I found really interesting and different. The cards without locations (the minors) also come with instructions on how you can associate one using a dice which was fun to do with my card pulls.
When I delve into the cards themselves, I am in for a treat with the copper gilded edges which are stunning and also compliment the edges in the Quên Oracle which I also own. The backs are different however and feature lovely warm colours and flowers (see photo).
The bonus cards are very interesting – you get five Fool cards in different locations and some special bonus cards like ‘karma’ ‘the blank’ and ‘myself’ which I have chosen to use as a significator card when I do readings with this deck.
The images are gorgeous, hand drawn/painted with a matt finish. They are also an interesting twist on the Rider Waite while some of the card images are very different. I like the similarities and the differences as it feels both familiar and new at the same time. I can also do my usual readings with the deck as it follows the traditional system, except for the bonus cards. The courts and the majors also feature titles/locations while the minors don’t. Where there are no titles, the Rider Waite similarities help me make the connection without me necessarily having to refer to the PDF every time. There is also enough mystery in the cards to connect in to your own intuition while doing readings.
All in all, a beautiful deck of cards in a stunning magnetic clip box, a strong addition to any Tarot collection.
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