Witches Tarot Deck Review

Warning:
Please do NOT read this review if you like the Witches Tarot because this is definitely ~NOT~ a complimentary review.  I'm dead serious kids because I don't want people disliking me just because of my negative opinions about this ... ah .. deck.

I wanted to keep quiet, honest I did but I just can't.  People will no doubt verbally kick my butt but I just have to vent and state my personal opinions about the Witches Tarot deck.

First some set up.

Miss Pat and I did some browsing and she found a Wicca book she wanted, I looked at the books but didn't find anything that interested me so I told my wife to go ahead and use the flyer discount on her book.  Pat said, "Why don't you look and see if they have a tarot deck you'd like?"

"Can I do that?"

"It says any one item honey so that would have to include Tarot decks," looking at me the way women do when we poor dufuss males should know such simple and obvious things.  I had after all read the flyer and knew that it said 'half off on any one item' but it was a bookstore for crying out loud and half off to me meant half off on any book!  My male logic sometimes gets in my way, LOL, but I'm working on it.  At this point I should have realized my brain wasn't working to well that day.

"Cool!"  So I went and tried to look at what decks they had but it's a little tough since they keep them on a self behind the register counter.  But there were a couple in the larger box sets that come with a deck and a book and I could see the Aquarian Deck set (which I had seen years ago and didn't care for all that much) and a few others.  Among them was the Witches Tarot so I asked the boss lady who I have had a passing acquaintance with for several years if I could see it.  I don't know why I selected that one ... I just did.

She handed it to me and on the front of this yellow looking box was a picture of some female holding her hands up over a caldron.  On one side of her stands a lion and on the other flies what looks like an eagle.  Not bad art or imagery, but not really good either.

I turned the box over and saw a picture of an old guy with gray hair and thought the art on this picture was totally awesome and still do (The High Priest or Hierophant, little did I know at the time that this is the best looking card in the deck and that nearly everything else takes a drastic drop from here).  Plus there was a spread layout that looked really far out on the back of the box as well.  So I went ahead and bought the boxed set.

I should have looked more closely at the other pictures on the back of the box.  My bad and I really feel stupid for not checking some of the other images since the worse of the lot, The Fool (the worse depiction of the fool I have ever seen and one I believe a true witch would shudder at) is on the back of the box if I'd only bothered to look more closely.

When I got home, opened the box and started looking at the cards I can't tell you just how totally disappointed I was.  The Witches Deck is a horrendously bad deck, and for the most part contains bad art, bad imagery, and almost no use of creative imagination what-so-ever except to make the cards appear idiotic, plastic or a lame attempt to emulate some of the less talented fantasy artist I have seen.  There is maybe a dozen cards out of the 78 that are worth looking at for the artistry and imagery.

I mean come on folks, cards with strongmen, southern mansions, a Queen who looks like the wicked witch of the north, and on the 2 of Cups you need a magnifying glass to even see the two cups the guy is holding in the picture (and this is one of the better cards), a High Priestess that looks like a stripper going into her act.  Give me a break!

And all the court cards are the same except for color and a few minor variations dealing with the different suits (Pentacle in one, Sword in another, and so on).

This deck just doesn't get it and is no where near representative of what I think a tarot deck should be and/or look like.

After looking at the deck I had to force myself to even glance at the book but my heart just wasn't in it and my perspective was already colored.  The book talks about Paths and this and that and the other but by now I honestly didn't care.  It tells you in the back under 'Divination with the Tarot' that you can use any deck but that kind of defeats the purpose of purchasing the box set.

I have taken this deck out and looked at it every day since I bought it hoping beyond anything that I would see the deck in a different light.  No go .. it totally bites the big one!

Even at half the price (about $17.00) I spent to much money on this turkey and feel like I got ripped off.  They should be giving this deck away as bad as it is.

These are my opinions and I realize some, or even a lot of folks might like this deck and I guess to each his, or her own.  But I have serious doubts about anyone's appreciation of art and beauty who can look at this deck seriously without laughing, or in disgust, much less bonding with it in any way.

My fault (and stupidity) for not looking into the deck using the internet, before purchasing it but that still doesn't change the fact that the deck is nearly a complete and total ... joke and for the most part ... ugly.  Even my wife Pat doesn't like it.

Plus the thing just feels all wrong.  Muted and gutless are the two words that immediately come to mind.  I had never bought a boxed set before and after this I never will again.  I evidently didn't, or couldn't get a feel for this deck or I would have never walked out of the bookstore with it.

I feel as if I've been butt surfed.  So if you are a newbie to the tarot my suggestion is that you pass on this turkey and keep looking for a decent deck.

If I offended anyone with this review then you didn't read the warning toward the top of this message so it's your own fault and you have no one to blame but yourself.  I just personally feel that this deck is nothing but lousy and that folks should know about it so they don't get ripped off too!  A true witches tarot deck should be a thing of beauty, tranquility, and oneness with the God and Goddess.  Something you can be proud to own and proud to show off.  Not a lame duck like this deck is, no matter the meanings behind the cards.

Add it to your collections if you must but keep it well back on the self somewhere to where it's out of sight ... and out of mind.

Just remember that you chose to read this web page.

Don S.