My thoughts on the Vampire Tarot by Robert Place

They feel like drink-mats to me! Shiny and flexible.

Just completed the new deck interview. Did it without the book, just wanted to see how it read 'cold', so to speak. And I wanted to see how those courts worked.

Beautifully, is the answer. It has a very unique voice: direct, bold, proud. Concise. Says a lot in very few words. It's tone is very different to anything else I own. And it has a quiet but distinct power. A little unsettling, actually, but refreshing.

In all, just one teensy-tinsy complaint: I can't shuffle them. My hands are too small So I have to deal them out into many piles and rebuild them, then split. It's not such a big thing, but I won't be able to enjoy the simple pleasure of mindlessly shuffling the deck.

For the most part, I agree with Daisy. I've been pleasantly surprised with how they read, they do seem to be direct and no nonsense.

I'm so glad I trimmed mine. They're still a little on the large side but I can shuffle them now. The laminating - I hate it! I think there's far too much on, so much so that they were difficult to shuffle anyway, clinging to each other. I got out my fanning powder and thankfully, that's eased them off somewhat.

The only thing that springs to mind that I don't like up to press is The Fool - not because of Johnathon, but because of the fangs on the door he's walking up to. The door could have been made to look sinister in a different way. Oh, and I don't like the card backs, either!

Cards I do like so far...

The Madman, The Brides, The Sun - and to be honest, quite a few more!

I totally agree that it's an excellent deck for studying, and the book is brilliant too.

I put away my Anna K after seven months of exclusive use to try out my vampire deck, and I was so ready to give up and go back to it after a week, but I know now that that's not going to happen.

After some trepidation - I love it!

Funny, Jonathan the Fool is one of my favorite cards in this deck.

Something about his oblivious Victorian rectitude as he ignores all the obvious signs that something is about to go terribly wrong just tickles my fancy. He is a fool because he is not listening to advice and his own instincts, but he is also embarking on a journey which will change his life, because he is venturing bravely out of his little world.

It gives us a different spin on the Fool, as many of the major arcana seem to do. The Brides are an anything but maternal, The Star shows a swooning woman held in the arms of a predator, the Sun depicts a vampire with his head on fire, about to be consumed.

This deck is unusual, creepy, and beautiful. I hope more people get it, and love it.

Well, I am proud to announce that I have just "de-cornered" my Vampire Tarot. I was having to shuffle it so carefully because of the sharpness and it kept snagging and just wasn't comfortable. I sat down with my corner-rounder (and a bit of aluminium foil to sharpen the blade every 10 cards or so) and punched my way through the whole deck.

It looks great now and I can shuffle it really fast (I had to be careful before). Feels more compact and simply by taking off the corners, the borders are less intrusive. Im not going to take off the white borders. I just wanted to nip off the corners.

Much better...

The backup deck just in case I mess up my first deck arrived today. I was thinking about trimming the deck all the way to the edge of the image, but maybe I'll try rounding the corners first and see how/if I like that.

This thread enabled me and I bought the deck from Book Depository. I already have fanning powder, a corner rounder punch and sharp scissors .... and tiny hands. So I reckon I'll be trimming the deck right back and rounding the corners.

I am soooo looking forward to it. I wasn't going to get it at all but this thread made me see that it's my vision of the deck that was skew-whiffed - thanks guys

This is the only Deck I ever trimmed the Corners off. I like the Deck much better that way.

rwcarter said:

I was thinking about trimming the deck all the way to the edge of the image, but maybe I'll try rounding the corners first and see how/if I like that.

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I personally don't feel an urge to take off the borders. Not sure why, but there it is. Once the corners were off it made a huge difference.

Wendywu said:

This thread enabled me and I bought the deck from Book Depository. I already have fanning powder, a corner rounder punch and sharp scissors ....

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Oh Wendy, Im sure you'll love it. No need for fanning powder really. Are you ready to peel your brick when it arrives? You'll be amazed at how it arrives. Id never seen anything like it. However, once the cards are peeled off and de-cornered, they shuffle well. None of mine stick now.

Im off to get myself a copy of Dracula... the Place bk is excellent, but I really feel I should reread Stoker. However, there is a very thorough synopsis of Dracula in the Place book for those who really don't want to read the whole work, or just want enough to get going...

Le Fanu said:

Are you ready to peel your brick when it arrives? You'll be amazed at how it arrives. Id never seen anything like it.

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You think this deck was bad, you should see the Wormweird brick...I mean deck. It's in a league of its own.

I can recommend this edition of Dracula. It's a very nice hardback edition and inexpensive.

Nice. Thank you for that, and the foreward is by Elizabeth Kostova who wrote The Historian, no less...