XIII Tarot by Nekro (Fournier)

I wish they'd come out with more dark art decks that actually have illustrated pips! The Favole Tarot, The Labyrinth Tarot, The Anne Stokes Gothic Tarot, and now this one. What a shame!

Some Amazon/Ebay listings are saying there's a slightly larger Llewellyn printing of this? Is this true?

I've seen this deck and I'm curious about it, but it's not top on my list of decks I'm interested in.
does anyone know how it reads?

Achlys said:

I've seen this deck and I'm curious about it, but it's not top on my list of decks I'm interested in.
does anyone know how it reads?

Click to expand...

I have it but I use it only very seldom. The art is beautiful but doesn't match Tarot meanings in many cases. Some cards show details of pictures that are fully shown in other cards. Plus, the printing quality, at least in the Fournier edition, is far from excellent in my opinion.

Now that I've finished my rant, I feel enabled to use it again these days. Strange.

I'd say it makes for a nice addition to the more gothy decks in my collection. If you like the art and your reading style doesn't only depend on pictures, go get it.

That didn't help now, did it? [emoji28]

ETA: just took it out to be able to give a more detailed opinion. Now that I have gone through it card by card, I'd prefer an art book by Nekro. I didn't remember it was that bad: nearly none of the cards matches Tarot meanings or symbology! There are a lot of art decks out there, composed of art which was not intended to be Tarot in the first place - but a lot of them do better than this deck.

logged in JUST to answer this

I have it and I LOVE it and I'm always raving about it in the "most underrated deck" threads and whatever. It was my daily reader and go to deck for the better part of the year. I love the pips. Let me repeat: I LOVE THE PIPS.

I like pip minors in general, but the ones in this deck are so pretty. I mean, bird skulls?! What's not to love?

I love the restricted color scheme, the splashes of red, how some filled lines suggest blood. I love the overly ornate borders and filigree everything. I even love the smaller size of the cards. The XIII tarot is the deck that made me try many other decks by Fournier, because I love the size so much, but none of their offerings do it for me like this deck does.

As for the majors--I also love the majors. However, if you like traditional images, traditional meanings...this is probably not a deck you'd enjoy. Again: I love it. For me, I already know what the cards mean for me, and the art does give me intuitive cues for how to shade the meanings. I particularly like to note where the splashes of red are on a card--near the head, for a issue you need to tackle with logic, or near the chest, for matters of the heart? That kind of thing.

There's also next to no male figures in the deck, if that's an issue for you. The women in the cards are all sharp and slender and spooky, if that's an issue for you. The Moon is a ballerina holding a sword. There's a LOT of babes holding swords and knives. Me, I'm a goth girl with a knife collection, so this deck is amazing for me and I find it oddly relatable. Hah.

I have a friend with a background in ballet who teaches yoga now, and she also loves the aesthetic of this deck. Of course, she's also very spooky, herself, and probably more authentically goth than I am by far, so...

For me, it has always read fantastically. There was basically no learning curve. I've inked the edges of mine in black and it's even prettier now. Sometimes I do wish the cards/images were bigger, as much as I like the portable size.

This is such a beautiful, eerie yet confused deck.
Sword courts holding wands.
Wand courts holding swords.
Majors which make me want to get a silver pen and reassign every image to the one it obviously is. If it wasn't so small already I'd trim it and re title it!