Halo Sharp deck

There is a new deck just out, called the Halo Sharp deck. It has the biggest claims attached to it of any tarot deck that has ever been created. Period. You can find the link to it here and card images. http://www.michaelsharp.org/books/bookoftriumph/

It is a new energy Tarot and a watershed deck. I would suggest anyone serious about creating their own deck to check it out.

The energies in them are crystal clear.


namaste,
crystalclear

No offence, but that is the worst deck I have ever seen

First impressions. I like the Empress card. Great concept.

But visually, I don't feel the deck is that enlightening. There are many computer-generated decks about already, and they are not a million miles away from this one. As graphic design goes, this is not terribly sophisticated.

But I shall go read the blurb and come back.

Thanks for sharing. And also, welcome to the board!

LB

I'm sorry but I really struggle to take all this 'indigo children', 'crystal children' 'you are so special because you've been drawn to this book/course/healing system' New Age 'channelled' blurb even remotely seriously.

Replacing one set of dogmas for another and refusing to acknowledge the downs as well as the ups (in his renaming "to eliminate the negative energies of hierarchy, exclusion, judgment, and sacrifice") is not, to me anyway, what the tarot is supposed to be about. Where's the balance in making the deck entirely positive? What happens when something negative happens in your life? You just ignore it?? No, you have to deal with it and the regular cards can often help you to see a way through the bad times. How could such an imbalanced deck do that?

As for the art itself, yes, I agree with Little Buddha, the Empress card is fabulous, but the rest, to be honest, felt rather emotionless to me. I didn't get any great sense of energy from the imagery and I think there are far more lively and inspiring decks being created by people on this forum.

I don't often say much on the forum, and normally would never consider criticising someone else's work because art is such a personal thing but the grand claims being made for this deck, the text's talking down to the reader, and constant insistence that the 'old' card meanings are wrong/deceptive/destructive just got my back up, I suppose.

I don't doubt that there are a few spiritual insights to be taken from it but nothing that can't be realised or been around in many, many other books for a long time.

edited to say - as for the poetry.... *shudders*

I have to agree with you, Winnie. I felt a little down yesterday and pulled a card from the 'Russian Tarot of StPetersburg'. I received the '3 of Swords'. For the first time that day, I smiled. Because I recognised how I was feeling. I expected that card. I didn't want a 'make the best out of this .. jump up in the air and cry 'halleluyah' card'. I needed a reasuring 'I understand' message from the tarot. That recognition helped me through the day .. to the next step. So, I agree that the beauty in tarot, itself, is balance - the light with the dark, the good with the bad, the rough with the smooth. For me, all are relevant.

I always wonder why artists/creators feel a need to change the structure and naming of cards so drastically in some situations. If it doesn't work for you, pass it by. Go make an oracle which meets your own set of values or spiritual understanding.

I read the blurb that accompanied the images and I wasn't particularly impressed. I didn't appreciate the bad-mouthing of history and tradition, and the style in which it was put seemed almost like a gimmick. I almost expected to see those big snazzy 'sale sign' stars with 'Pay Nothing Now' brazenly splashed over the webpage. Not something I have the slightest interest in buying into, I am affraid. The tarot has existed for many hundreds of years in its present format. It works. And I don't see any need to change it. Yes, it has been done a couple of times, but I don't think the 'Halo Sharp' is going to be the next major twist in tarot historys path. Not by a long shot.

LB

That website...

Do they need some crackers to go with that CHEESE?


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Does the book come with a set of cards?
It is unclear from their web site.

It's not my sort of thing.
But maybe other people will like it.

One thing I dislike is the remnaming. I always dislike renamed cards.
Especially when they do it to make all the cards positive and 'get rid of the negativity'.

Well, yeah, lets not have a rounded view of life. Lets ignore all the bad things.
If we ignore all the bad things they'll all go away.

Indigo children. Don't start me on that!
Every parent wants to think their kid is special.
But mine was only indigo when the bruises showed.

Anyhow. What's this about?
Is Crystal clea showing us a deck they like, or showing us a deck they have made?
In which case, is Crystal clear really Michael Sharp. Or are they someone else?

I just want to know who I'm talking too, and where I stand.
I don't want to offend anyone who has done loads of work on this deck, but it really isn't my sort of thing, and I don't want to lie about it (cos that would be like negativity, wouldn't it?)

There're some lovely cards in this deck (eg: Lovers and Strength).

There're also some very repetititve ones (eg: World & Wheel).

But it surely is Tarot in the service of an agenda, which I can ignore if the deck enlarges our understanding of the Tarot as well. Or is strikingly beautiful. Or has something else exceptional about it.

I suspect, however, that this deck isn't going to make the cut for me.

Besides, it's a bit schizophrenic. It has the renamed cards so as to avoid the great bug-boo "negativity," but the images so renamed are hardly positive. Death (aka Initiation) shows someone going from somewhere ugly to somewhere else ugly and Saturn (aka the Devil) shows what? Uplifting imprisonment?

Oh, and "watershed" deck? Probably not. Some familiar motifs have been reworked to good effect, but I don't see too much that's original. Most of this deck's water has been shed already, IMO.

The claims are very extreme and for me, offputting.

As well, I don't care for the human figures in this computer generated images. (I think the Gilded and Tarot of Dreams do a better job with computer generated images).

I'm not opposed to the renaming of cards *but* I don't like the very negative slam against the traditonal names and the insuination that if you use them, you can't be enlightened. I really dislike 'negative' marketing and I won't buy products marketed this way. IMHO can offer something newer or a change from a usual practice without dissing the traditional names of the tarot.