Customer Reviews

The Favole Tarot Deck By Victoria Frances

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The cards are gorgeous. The symbolism is interesting...the fact that it doesn't follow the traditional "tarot" symbology is fine with me--good tarot readings are about your interpretations of the cards, and not just what a publishing company tells you those interpretations are.

However, when you have a major deviation like the minor arcana suits, an explanation about this should be in the instructions. A generic instruction book was included that just covered the standard minor arcana definitions, and said nothing about what the new minor arcana suits meant or how they related to the standard ones. A commenter on another post said: "Crosses=Wands, Masks=Pentacles, Flowers=Cups, Butterflies=Swords." And while I have to come to the same conclusion, it's a bit of a stretch for Masks and Butterflies. I can see masks as Pentacles, worldly illusion/matters, although that's not all that Pentacles are, the hidden aspect of masks suggests something different. And butterflies have a lot of suffering and struggle to become what they are, but none of that is really depicted in the deck. Did the artist just really want to paint butterflies?

I look forward to using this deck though, and in trying to see if the different suits convey different messages than your average Tarot. It's a good deck overall, I'm just not sure what the deviations mean, or how they'll change my readings. We'll see!

This is much like Luis Royo's The Black Tarot & Tarot decks by other contemporary artists: Beautiful classic artwork by the artist that is not designed for actual Tarot use due to lack of typical symbolic archetypes on the cards. The pip cards are simply the number of that case's items---no true artwork. This is nice for its artwork & its novelty.

This deck is absolutely stunning. I purchased mine new, but it did not come with a larger book (checking at this moment to see if there was a companion book). The insert was alright, had some shoddy history and a basic layout. The deck is gorgeous, with a mix of Victoria France's older pieces and some I hadn't seen before. The suits are different. Instead of the standard cups, coins, swords, and wands there are butterflies, crosses, roses/flowers, and masks. I haven't sat down to do a reading or try to identify which of these suits corresponds to the traditional, and I am not sure what elemental associations are used, if any. This promises to be a very difficult but rewarding deck. I wouldn't reccommend it to newer readers for this reason. Her pips are pretty standard (I've several decks in my possession which do simple pips as opposed to full-blown artwork), with the exception of the odd suits. This will be more of a meditation deck for me, not one for professional readings. It makes a beautiful collector's piece.

Also, the cards are slender. Most tarot packs are pretty wide but these are much thinner than normal. The card quality is fair, not the best I would have liked; I am not sure how well the pack would stand up to shuffling, so I am hesitant to do so with it. All in all, I think it was well worth the money spent.

The pictures are really great in the deck of cards, picture quality is great as well. However it's really hard to read with these cards, and when I did read with them, I always got the darker side of people. Which I did not like. If you're looking to know the darker side of people or their faults ... this deck is for you. The book that comes with it is no good though. You have to find out what the roses convert to and what the masks convert to and then look online for the meaning of the tarot card. Since they don't have the classic swords, and wands and such. I made a cool college with them though.

Expected more from this product. I think Victoria Frances's art is beautiful and was looking forward to receiving this deck.

Here is what I found disappointing:
- it appears that the artist is simply reusing art from the Favole books series. I was expecting new original pieces.
- While usually, when an artist develops a deck, they aim to include a painting for each card, I was disappointed to see that this deck included many cards that only depicted their suit symbols (kind of like playing cards) instead of a painting incorporating those symbols.

Since this deck is on the pricier side, I expected more.

these are beautiful cards and would be easy to connect with if we knew the basic meanings of the minor arcana. we have no idea what the butterflies represent, or any of the other three minor arcana. I have searched for an interpretation book and even tried to reach the artist herself to no avail. So I guess we have a beautiful deck we can not use.

I only bought this deck just for the pure purpose of looking at victoria frances work. So im happy for what i paid for it :)

If you are considering purchasing this deck please go to u-tube to see the deck review first. I realize this deck may have a certain appeal to a select group of people however, I am not one of them. Though the art work is lovely it's depressing to me and I don't even see my self meditating with these cards as much as placing them on a shelf somewhere to be forgotten. I feel darkness with this deck and certain cards are just plain off putting but that is simply how these cards catch me maybe you will find the pearl that they may have to bring. Now the meanings of the pip cards are of controversy as there is no instruction on the authors intent and I suppose the only beauty to it is that it could be left up to the owner.
Here are my thoughts.

Crosses = Pentacles representing the element of earth, stability and security

Masks = Wands representing the element of fire, communication, intuition what are we hiding from the world?

Flowers = Cups representing the element of water, emotion, love and loss

Butterflies = Swords representing the element of air, conflict, tough decisions and I also think of transformation

With that being said I can see how crosses could also represent swords and butterflies could represent pentacles just depending on how the reader feels fits best

I hope this review helped

It is a huge disappointment to order an artist deck and most of the cards in the deck not have any art on them. The minor arcana is totally free of the gorgeous pictures one would expect in such a deck, instead having generic, repetitive images for the 1's, 2's 3's and etc... I only give this two stars instead of one because the art that was there was phenomenal.
I probably would not have purchased this deck if I had been aware of it's major short comings.

i love the art work by victoria frances. she truely has outdone herself. i love this card deck and so will you.