The Goddess Tarot: A Review by Sarah Ovenall
If you would like to purchase this deck, click here.
There's been much pre-release discussion of the Goddess Tarot
by Kris Waldherr, so I eagerly anticipated my copy. As could be
expected from the name, the Goddess Tarot is a theme deck based
on goddess imagery. The little booklet describes the purpose of
the deck as "an accessible alternative deck for Tarot
readers already familiar with the popular Rider-Waite deck, who
seek a deeper experience of the Divine Feminine in their
readings."
This is not a deck for Tarot purists: most of the names of the
Major Arcana have been changed, and instead of traditional
imagery each trump shows the image of a different goddess (or
goddesses) from various cultures. For example the Fool is renamed
"Beginnings," and depicts Tara. The Magician is renamed
"Magic" and shows Isis. The Heirophant/Pope is renamed
"Tradition", represented by Juno, and etc. The artwork
of the trumps is of a high quality, each trump a beautiful
depiction of a goddess. The accompanying booklet gives brief
descriptions of the goddess and how they relate to each trump,
though I think more information would be helpful to people not
already knowledgeable about comparative religions and mythology.
Perhaps the deck is meant to accompany Waldherr's "The Book
of Goddesses," which I
haven't seen. Waldherr has clearly put a lot of thought into
choosing the
goddesses, and I only had a few questions of interpretation. For
example, I
wondered why she chose the Zorya (described in the booklet as
attendants of
the Russian sun god) for the Sun, rather than Amaterasu, the
Japanese sun
goddess. And there seems a tendency to gloss over certain
elements of the
trumps, I assume to make them more palatable. So Death becomes
"Transformation" (Ukemochi), and the Devil
"Temptation" (Nyai Loro Kidul).
The Wheel of Fortune is "Fortune" (Lakshmi), and seems
to deal only with
good luck and prosperity. That said, the trumps overall seem a
thoughtful
and internally consistent reinterpretation of the Tarot.
The minor arcana, unfortunately, did not impress me as positively
as the
trumps. Each suit has been linked to one of the goddesses in the
Trumps:
Staves=Freyja, Cups=Venus, Swords=Isis, and Pentacles=Lakshmi.
The images
on the minor arcana depict women from the the culture of the
goddess
identified with that suit. So the figures on the Staves are
Nordic, those
on Cups are allegedly Roman (their clothing and hair didn't look
very Roman
to me, but I'm no expert so maybe there were Roman women who
dressed like
that), on Swords the women are Egyptian, and on Pentacles Indian.
The only
men in the deck appear on minor cards: the Four of Staves and Two
of Cups
each depict a man and woman together, and the Kings and Princes
are men.
Compared to the trumps, the minors seem crudely executed and
poorly thought
out. Instead of reinterpreting each pip card (as was done with
the trumps),
the minors instead depict simplified versions of Waite minors,
set in the
culture of that suit's goddess. The rushed, sketchy quality of
the art on
the minors is my biggest problem with them, especially when
compared with
the really lovely trumps. Holding a random trump next to a random
minor
card, I wonder if they were done at different times. The title
card
mentions that some of the cards originally appeared as
illustrations in
"The Book of Goddesses," which may explain the
disparity in art quality.
Overall, I highly recommend this deck for people interested in
exploring
goddess imagery, as an art deck for collectors, and as a
trump-only deck,
for meditative purposes or for spreads that only use the majors.
Taken as a
whole deck I would have to give it a qualified recommendation.
If you would like to purchase this deck, click
here.
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Sarah Ovenall
http://www.thefool.com
Copyright © 1998 Sarah Ovenall
