- Deck Name: THE ENCHANTED LOVE TAROT
Author: Monte Farber (The Enchanted Tarot and Instant Tarot)
Artist: Amy Zerner (The Enchanted Tarot and Instant Tarot)
Publisher: REDFeather Mind, Body, Spirit – Product Page
Recommended retail price: US $34.99 / GB £31.99
ISBN: 978-0-7643-5709-1
Reviewed by: MadeInChrome
I’m a sucker for collage decks. There, I’ve said it. I love ‘em all, even the ones that really make you work for their meanings. I love how the patchwork nature of the compositions literally creates layers of meaning, how interpreting the cards hinges not only on the visual eclecticism but the emotional resonance of the combined elements.
One such deck is The Enchanted Love Tarot by famed Tarot experts and creators Amy Zerner and Monte Farber, and inspired by their 40-plus year relationship. Even though it was released back in 2019, this romantic, pip-ish deck continues to delight with Zerner’s signature tapestry-collaged artwork, themed around – as it says on the box – The Lover’s Guide to Dating, Mating and Relating.
So, as it never hurts to re-view the cards, here we go!
The deck is colour-coded for each of the 5 suits as follows: lilac for the Majors, light red for the Roses suit (Wands), sea-green for the Shells (Cups), light blue for the Wings (Swords), and yellow for the Gems (Pentacles). Each card is also labelled with a keyword, which comes in very handy when working with the pips, but more on this later.
The Majors and the Courts feature Victorian inspired fairy-tale multicultural elements and characters. Some stand outs for me are: The Fool (Trust) with legs astride, boldly twirling his traditional handlebar moustache; The Hierophant (Tradition) as a shaman with his hand on an ancient statue, communing with his ancestral heritage, “before using its secret spell to awaken his sleeping lover”; the Hermit (Introspection), “socially challenged, never [quite] in the picture but off to the side observing it” through its many layers; and Justice, airborne, as a gentle flower-ladened angel.
The Courts equally shine – their postures perfectly illustrative of their meanings. Some stand outs here are: the Princess of Wings as The Messenger poised for flight; The Prince of Shells as The Charmer, holding a trumpet-like shell to his mouth, recalling the hypnotic power of the Pied Piper of Hamelin; The Queen of Roses as The Leader with her caring and charismatic visage; and The King of Gems as The Realist, his expression, with, I noted, a hint of scepticism, but otherwise conveying a unity with, and an acceptance of, his surroundings.
And so to the pips, which are illustrated with the suit symbols numbered according to the card. Now, the arrangement of the symbols may appear arbitrary at first; they’re not ordered like the Marseille, and certainly left me stumped if it hadn’t been for the one word descriptors. But on closer study, say, of the Roses and Gems, there is insight to be had if you also know the meanings of the different coloured flowers and gemstones to bring a specificity to the reading.
For example, the Ace of Roses (Passion) appears simple enough with a single red rose for love and admiration. In the Two, the stitched flowers – one salmon-coloured and white, representing desire and excitement; the other pink and white, representing innocence and appreciation – both convey the choice inherent in Crossroads, the key word here. The yellow roses of the Three (Opportunity) suggest friendship and the opportunity for it, while the white rose in the Four (Respect) symbolises respect for the innocence of new love – and so on. I also noted that with the stitched flowers in the Five, Nine and Ten, a parallel could be drawn between the finesse and persistence of such needlework, and the efforts involved in competition, habits, and stress, the respective keywords for these cards.
From the heartfelt desire of the Roses, we move to the – quite frankly – suggestive imagery of the Shells, and in particular, the Ace (Love). No prizes as to what that shell looks like. Once seen, though, it’s difficult to un-see the implications of the closed shells of the Four (Re-evaluation) and Five (Disappointment), and the – er – varied options of the Seven (Illusion).
But moving swiftly on –
– and to my favourite suit, the Wings (Swords), with its kaleidoscopic flutter of butterflies, an appropriate representation of the transformative nature of our mental processes for good or bad. I have always loved the light, ethereal and short-lived nature of the butterfly as a metaphor for mental evolution. It is of a particular balm to me, as a ‘Swordsy-type’, to see the weight of thought, with all its supposed power over the physical, depicted in this way.
Finally, we come to the Gems (Pentacles/Coins), and the multifaceted emerald of new beginnings and prosperity of its Ace (Reward). But also being green for envy, how it can develop into the Possessiveness of the Four, and the Perfectionism of the Eight. The suit ends with a variety of precious stones in the Ten (Protection), possibly suggesting security in the form of a wide-ranging financial portfolio. I like the idea of the gems for the material suit. It calls to mind the quote that they “cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials”, a fitting analogy that encapsulates the journey through the Minors.
In working with the cards, I found them easy to get into – the keywords helping obviously! As a sample, I did an open reading, and pulled the Three of Gems (Work), the King of Roses (The Motivator) and the Nine of Roses (Habits). In summing up the deck nicely, longevity is not just about putting in the effort, but continuing to challenge and inspire each other in order to stay the course. No great relationship ever rested on its laurels, because “if you do what you always did, you get what you always got.”
Some final notes here on production values, which are mostly positive for this box set.
The book, measuring 14.5 x 22 cm, runs to 163 colour-coded pages with beautiful, enlarged colour plates of the cards. There are the standard sections: Introduction, How to do a reading, along with Meanings, upright and reversed; plus two interesting additions: Spells for True Love, ranging from how to attract it to ending a relationship and everything in between; and The ABCs of True Love – a glossary of associated terms with words of advice on each.
The box, sized 15 x 22.5 cm, is the sturdy magnetic-clip variety with a glossy, dark-red finish, while the cards, sized 12.5 x 7.5cm, are of a decent stock, shuffle reasonably well, though not as slippy as I would like, and have attractive pink backs decorated with an ornamental curlicue design.
To conclude, the deck is mostly a gentle read, with muted, if any, expressions of heartache that can predominate other love-themed decks. I would recommend it for more experienced readers, while for beginners, I suggest researching the suits symbols first for greater insight.
The Enchanted Love Tarot was published in 2019 by REDFeather Mind, Body, Spirit, an imprint of Schiffer Publishing, Ltd, and is a reprint of the 2006 edition by St Martin’s Press in New York. The 2019 edition can be purchased direct from Schiffer Books, REDFeather, Amazon, and most online bookstores.
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