Inner Child Cards: OMG

I'm glad you're so excited, and can't wait to hear your reaction once the cards arrive.

I looked at their scans online here at AT, and in real life the cards are MUCH more vibrant in color.

They're also a bit large in format, but even though I have small hands, that has never taken away from my pleasure with this deck.

DEFINITELY an under-rated deck, IMHO.

I was a manager at a bookstore when this deck was "officially" moved from Self-Improvement to New Age/Divination...
The Inner Child cards were originally part of a set; book, deck & workbook, designed as a psychological tool for people to use to help bridge the unconscious to the conscious. It's concept is similar to the Jungian Archetype Tarot. The Inner Child Cards interpreted various fairy tales via the book to help people visualize hope, courage and faith in times of trauma. It was originally marketed to people that had suffered some form of major trauma or were going through very difficult times.
The authors re-branded the cards sometime in the mid 90's I think, without the book, as a "healing" tarot for self exploration. not necessarily of the traumatic type. The artwork in the "new" deck must have been touched up since they are a little brighter, with more colors than the original deck.

kimtsan said:

Originally, fairytales are written as cautionary tales for children. They are written in an imaginative and presented in a magical way so that children will inherit the desirable social values of that time. Fairytale also has many powerful archetypes that represents various parts of the psyche.

And the original versions of the fairytale are actually quite dark...Disney gave them all happily ever afters, but if you go back and read the original Cinderella, Red Riding Cap, and Jack and the Bean Stalk etc...it's DARK stuff.

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Exactly! The cards themselves are bright and cheerful, the stories behind them, not necessarily. Thinking of the sinister aspects of the story could be an option for reading reversals.

Great for readings where people may be a bit...nervous

They are lovely, bright cards. For those in areas where tarot or Lenormand may not be looked upon too kindly, these would be great for a Halloween Faire. They are enormous! I know there are different editions, but the ones I had were HUGE.

cheshrkat said:

I was a manager at a bookstore when this deck was "officially" moved from Self-Improvement to New Age/Divination...
The Inner Child cards were originally part of a set; book, deck & workbook, designed as a psychological tool for people to use to help bridge the unconscious to the conscious. It's concept is similar to the Jungian Archetype Tarot. The Inner Child Cards interpreted various fairy tales via the book to help people visualize hope, courage and faith in times of trauma. It was originally marketed to people that had suffered some form of major trauma or were going through very difficult times.
The authors re-branded the cards sometime in the mid 90's I think, without the book, as a "healing" tarot for self exploration. not necessarily of the traumatic type. The artwork in the "new" deck must have been touched up since they are a little brighter, with more colors than the original deck.

Click to expand...

Just bought the book on Amazon. LOL

greatdane said:

They are lovely, bright cards. For those in areas where tarot or Lenormand may not be looked upon too kindly, these would be great for a Halloween Faire. They are enormous! I know there are different editions, but the ones I had were HUGE.

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Huge? Like how huge?? I have really skinny hands.

According to the reviews here on AT, they're 3 8/16” by 6 ¼”.

I took the borders right off mine and although I can't remember the dimensions (and have since passed the deck on) I do recall that it took them down to a size I found manageable and could shuffle easily.

If you measured the borders on your cards and looked at my image you'd see how much in size I took off. It did make all the difference to the deck for me.

Enjoy them; it's a very positive, bright, colorful deck. It used to come with a hardcover book. I'm not sure if the current version of the set does.

There are a few other fairy tale themed decks, too.

I trimmed the white borders off and it looks better and is easier to handle.

I like the deck (bought it when it came out) although the Santa Claus card is horrible - that hand! The winged hearts suit is lovely, the suit borders are beautiful. I embroidered a bag with the suit symbols, on silk I stained myself.

http://i983.photobucket.com/albums/...cards trimmed/P1110007640x480_zps34b266ff.jpg

http://i983.photobucket.com/albums/...cards trimmed/P1110007640x480_zps34b266ff.jpg

Yes, it is probably underrated because this deck is definitely child-compatible. Which is IMO a good thing and doesn't necessarily make a deck shallow or childish. The archetypes in tarot and fairy tales don't always give a close fit but they are interesting nevertheless.

I told in another thread around here that I used to give the cards to one of my daughters when she was angry or upset. I let her pick one that she liked especially and then we talked about the card and somehow her anger melted away.

Her all time favorite was the World card. It is one of the most beautiful World cards I know.