Customer Reviews

Lord Of The Rings Tarot Deck & Game

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This deck's symbolism makes sense if you are familiar with Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings, however it does not have any traditional Tarot symbolism in its pictures. I don't agree with most of the interpretations in the sketchy booklet. I can't get detailed readings from this deck, although I can get accurate general readings. The cards are good for telling the atmosphere of a situation, but little else. As for the artwork, the pictures are beautiful, but small. Most of the scenes are of landscapes, and people are not usually the focus. However, I LOVE the Queen of Swords card - Eowyn is perfect!!!! If you are a deck collector or want a Tolkien novelty, then this would suit you. A serious reader should look for another deck.

First off, judging a tarot deck based on the religion of the man who inspired it is ridiculous. Judge it based on its merits as a TAROT DECK. And secondly, yes, Tarot is quite the Catholic tradition. I swear when I went to Italy, everyone I asked had a deck. But back to the topic at hand... I have yet to play the card game that this deck also functions as so I can't really say anything as to its quality, but I can most certainly say this has been the best tarot deck I have ever had the honor of owning. I've had these cards for i think 10 years and have never been let down by them. They've given me the most detailed and accurate readings out of any of my decks. I know many might not consider the artwork "beautiful", but it is still well done (certainly better than the godawful rider-waite) and stays true to the movies/books. For those of you who are concerned that the cards aren't exact replicas of the classic rider-waite symbolism, remember that tarot started based on playing cards which lacked all those pictures you're used to. I recommend you try listening to the cards rather than relying on the confining interpretation of some book or cliche symbols. It has been exactly this, the deck's noncomformity and originality, that has provided me with more detailed readings than any other.

I thank my ex-girlfriend Juno, with whom I shared many a psychic revelation, for the gift of these cards. The deep substance in the imagery of these cards, the symbolism of Tolkien profoundly integrated with the use of the Qabalistic Tree of Life, evoke astral journeys to the very gates of heaven. If you own one of these decks, don't listen to the fuss about Crowley's Thoth deck: your LOTR tarot deck is extremely potent, and deserves a serious student's full consideration in the matters of psychic divination.

Allow me to explain a reading: I array the cards in a "Tree of Life" pattern, starting with Kether, working down through the other nine sephiroth, finishing with Malkuth. At each card, I stop to contemplate the meaning of the card. Because the cards are so disturbingly beautiful, like a Nazareth song, I can contemplate the deeper meaning for long periods of time.

Take this first card I drew, placing it over Kether, "the crown": "The Lovers - Aragorn is reunited with his love, Arwen." How awesome! Aragorn is not only male, but an earthbound creature, a man (human). Arwen is Elven, she personifies the spirit world. Because Aragorn, the corporeal and earthly, has united sexually with his love, the spiritual realm, you can tell this makes a happy situation within the center of our intellectual existence. It is Tai Chi - the Great Ultimate. It symbolizes the very Gates of Heaven, which are indeed within us.

In the position of Chockma - wisdom - I lay an Ace of Cups -- "Galadriel's mirror shows many things, but wisdom lies in understanding what is shown." Chillingly personal. Sam kneels on a toadstool sprinkled lawn, while Frodo gazes into the mysterious vision well, under an erie and luminous moon. The Elven Queen spreads her arms over her dominion. The saying written on the card about wisdom, and this spot being the sephiroth of wisdom, is just amazing providence.

To complete the trinity of the "head" cards, I drew the Queen of Swords for Binah, understanding. This is the Lady Eowyn, Theoden's warrior daughter. She has slain the chief of the Nazgul, and holds in her hand the severed dragon's head. The Queen of Swords in the position of the Tree of Life's sphere of "Spiritual Purpose" indicates to me a psyche whose thinking is quick, decisive, and without guile. Quick to judge, and quick to execute judgement, the female intellect is "hidden" knowledge, occult. How interesting that in the story, Lady Eowyn loves Aragorn, but Aragorn loves Arwen. Lady Eowyn takes the energy of that unrequited love, and channels it into "killing dragons". This is a metaphor for problem solving by using single minded attention, and focused energy.

My drawings of the remaining cards on the Tree of Life were equally impressive. I believe this reading has revealed to me strengths, and weaknesses. Take for instance, the "heart" sephiroth, the sephiroth of beauty, Tephiroth. Over it I drew the Five of Swords. The card shows "Pippin and Merry are captured by the Orcs, and are bound and carried away." This is an amazing revelation, that the heart can be darkened by forces that occlude its brilliance within us. For myself, this is probably not such a good card to have placed over the heart/beauty sephiroth, and is therefore a good card for me to study what is wrong in myself. These forces can be actual devils, which act upon the heart the way storm clouds change the mood of an afternoon. The beauty of the innocence of Merry and Pippin is concealed in ugliness.

The other seven cards were equally revealing and meaningful to me.

I love the selections of scenes from the LOTR books, which predate the movie trilogy. They capture not just the essence of their ordinal card, but harmonize symbolically at successively deeper levels. One could really go to a deep level of psychic wizardry by studying these cards, I'm inclined to believe. With that, I'd finally like to say that my acquaintance with Lord of the Rings is strong and long, and the world of Middle Earth is a mythology which I take very seriously. Having read the books several times gives me some comfort with the cards, so that I don't have to struggle to understand who is whom, and I can view the story in its Gestalt, forming new and interesting relationships between cards fairly easily.

If you are new to the world of Tolkien, the guide book by the great and famous Terry Donaldson is superb. One could read the book on its own, and gain understanding, even without the cards. The package itself is a magical combination, it is not kid stuff. Also, I tend to think the artwork slants on the shady side of the mountain, if you know what I mean. There are no sunny days with white, poofy clouds, as there are a-plenty in the Rider-Waite deck. Here, we have lots of overcast, pall, dusky twilight, and lunar mist. Also, almost all of the trees in any of the cards of this deck are without leaves. The whole deck looks like it was painted in the month of November, which, if you live in the northern region of North America, is rather bleak, and we tend to party more to compensate for the gloom. The 3 of Cups, 4 of Coins, 8 of Coins, and 6 of Swords appear to be the only cards where I can find foliage growing on trees in the art work. Even these cards show grey, pale, and misty backdrops.

I like this deck, the little captions at the bottom of the cards give subtle meanings to the cards meaning. I've used it for divination purposes with very good accuracy. The illustrations are beautiful, and they also give clues to the meaning of the card.

I have to admit that unlike some other reviewers, I actually admired the deck's variety in covering many different Tolkien texts (though, of course, the deck name does imply a LOTR-exclusive tarot). However, I don't necessarily think they did a good job with that. But I liked to see the range of the material. I would like a better, overall Tolkien deck in general.

The review I most agree with is from TarotPassages, by Kim Huggens--it's basically right-on.

My favourite things:

When the cards line up tarot and Tolkien accurately, they do an absolutely splendid job. A good portion of the Major Arcana reflects this: most specifically, cards like The Sun (the Shire in bloom), The Hermit (Tom Bombadil, which I thought was very clever), The Chariot (Theoden gathering his disparate forces in his final charge of the Orc Army), The Tower (Orthanc under attack by the Ents), Temperance (Frodo's mercy on Gollum), Death (Gandalf versus the Balrog), Justice (the Dead Men of Dunharrow, come to atone for past promises), and the Devil (as Wormtongue--though as many have pointed out, of course, The One Ring would have been a MUCH better choice--but still, I thought Wormtongue was unexpected and inventive). Seven of Cups as the illusions created by the palantiri I thought was creative.

Yet there are still many, many problems. For instance, The Sun references the Shire as being "where everything is growing in harmony"--and yet, in the picture, only the grass is growing. There is no green on the trees, which look like they are in the heart of winter. This is not the image of the Sun, or of the blooming Shire. The theme of AWFUL illustrations is recurring, too. The majority of the images featuring trees show leafless, bare branches, that are dark and craggy.

Eowyn slaying the Nazgul Chief, as the Queen of Swords, is also a good idea--but she is scantily clad in a flowing gown that reveals quite a lot of bussom and an entire leg. May I remind the artist that Eowyn was cross-dressed as a man. Please and thank you. Furthermore, why should Eowyn have to be scantily-clad at all? She can be properly dressed and still be dangerous. I'm sick of this idea that women can only being a force to be reckoned with if they're exposed physically.

In general, the artwork is clumsy and small, and rather "wide" / square feeling, which I was disappointed with. Plus, again, the images (especially of nature) are quite dead. It's rather ugly.

I would like to comment on the shallow, negative perception of the Hierophant, who reaaaaally really really should be Gandalf (the teacher, the bridger of two worlds--as the Intro in the Little White Book actually explains). Instead, it is Saruman of Many Colours: a rather dark and evil take on the Hierophant that I think is undeserved and inaccurate.

The World and The Star I also thought were rather shallowly done (as Kim Huggens described). The World is...quite simply, Middle Earth, which I don't actually see as embodying any of the qualities the World card is meant to describe. It is quite literal and flat. The Star is Galadriel and her Ring. I had deeply hoped it would be Varda, the Goddess / Queen of the Stars (also known as Elbereth / Gilthoniel). Furthermore, there is little meaning to Galadriel's Ring being the Star--again, simply another direct, literal association.

I also did not understand why The White Tree, bridging two worlds, constituted Strength. Why would that be Strength?


So, finally, the art is atrocious, the meanings don't always match, and even when the meanings aren't outright wrong...they're still not outright correct. It's okay for doing readings--I use mine and find the cards friendly. Lots of the ideas are also GREAT! and really illuminate cards and situations. It's just, there aren't enough of those (as in, the whole deck should make sense). I just think the technical details (and art) need a lot of work, but this isn't a totally deplorable deck. There was obviously a lot of effort here, and there are certainly redeeming qualities. I also quite liked the little descriptions at the bottom of the cards--I thought they gave an extra meaning to the rather average / generic Little White Book meanings (which were not explicitly related back to Tolkien / the cards at all).

So: bottom line, they're okay, but not great, and they really should be great. It is Tolkien, after all.

Good quality deck with beautiful illustrations. On each card you will read a passage of the story. This deck definitely was more than I expected.

El principal problema al inicio del aprendizaje de la lectura de tarot es el memoristico: hay que aprender el significado de 78 cartas y eso es dificil. Las figuras del mazo del Señor de los Anillos ayudan a memorizar los significados de forma intuitiva siempre y cuando uno conozca particularidades de la saga completa.

This deck is great! Peter Pracownik went out of his way designing the deck. Thank you Peter! Peter's art is fantastic as always. His deck design really brings the book to life. Each of his characters are representated on the cards not one left out. It is designed and created in the "LOTR" book style NOT movie style as it should be. The movie is really good, but the book was even better. This deck is a definite must - have for "LOTR" book fans. It isn't like a regular Tarot deak. this one is read using intuition. If you haven't been reading Tarot long and if you don't read by intuition this deck will be of no use to you.

My deck did not come with the book as it said on the site. I am quite disappointed at Amazon for advertising the deck came deck and book set box set yet it wasn't sent with the deck.

Even right now the site is still advertising it comes with a book.

http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Rings-Tarot-Deck-Card/dp/1572810556/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250538818&sr=8-2

See above link for advertisement where it states on site - Deck and book set box set. I ordered it right from their site and all I got in my shipment was a tarot deck. Where'd my book go??? I have no idea how to find out. I am still waiting for book! :(

Firstly, there is nothing at all innovative about a "Tarot deck and card game" Not only may one play games with the Tarot deck, game playing, not fortune telling, was initially the main purpose of the Tarot. The superstitious trappings of the Tarot deck came at a much later date.
Secondly, there are much better Tarot decks for game playing. There are European Tarot decks of more modern design which include double headed figures or the French suits of hearts, spades, clubs, and diamonds and they sometimes feature corner indices. These European made decks which may contain 78, 62 or 54 cards depending on region are far superior to this baroque abomination. Like most so-called "new age" or "occult" decks, this LOTR Tarot card game is ill suited for game playing.
Thirdly, the underlying game is nothing more than an UNO variant.
My recommendation, unless one is a die-hard LOTR fan who must own all LOTR items, is to buy one of the European playing tarots (see Modiano Tarocco on amazon) or the UNO card game instead of this ill conceived nonsense.