Looking at Tarot cards...

[fajrdrako]

I had a yen for The Labyrinth Tarot by Luis Royo, which I saw a month ago or so, and have been thinking about ever since. But when I tried to order it at The Tarot Garden, I got this message:

We're sorry. This item can't be shipped to your selected destination. You may either change the shipping address or delete the item from your order by changing its quantity to 0 and clicking the update button below.

And at Amazon.ca they say:

Sign up to be notified when this item becomes available.

I take it that it isn't licensed for Canada yet.

Drat. This saves me money, but makes me want it more.

I was pleased to see that the deck I got for Pim last year, The Legacy of the Divine Tarot, is one of the most popular decks on the lists. I chose it by browsing hundreds of decks online - a pleasant task - and narrowing my choices. I thought it the most visually interesting, and suitable for her.

Though if buying Tarot cards for myself, I should probably get a Rider-Waite deck. It's the one I learned with - that is, it's the one my teacher used, though I used the Hanson-Roberts. But Rider-Waite is cassic, and there's a Centennary Edition.

I find browsing cards to be fascinating. Did you know there was a Tarot deck of Italian football stars? A Tarot of Pagan Cats? A Prairie Tarot? Vampire Tarot seems to be popular these days - well, no surprise, vampires are the gout du jour - of which the best seems to be the Favole. Victorian styles are proliferating, too.

A few that caught my fancy in this browse:

1. The Fengshen Tarot
   
2. The Transparent Tarot - an interesting innovation in reading style
   
3. The Rabbit Tarot
   
4. The Tyldwick Taro
   
5. Mage the Awakening Tarot Deck - this had me going "ooh, ooh, ooh!", and then I was embarrassed to be excited by a deck based on a game. But then... why not? I wonder what the Queen of Swords in this deck looks like. I see it's by the same talented woman who did the Shadowscapes deck: Stephanie Pui-Mun Law. I've come across her before, for dragon art. Sadly, this deck is currently unavailable, and if it were available, very expensive.
   
6. The Pirate Tarot