Tarot for Prison Ministries

Denever

FWIW, my experience with sending things to inmates is that about 85% of what happens to the package depends on who's in the mailroom that day. In California, things like books and tarot cards can only be sent through an approved vendor -- you can't just walk into prison with a gift.

If you send a deck through a vendor, it will arrive sealed. Whether it is opened and every card is scrutinized will probably depend, as I say, on who's handling the mail that day. I would bet that most mailroom prison employees wouldn't know enough about tarot to go through all 78 cards in search of contraband nudity.

That said, this is just my experience with California state prisons, and if any place is likely to have a prison employee who knows tarot, it's California.

And I still see new things every few months that boggle my mind -- enforcement of made-up rules, enforcement for the first time of rules I've never seen enforced anywhere before, unique and bizarre interpretations of long-standing rules, etc. Who knows what new wrinkle a tarot deck could produce! But all of this may be inapplicable to other states (I see Stovall18 is in Indiana) and county jails.
 

Grizabella

Someone may have mentioned the Joi de Vivre. I haven't read all the posts. But the Joi de Vivre is a happy little deck and one that I always turn to if I'm down in the dumps. Maybe that would be a good choice. There are no nudes in that one, for sure. If she uses it as a spiritual tool, then she might want something less "happy" but I love mine and it's my definite go-to when I'm down.

Bless you for doing that work with the women. One of my daughters was in prison for a short time and for awhile before and after that, I worked with an outreach here in Oregon, mentoring women.
 

TarotCasper

Ah ! Which one is the most threatening, the devil with her blue-clad boobs, or the three little naked creatures ?

Lol! Well, at least the devil lady is clad in something, but the minions could be taken for naked babies or something (I can't believe I just wrote that), and I can see that being a no-go in prison.
 

G6

I agree with Tarot of the Trees. It's an excellent reader and calming. I'd say it's more PG than The Wild Unknown. Especially if any inmates have animal cruelty in their background. The WU has a few cards that might feed into that memory or impulse.
 

Arnie

But, it's interesting this kind of rule, it says things about the ingrained spirit of a culture, or country, or government.

Yeah, you'd think there would be bigger fish to fry than 1/2" cartoon boobies.
 

violetdaisy

I don't think the Paulina contains any nudity.

no. It does not. Devil card is green furred guy and that's the closest thing. I don't think the Steampunk Tarot does either.