Tarot of the Wyrd

FLizarraga

Is anybody using this deck? I am amazed to find no reviews of it, and practically no mention of it anywhere. (Well, it is mentioned in passing in the AT forums exactly twice.)

I found it at The Game Crafter, and fell in love, although they only show two or three images of it, and ordered not without some apprehension. Now it has finally arrived, and I love it even more.

It's a truly bizarrely beautiful deck, with an Alice in Wonderland atmosphere, but with a non-Disney, rather Svankmajer vibe, if you know what I mean. It's advertised as "a world of Teacups and Gothic Victoriana," and it is darkish and melancholy, with a twisted sense of humor, but not truly dark.

The suits are playfully unusual, as they use teacups for cups, Cutlery for swords and Watches instead of pentacles, but with a few (interesting) exceptions they follow RWS pretty closely.

Anyway, anybody out there?
 

rwcarter

I know Winterchild has it as she's going to be doing my Dark Deck Truths exchange reading with it. She's also provided images to be put up on the Cards side of Aeclectic.
 

Winterchild

I just had the most enjoyable reading experience with this deck! I have had it for a couple of years but as it was not mentioned on AT I almost forgot about it when doing DDT readings. I snuck it in this time round. I have emailed images and a review to admin.

For what it's worth, it is probably my favourite RWS style deck, way more intuitive than most and very fluid. When I find a deck I love it seems to work so well with my reading style, that everything just flows. The reading I did for Rodney was not straightforward but the message seemed very clear. It is a deck that I feel has a lot of *me* in it if you get me.

Highly recommended!

This is what I wrote for a possible review:

Tarot of the Wyrd Review

Tarot of the Wyrd is a deck by an artist known as Celestae. It is available from The Gamecrafter.

The deck is RWS based, and the images are heavily influenced by the artist’s love of Victoriana and dark Gothic imagery.

The box is a Gamecrafter style box with a sealed bottom; it features the deck name and an image of the Devil card. The artists words from the back of the deck box:

I invite you to take a walk into the world of teacups and Gothic Victoriana, a world of magic inspired by an era of eccentricity and regal splendor.
Each card tells a story, and every image has its own personality within that story.

Included in the box are the 78 cards of the Tarot deck and a small folded leaflet in black and white giving basic meanings for the cards. There is not title or artist signed card with this deck.

The Major Arcana cards have Strength at number eight and Justice at eleven as in the RWS tradition. Justice shows a very stern looking guy in a top hat. The Fool shows a child with a pet dog, a very Victorian image and the card is called Initiation. The Magician is renamed The High Priest and The Empress and Emperor are The Mother and Father. The other card that has been renamed is Number nine. The Hermit becomes The Shaman. The Death card is a lady in black, very like the lady in the movie of that name. A very dark and shadowy card, the image of the woman is very ghostlike.

The minor suits have been changed slightly to match the period. While Wands are still called Wands the imagery is mainly umbrellas, parasols and walking sticks. Beautiful, Victorian china teacups represent cups. Pentacles are symbolised by and renamed Watches. Swords in this deck are Cutlery. All of the images fit the period beautifully, and the artist has worked hard, to make sure, they remain true to the Rider Waite cards.

Each of the minor cards has a keyword on the bottom, for example:

Seven of Wands – Rivalry
Six of Wands - Success
Two of Wands – Confidence

King of Cutlery – Authority
Eight of Cutlery – Blindness
Six of Cutlery – Solace

Nine of Watches – Recuperate
Seven of Watches – Waiting
Three of Watches - Competence

Knight of Cups – Movement
Ten of Cups – Reward
Seven of Cups Choices

While I don’t usually like keywords on my cards, in this deck I am quite happy with them. They are subtle within the design of the cards. The typeface is distressed in fitting with the appearance of the cards in general. it was only on my second look that I even noticed the keywords.

All of the cards have a dark raggedy distressed looking border which works really well with the old photographic images especially. The only think that irks me a little is that the black borders tend to have the odd white marks where the black appears to have chipped. It is a very small thing and it actually fits the whole look of the deck I guess. Anyway it would not be difficult to colour the edges of the deck with a black Sharpie, which would eliminate this issue. . I have even considered colouring mine gold or silver.

The cardstock is a decent thickness, not too shiny and shuffles well. The cards feel like older style Tarot cards, not at all plastic feeling. The printing on my deck is not totally centered, as is the case with several other Gamecrafter decks, but again in this deck you hardly notice.

Tarot of the Wyrd is one of my favourite RWS style decks, it is quirky, eccentric, and dark. I can think of no other deck like it, but if I had to try, I would probably say a cross between the Bohemian Gothic, The Zombie Tarot and The Housewives. Any lover of Victoriana or Gothic imagery is bound to enjoy this deck. If this deck were a movie it would probably be Arsenic and Old Lace, or a very dark version of Mary Poppins!


Review by Winterchild

January 2014

Hope this helps and I too look forward to seeing on AT's deck pages!
 

Winterchild

My goat Gypsy, loves it too!

This is a pic of my goat helping with Rodney's reading!
 

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FLizarraga

This is a pic of my goat helping with Rodney's reading!

Awwww, I love Gypsy!

Excellent review, Winterchild! I'm very glad to find that this wonderful deck has found at least some echo in the AT community.

I see that the 8 of Wands found its way into your reading. All those umbrellas taking flight, I have not seen anything that expresses better the whole idea of movement. Her changes to the major arcana are sort of strange, but at the same time they did not bother me, and she seems to know what she is doing. (I'm assuming here Celestae is a female, which may not be the case, although the energy of the deck is pretty "feminine" in any case, IMHO. Which in the end has nothing to do with gender, of course, but I digress.)

By the way, I keep reading here about people coloring their card borders. How do you do that? Can you do it with regular markers, like Sharpies? I wouldn't mind touching up this deck's borders with some distressed silver color.
 

Winterchild

I love Celestas's input into the RWS style too. I love The Fool Card. I get different thngs each time I read too :)

The sharpies work well, I wanted to actually try and find one of those thicker silver markers and completely cover the edges of the *stack* if you get me... like the gilded edged decks? I want to hide those white marks which are distracting a little. Distressed would look great I think. I had another though which would be to find a silver metalic stamp pad and run that around the edges of each card!

Thanks for your kind comments! Gypsy rocks, I have two pet goats, Moon and Gypsy but Gypsy is the show off!!
 

MoonGypsy

i have NO idea how i missed this thread or knowing about this deck until
now! :bugeyed: But i have it on order from gamecrafter...
i just couldn't resist after reading Winterchild's review and seeing several
images. i am amazed this deck isn't more well known...:love:


ETA: i have my black Avery "Sir Marks-a-lot" poised and in position for edging...:D

ETA 2: Gypsy Goat is toooooo adorable!
And for obvious reasons, i love the names of your goats:
"Moon" and "Gypsy" :D
 

Nica

This is a pic of my goat helping with Rodney's reading!

This photo made my day. I hope you don't mind I saved it!

This deck is definitely on my wishlist. Found it on Instagram and have been stalking it ever since!
 

RiverRunsDeep

ETA: i have my black Avery "Sir Marks-a-lot" poised and in position for edging...:D

Good idea, MoonGypsy! :thumbsup:

I purchased this deck some time ago, but haven't used it for readings yet. I love dark decks and Victoriana as well, and these cards seem like the best of both worlds. Glad to see that others are enjoying them!
 

FLizarraga

I am glad that more of my fellow ATers (and I know some of you well, and know you have very discerning tastes :)) are discovering this hidden gem of a deck. I think it has flown under the radar for too long already.

ETA 2: Gypsy Goat is toooooo adorable!
And for obvious reasons, i love the names of your goats:
"Moon" and "Gypsy" :D

😂 😍 😂 😍 😂 😍 😂 😍 😂 😍