The Traditional Tarot for the 21st Century
Most Tarot decks with really spectacular designs are really just art collections. The Gilded Tarot transcends this limitation by having some of the most strikingly beautiful art on any Tarot deck, yet follows the Rider-Waite-Smith model. The result is a unique deck that any person with some Tarot experience will find instantly familiar and usable. This deck can be used with any Tarot system or book.
You really must see the cards to believe their beauty. The High Priestess dances on water in a translucent dress of stars. She bends backwards in front of a crescent moon, looking like a classic lamp from the 1920s. The Wheel of Fortune shows the zodiacal wheel around a solar center as part of a bizarre, almost alien machine. The Hanging Man follows this machine concept, but he is dressed in brilliant reds and greens.
The colors are deep and intense, almost metallic. They draw you in and will have you staring at the images repeatedly. But this is more than a deck to look at, it’s a deck to use! The Gilded Tarot Companion, a full book by Tarot expert Barbara Moore, is included with this deck. It’s a complete introduction so that even a beginner can use this deck right away.
If you’re tired of the old style of the RWS deck and its imitators, if you’re looking for a familiar deck that will take you into the future, this is the deck you want to use.
Beautiful, classy and classic This deck is visually stunning, and is currently my favorite deck. Symbolically it has depth, without being overbearing, or “guiding” too much. Since I am fairly eclectic in my reading style, I go much more for with the feel of a card and my gut, rather than any traditional meanings. Yet, this deck can please both types of readers. Everyone (highly traditional and not) who has seen this deck has wanted their own copy.
Visually Stunning, But Lacks Symbolic And Intuitive Depth Featuring vibrant images that straddle worlds mechanical and magical, as well as ancient and futuristic, The Gilded Tarot is a visually sumptuous deck created by award-winning digital artist Ciro Marchetti. Modeled after the Rider-Waite deck, the cards follow the traditional renderings of both the Major and Minor Arcana. Polished metal, silken garments and ethereal space-scapes unite to tell the time-honored tale of the Tarot.The Minor Arcana is fully illustrated, and just as much care has been taken in their rendering as with the Majors. I always enjoy seeing this in a deck, especially since the Minors are often treated as an afterthought. The outer edging of the cards is black, while a golden bejeweled frame encloses the central image. The jewel-like accoutrements are color-coded thusly: Black for the Majors, blue for the Swords, green for the Pentacles, red for the Wands, and orange for the Cups.The 150-page companion book by Barbara Moore provides solid…
A Total Beginner’s, Non-Technical Opinion Although I have long been interested in the tarot, this is the first deck I’ve ever bought, and it was the deck itself which was responsible. It really drew me to it, from the first moment I saw it. It’s visually rich and stunning, yet at the same time, for me at least, warm and welcoming. Looking at the individual cards, I can get lost in them. For whatever reason, they speak to me, and that is apparently the most important criteria for choosing a deck, or rather, letting a deck choose you. This one really did. For some odd reason, although the faces are computer-generated, they seem more real and ‘human’ to me than in many other traditionally created decks I’ve seen. They seem like real people, which I find fascinating. I almost expect some of them to pop off the page and come to life. To me,the ‘machineries’ the artist includes do not disrupt the intricate warmth of the figures and symbolism, but meld seamlessly and charmingly. I in no way felt this was a ‘cold’ or…