Dark Carnival Deck

Sar

Glad to hear it, Sar! I was thrilled to send it your way. It is very good to have friends in distant lands :)

Such an honour for me to have friends in the US too. :heart:
 

rachelpaul

Very cool! Please do keep me updated as you make your way through the cards. :D

Oh and I'm glad to hear that you are also enjoying the deck, dreamingwitch and flyingblackkat! It's good to know that it's transcending the realm of us clowny folk.

This second edition is proving that perhaps there's a little evil clown living in all of us. OK. I'm going to stop before I start sounding too creepy. But thank you all so very much for your support and thoughtful feedback! I truly appreciate it!
 

Manda

Here's some interesting musings on this deck by Janet Boyer (co-creator of the Snowland Deck) and Amanda Donnelly (78 Whispers). I was listening to their podcast and apparently it made both their Top 10 lists for 2012:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/janetboyerlive/2012/12/02/favorite-tarot-decks-of-2012

Thank you for sharing, dreamingwitch! I hang around to read from time to time, but have not logged in in ages. You look new, so you won't know this, but historically any mention of Janet Boyer has not been allowed to stay in this forum. I hope this one will be different.

I am Amanda Donnelly of 78 Whispers In My Ear, which those of you who know me outside of here know, and yes, Dark Carnival Tarot was the only deck Janet and I agreed on as a best of the year! And we managed to disagree with each other respectfully and stay friendly. :D

The booklet Rachel Paul has included is crazy good, rife with cussing, and very mystical while firmly rooted in the world we live in. I love it! I hope she has tremendous success with this deck, so she will keep writing no matter what. I know she will keep painting because it is very clear that is her calling. Great work, Rachel!
 

flying black kat

I love this deck. The Dark Carnvial Deck for me has proven to be a great reading deck. I do not read for anyone but my self, and that I rarely do.

It has been right on, and full of things that I would not have considered. I find it busy, and every time I look at a card, I see something new, a new meaning, a new thought, a new picture.

I am not a newbe to the ICP. I have followed them for a while now. Considering I am 63, they appeal to me and their music has something to say for all generations. I does take getting used to. My son is the 1 would orginially introduced me to ICP. I am a Wraith. Needless to say I have a very eclecltic taste in music.

I am also using at this the the Wild Unknown they are working well together. Go figure. (LOL) and slightly boggled.

This deck is worth it to have, if for nothing more than to shake up your thought process.

Kathy
 

rachelpaul

Thanks, ladies. You're all lovely.

And this cussin, this cussin, I know...I'd be a liar if I said I didn't have the mouth of a sailor some days, but given my intended audience, I played around with the profane and moved forward with it for comic effect and to find level ground among all the wisdom and mysticism that I've been so blessed to come across in my travels and studies. It's very, very Bakhtinian (think "Rabelais and His World").

Because, as you said, Mandy, the juggalos are very much akin to the Grateful Dead's Deadheads. Looking at the two in the same context, we see that generation gap isn't so vast--the youth counterculture is reinvented and begins anew; only this time around, it's grittier, edgier, just as off-the-wall and more so in-your-face with a fake, painted smile that's dark and sinister yet light, bright, and colorful...These are survivors. The children. They are anything but pretentious: completely down to earth and maybe not the most educated, maybe the proverbial "ugly girl at the prom," insulted and gawked at in more recent years by internet and media jeers but...there is an amazing light and love here. And a home and a place and an acceptance. And this is the energy that inspired these cards, which I not only drew but LIVED...like they came through me, not of me. I cannot even begin to describe what it has been like spending my formative years among the subculture, but now that I am "grown" in my 20s, it's time to show what I know and help them like they've helped me. Especially the teens. It's really about them. Some (most) come to the carnival grounds for the party scene and then leave with something else...self-awareness and humor and mysticism. As long as one of them feel this, then that's what's UP.

And now just about 200 copies of the DC Tarot are out there in the world. And these kids--the letters I get--they are reconnecting with their souls here. You must understand that most of them have no prior connection to tarot and generally not even "conventional" spiritual paths, but they are praying and meditating and looking within. Just today, I received word from a girl who has been journaling, praying, and lighting incense everyday with the cards. And that IS priceless. And beautiful.

And I'm humbled. And I know to remain an empty vessel. I know that I can't hold on to or accurately describe any of it. It melts like snowflakes. It makes me cry with joy.

And yup you can call it "gushing"...I know there's cynicism...but this is from the heart. And like I said, as long as somebody feels this, then that's what's up. Real as it gets. True+real=Treal ;)
 

Tarot Orat

Dark Carnival third edition!

The third edition is HERE! Mine is actually in front of me right now, that's how here it is - it's for sale in the Etsy store now. Smaller, borderless, different back, those are the three most noticeable things. (The main symbol on the back seems to be upside-down, but I didn't notice that till the camera flash lit it up.) The font on the cards is different - very Gothic and swirly - and the card titles are white on black instead of black on white. A few cards have been retitled. I'm posting some comparison pictures so you can see the difference.

It's really stunning....the colors are more vivid in this printing, and being borderless the images just pop. There's a little less detail than in the ginormous 1st/2nd edition, and some edges did get cut off, but I checked and all the suit symbols are visible in the pip cards, so the cropping didn't do any harm. I like how it fits in my hand so much better, and the cards become part of me...that bottle of faygo is spilling onto me, that axe is about to cut me, that wraith's hand is touching me.

The 3rd ed. is definitely the one that's going to go everywhere with me, it'll fit in a pocket or purse and is super-easy to shuffle. (That was my biggest problem with the 2nd ed., I could hardly shuffle it, and I don't have small hands.) I'll keep using the 2nd ed. for meditation and study, with its larger uncropped images. They're BOTH awesome decks.

The booklet's been updated too - there's an expanded preface that includes the history of the deck (and it mentions the cussin' issue :laugh:), the heading font is the new swirly one, and apparently some of the text has been rewritten so it's suited for a more mainstream audience....I would much rather play with the cards than pick through the booklet line-by-line right for examples right now, though!
 

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dreamingwitch

I must say I absolutely LOVE it. The cards are beautiful and so much easier to shuffle than the previous "jumbo" editions. Not a bad price, either! I'm blown away by the quality...
 

Tarot Orat

Holy Moly! It's the top deck of 2012 in Aeclectic's Top 10 Deck List!!!

I'm pretty sure there are going to be people who aren't happy about it but I'm THRILLED.
 

AnneLien

Although it looks really great, it scares me. I'm not really into scary decks like toth or deviant moon, i'm really sensitive. But perhaps in the future, i'm not sure.