The Cosmic Tarot book

I’ve been practicing tarot for 3 years and this has become my new go-to deck. It’s a great adaptation of the Rider-Waite system, very intuitive and easy to use for me personally in terms of seeing the various symbols and coming to conclusions that others find accurate about themselves without them having primed me before hand. I actually bought this deck a second time recently - the first time was at a metaphysical shop when I was still fairly inexperienced with tarot and subsequently bent the cards (lol) from poor shuffle technique and couldn’t figure out how to straighten them. I wasn’t using it too frequently despite feeling drawn to the symbolism, until one day this past week I felt called to do reading with it which ended up being very detailed, filled with information, and quite accurate and insightful for the person I read for. I wasn’t practicing consistently at that time, nor am I the sort of person to memorize every definition (I’m more the type to learn the basic symbolism, correspondences etc while mainly relying on intuition). So naturally I went and bought the deck immediately so I could have cards that weren’t bent.

my favorite Tarot deck unfortunately I have to buy another one because it somehow got wet with something sticky or glued, but I will be buying another one this Tarot is very interesting

This is a wonderful tarot deck. The artwork is very evocative, lending it easily to interpretation. The artist’s style and skill are exceptional (the artist is Norbert Loesche). He employs crosshatching, which makes the cards look almost like tinted engravings. The images are an interesting combination of references to 80s pop culture, 1930s-50s cinema, ballet, Indian/Hindu symbolism, Middle Eastern imagery, and something more timeless that it’s hard to pigeonhole—I’ll include a photo of one of my favorite cards that falls into the indefinable category, 0-The Fool. I’ve been using the deck now for 5 months, and was able to read it immediately with very minimal study. (I don’t even have a book for this specific deck and don’t think it’s necessary to get one.) That said, I have put quite a bit of time into learning more about the symbolism I’ve encountered in the deck, which deepens my experience. The deck is based on the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’s interpretation of the Tarot. If you are interested in pursuing this, you can easily download a free copy of Book T from the internet—it appears to be in the public domain. Book T gives sketchy but concise info on each card of the Minor Arcana. I’ve been reading Tarot off and on for over 50 years and have a bunch of decks. This is now one of my favorites. My other top two decks are the Smith-Waite and the Crowley-Harris Thoth deck. Since the Thoth deck is also based on the Golden Dawn’s interpretation, if you read the Thoth deck you should easily be able to read this one. But even if you don’t—! I highly recommend it, beginners included. (I wish I’d had a copy of it when I was learning how to read.)As to one reviewer’s perception of racism, based on the image she encountered in XII-The Hanged Man—I believe that her outrage is misplaced. Yes, we should be outraged by racism. But no, this deck does not contain racist imagery, nor do I think the character depicted in that particular card is even supposed to be Black, as that reviewer believes. Unfortunately, their review is at the very top of Relevant Reviews, which undoubtedly negatively influences a lot of potential buyers. It actually made me feel sorry for the artist! Think about it: if you were hanging upside down, all the blood would rush to your head. No matter what your skin color, your face would be engorged with blood, darkening it. This is what I believe the artist was trying to capture. According to Barbara Walker, the Hanged Man depicts an ascetic practice from the Middle Ages called “baffling.” This card is traditionally a very spiritual card, which is why, in this deck, The Hanged Man’s hands are prayerfully poised in the Anjali or Namaste Mudra. Note also that in this particular deck, The Hanged Man is not bound in any way. In any deck, this card symbolises our deep surrender to a higher power during a profound moment of defeat and desperation, a surrender that opens us up to guidance from within and without. It does not symbolize or even hint at lynching, as the reviewer feared. That would indeed be horrible, if it were true. We should never fear this card for any reason. I wholeheartedly recommend this beautiful and spiritual deck.

this deck is a breath of fresh air from the stagnant RWS iconic imagery. the artist has removed all those double pillars and columns from the cards. i didn't even realize how heavy and stifling they are until i noticed their absence in this deck. it's like removing a weight and the cards can finally breathe. i almost want to respond to the one-star review by bean, but, i cannot dispute another person's opinion. it is factually their own. i don't agree that the tarot is an unchangeable system. there is an artistic glut of RWS imagery in the tarot deck market. no matter how well rendered these decks are, limiting oneself to simply re-creating variations on the same themes is so boring the point of the symbolism becomes meaningless. Pamela Smith's drawings are one interpretation; they are not canon . i don't see the major arcana as a story or a journey, so the ordering of 8 and 11 is insignificant to me. what is significant is how alive this imagery is because the artist did not bind himself to some rigid idea that there is only one way to depict these cards. illustrating the pips is a change to the original system (assuming a system existed to begin with). there are some cards i dislike in all decks. for example: the World. i hate that woman in an egg image. neither the LWB descriptions, nor extensive books on the history of tarot, will ever convince me that particular imagery looks like a happy, dancing woman. it's clear people have convinced themselves she is dancing, but she's not. Norbert's permissive imagination has freed this poor woman. perhaps that is why she truly looks like she is joyous, happy, and dancing.

I love this deck except for one thing: I really, really wish the artist hadn't based some of the card images on actual movie stars. This fact is so distracting that it has literally spoiled my ability to use this deck. I otherwise love the artwork (except for the hideous Fool card) and find it very evocative. Some of the cards are somewhat nontraditional in terms of RWS alignment, but that's a matter of preference. There are a couple of guidebooks published separately that can help with that. Amazing that the artist is self-taught. But please, I'd rather not think of Tom Cruise, or Ingrid Bergman, or LIz Taylor when I'm doing a reading. :-(