Deck Review: The Lunar Tarot

• Lunar Tarot
• By Jayne Wallace, Art by Julia Cellini
• Published by CICO Books
• Published 2023
• RRP: £20
• ISBN: 978-1-80065-265-1
• Reviewed by M.M.F. Swann
  
  

Jayne Wallace is a well-known psychic with a global following, serving as the driving force behind her company, Psychic Sisters. Gifted with clairvoyance since childhood, she has dedicated herself to refining her abilities through continuous study worldwide, earning her a reputation as one of the most respected psychics globally.

Additionally, Jayne is a published author, sharing her insights and experiences in books like “My Psychic Stories,” “44 Ways to Talk to Your Angels,” and “My Psychic Casebook.” She has also collaborated on and designed her own tarot decks, including the Oceanic Tarot, The Angel Tarot, The Crystal Power Tarot, The Magical Nordic Tarot, and The Lunar Tarot.

The deck is centred on the motif of the moon. The author describes how her journey has been influenced by it, as well as how the moon influences everything around us, making it more or less propitious to do certain activities at certain times. She even recommends cleansing the deck under the full moon. Even though the deck structure is typical of a Tarot deck, the author focuses heavily on the moon, suggesting affirmations and spreads linked to the topic.

The deck’s art is beautifully drawn by Julia Cellini, an illustrator that works in a variety of mediums such as watercolour and Adobe Photoshop, drawing inspiration from both nature and the cultural richness of her hometown in Hawaii. The illustrations of the Major Arcana is heavily inspired by that of a RWS deck, with all cards depicting the moon in some shape or form and the card altered to suit. For example, The High Priestess has lost its veil to reveal a starry night sky depicting a huge waxing gibbous moon, or the Empress that shows a waning gibbous moon in place of her pregnant belly. The art is also very inclusive with the characters in the Major Arcana and court cards varying in gender, sexuality and race.

I found some of the cards representations fascinating. For example, the Magician wields all phases of the moon, the High Priestess finally reveals what’s behind her veil, linking her inner knowledge to that of the moon, the Wheel of Fortune has the representation of all zodiac signs, referring to the changes that occur when the moon is stationed in each one of them, which changes every 2–3 days, and the Sun, which, like the World, is kind of an eclipse in order to show both astral bodies in the same setting.

The deck comes in a sturdy 2 piece midriff horizontal box with an insert to fit the cards and the guidebook snugly. The cards are made with reasonably good material, being flexible enough to assist in shuffling, while allowing the card to return to its original shape. The cards are particularly big, making shuffling a little difficult, but the flexibility of the material makes this deck easier to handle than most decks of its size. The cards have a glossy finish which is likely to fade at the edges with use and have the risk of sticking, though the cards did not stick at all out of the box. My only issue is that the cards are tied together by a piece of paper, but when removed, the individual cards can slide to the side of the insert. It’s also hard to take the cards out of the box once you open it, so I’ve taken out the insert and just used the box for the cards and guidebook together.

The deck structure resembles that of the Tarot de Marseille (TdM), with the Justice card as number 8 and the Strength card as number 11, and the Minor Arcana being represented in “pips” format instead of the Raider-Waite-Smith (RWS) usual imagery. However, the deck contains a High Priestess and a Hierophant instead of its TdM equivalents, the Papese and the Pope, and the card meanings in the guidebook, are also closer to those found in a RWS deck. I found this structure quite confusing, as it’s a mixture of TdM and RWS decks. Failing to find any explanation from the author for this choice, I remain uncertain as to why the deck is structured in such a way.

Despite the deck being based on the well-established RWS system of cards that has been in use for over a century, the author persistently emphasizes teaching readers how to interpret the cards, with a strong emphasis on the moon. While this may be the thematic focus of this particular deck, it should not be considered a mandatory aspect of Tarot reading in general. While making such comparisons might be entertaining, the author overlooks the broader practices that exist independently of lunar symbolism. Because of this, I wouldn’t recommend this deck to a beginner, as the structure could prove it difficult to transfer their knowledge to other decks.

That being said, the description of the cards in the guidebook can be quite helpful and interesting to read, as it takes on the original meaning of the card and draws a parallel to the phases of the moon. This is great to increase one’s repertoire on the cards and expand one’s view of them.

The guidebook dedicates a page to each Major Arcana, filled with keywords, meanings, imagery, explanations, the message the card conveys under the moon’s light, and a “Moon Mantra” for the reader to meditate on the card. The Minor Arcana has half a page for each card, with keywords, single word meaning and description, as well as an image of the card to help with reference.

The Minor Arcana suits are each linked to a phase of the moon, with Wands representing the full moon and the igniting energy it represents, Swords the first quarter as our plans and projects grow together with the moon, Cups representing the full moon, a time for celebrating what has been achieved, and Pentacles as the third quarter moon, a moment about “relaxing, letting go, and taking time to remove our foot from the pedal so we can rest”.

Although I fully agree with the majority of the above-mentioned definitions, I feel that Pentacles was somewhat misrepresented in this perspective. All other suits match well with their description, however, Pentacles, for me, is a suit about concretising and things that are solid and tangible, nothing to do with “relaxing” but about “working hard”. Pentacles does tend to be the slowest of the suits, but that slowness has nothing to do with “letting go” but it points more towards “moving forward with purpose”. However, I can see how Pentacles would be a good match for the third quarter as we concretise on what has been achieved and make it lasting.

In order to “test” how the deck reads, I did a little spread I found at https://www.incandescenttarot.com/ – A spread about bonding with your deck.

The spread positions are as follows:

1. The Deck style – 2 of Swords

According to the guidebook, this card represents “difficult decisions, impasse, avoidance” and has a meaning of “stuck in the middle”. The first thing that comes to mind is the deck’s mixing of RWS and TdM structures. The deck’s style therefore is one between the two systems.

• How it views the world – High Priestess

With the author of the deck being a psychic, it’s no wonder that “how it views the world” is through the eyes of the High Priestess. The guidebook explain the card as “inner knowledge”, with keywords like “intuition, mystery and subconscious”. Therefore, this may be a deck best designed for personal use as it sees the world based on the reader’s intuition and subconscious.

• What it’s best at uncovering – 3 of Cups

This position and the next one suggest that maybe this deck is better used for light-hearted and less serious matters, with the 3 of Cups being described as “friendship, community, gatherings” and having a meaning of “revelry”.

• How does it like to be used – 10 of Cups

The deck likes to be used in happy and emotional stable settings. I would imagine that using a moon-themed deck for more serious or grave settings would be discouraged as the Moon card in the Tarot tends to obscure instead of clarify and can even make nightmares more frightening. So maybe this deck is indeed best used on a happier setting, for fun and with friends.

• Something surprising we’ll uncover together – Temperance

I tend to have a particularly sceptical view of the Tarot, my practice is almost secular in its approach. However, I find myself really enjoying this deck’s symbolism and imagery, specially its link to the Moon and its cycles. So this deck has indeed taught me compromise. A deck that mixes TdM and RWS characteristics is nothing but a deck about compromise. And you can learn a lot from it. The guidebook describes Temperance as “patience, moderation, tranquillity”, so maybe it’s asking me to be patient with it and give it a shot.

This deck is a great interpretation of a typical Tarot deck, reimagined under the light of the Moon. Its symbols and imagery preserves the original meanings of the cards adding an extra layer to them that deepens the reader’s understanding of their meaning. It’s a beautiful deck and the guidebook, albeit a bit too theme-centered, is quite helpful in its descriptions allowing the reader to study each individual card in depth.

I must say I quite like this deck, I would highly recommend it for a seasoned or intermediary reader that would like to expand their view of the cards by analysing them under different light. It also proves quite helpful to those wanting to expand their knowledge from RWS based decks to TdM ones as the meanings remain the same while the cards are shown as “pips”.