Hello beautiful souls!
I am not posting a lot these days and I apologize for that, returning to Canada has made my life busy: getting unpacked, trying to find a job, a new apartment. Plus, as you may have noticed, I am working hard on my website. Preparing a lot of changes in my brand, services and well, pretty much everything!
The Fairy Tale tarot has been created by Lisa Hunt; In this beautiful deck, each card represents a different fairy tale, so 78 fairy tales from all around the world are pictured, well known like Little Red Riding Hood, or obscure ones like The Enchanted Horse . This deck follows the Rider-Waite symbolism with some variants in the card title: The Fool becomes Innocence, The High Priestess becomes the Sorceress, The Empress becomes the Fairy Godmother, The Emperor becomes the Wise Old Man, The Hierophant becomes The Mentor, Strength becomes Courage, The Wheel of Fortune becomes The Wheel, The Hanged Man becomes Entrapment, Death becomes Transformation, The Devil becomes Temptation, The Tower becomes Deception, Judgment becomes Redemption and The World becomes Happily Ever After.
The suits are the classical ones: Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles.
As for the court cards, you’ll find the Princes, Princesses, Queens and Kings.
The edition I received in in French, it is unfortunately out of order in English, and comes in a cigar-type box with a lift up lid.
Now let’s see more in details what this deck looks like:
Box :
It is quite big and heavy, as it has to contain the book, but the good point is that the cards are well protected in it. In my version, the cover is the same than the one from the book, a rendition of the Innocence card, with the title “Once upon a time”, as these cards will make you enter the world of fairies, tales and your childhood memory.
Booklet:
The booklet is actually a big real book (358 pages for the French edition): indeed, after an introduction on the why of this deck, the book presents in details all the cards, which for each card:
- Title
- Story
- Culture
- Keywords
- the entire tale associated with it (so 78 tales, see why it’s a big book?),
- discussions on the symbols and meanings of the tale
At the end of the book is a chapter entitled “Card Reflections”, which discusses ways to read the cards and some spread examples.
Cards:
The cards are easy to manipulate, they have the right thickness and the texture is really pleasant; and there is no border! I know that this is an important point for many readers.
The back is GORGEOUS, exactly how I like it, old fashioned and poetic. It is reversible
As for the art on the cards itself, it is not as raffine than on the Shadowscapes tarot for example, but it fits very well the fairy tale universe. The lines are soft, the cards are very colorful, mainly shades of green, blue, brown and sometimes red and white. The artwork was done in watercolor which gives the cards a gentle energy.
The cards do not look overabundant at first, but actually, the more you look at one card, the more details you’ll see, without this feeling of “crowded” cards you can find for example with the Paulina tarot. It’s all really… subtle
Each card has a very distinct meaning but for one case, where I found that two cards had really similar tales connected to them, so I’ll use more the pictures itself than the story behind it
Interpretations:
Between the tale and the card description, you have all the keys in hand to understand each card. BUT I still find it a big difficult to match each card with its story. Sometimes it’s really fitting, like Beauty and the Beast for the Transformation/Death cards, but some other tales.. I really don’t see the connection with the usual card meanings.
I think I’ll need some (lot) of time to really possess this deck entirely and be able to understand it in depth.
I would not advice this deck for a beginner, more for someone who is used to the classic cards meanings and symbols.
My tip to get to know the deck: remember you childhood, and every night, before going to bed, read one of the story, looking at the card associated with it. Like that, you’ll take the time to learn to know all the stories, like you did as a child for many fairy tales.
Buy this deck if:
- You like gentle energy
- You love(d) fairy tales
- You are already used to tarot practice
- You want a deck that has many layers to discover
After some time:
I know have this deck for almost a year, and unfortunately, never really connected with it, with the cards. Their meanings to do appear to me as they do with the other cards, or not naturally. I will try to put more work into it, but I can't hide it was a bit of a disappointment, for a big fan of fairy tales as I am!
Hope you’ll find this review helpful, and I am curious, do you own this deck?
Elyssa
