Customer Reviews

Motherpeace Tarot Deck [With Book]

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I love the Motherpeace deck and I used it for many years. I recently bought this set from Amazon, hoping to replace my old deck. I was surprised to find that it is NOT a full sized deck -- it is a "mini-deck." This is not mentioned in the description of the product.

I had to remove the shrink wrap to find this out, and then Amazon hit me with a $15 charge when I sent them back for a refund. OUCH .....

UPDATE: Amazon did eventually refund my money, since their description was not complete.

Since I bought this deck a few years ago, it has helped me through immense personal growth. Where most other decks are scary and intimidating, this deck is reassuring, validating, honest and deeply wise.

As far as the feminist messages in the cards and book, I have found them very much based on love, and the perspective presented has been decidedly useful to me. It is not feminist in the negative sense (ie "man-hating"), but rather is feminist in the positive sense (loving, woman empowering). Probably there are people who will be turned off by this strong feminist slant, but for most women, I think it is an asset that they will appreciate.

I just asked my husband what his opinion was on the feminist slant of the deck. He says that the images on the cards (rather simple images with plenty of naked people, predominantly women) would be a turnoff to many men. On the other hand, he thinks highly of the deck, having seen first hand how much it has helped me through transitions in my life, and he respects the messages and wisdom that comes through the cards. In fact, it's interesting to note that the cards have, many times, helped our relationship over rough patches, and guided me into deeper love and trust of my husband.

I think that any woman who is looking for a deck that will help her to tune into her own intuition, a deck she can trust with her deepest questions, this is THE deck. Personally, I have not found any other deck that I would trust in the way I trust this deck. It goes to the heart of any question, helping to gain honest, loving perspective, and empowering you to make good decisions.

Greetings! I find that this deck is one of my favorites. The only complaint I have is the difficulty in using a round deck--but I have found a way to work around that. *grin* Now, to address all those of you who wrote negative comments about the deck, in regard to it being female centric--isn't it about time? For years we have dealt with the male centric view of magick and Goddess worship. This carried over into tarot decks and other forms of divination.

In ancient times, women were the ones of power and men respected a woman in all her glory. Menstrual cycles were expected and praised, young women did not fear rape and incest, and when the crone years came, women were not tossed outside to live in an "old age" hut.

I would like to direct you to history. Goddess based faiths were peace-loving, and historians have found no weapons at sites were women, and the Goddess, were revered. However, in the male-dominated sites, several types of weapons and devices of torture have been found.

So, in conclusion, I highly suggest these cards for any person, male or female. It is an investment with great payoffs!

The creators of the Motherpeace tarot deck have rethought the traditional (and patriarchal) images of earlier tarot desks, replacing the images with multicultural, goddess-centered images. Since "Motherpeace" was my first tarot set and I have spent little time using more traditional decks, I may not be able to accurately describe what images have changed. Instead of the traditional royalty hierarchy--King, Queen, etc., Motherpeace portrays them as Priest and Priestess. Although the desk retains the more-common medieval theme for the Cups suit, images from other cultures appear on the other suits: African (Wands), Navajo (Discs), and Greco-Roman (Swords).

After using these cards in readings for more than 10 years, the images have become part of how I view certain situations. For instance, the Eight of Discs, featuring a very pregnant woman sitting in a patch of watermelons, is how I now visualize the experience of waiting, sometimes impatiently, for something to come to fruition. Depicting "Strength" as the Irish Goddess Brigid sitting among animals has caused me to rethink what true strength means--groundedness--not brute force. The images are so intricately drawn that a regular reader always will discover new details and new perspectives.

When I started reading tarot cards, I wasn't looking for something to predict the future. I approached the cards as an opportunity to use guided imagery to reflect on my life and my future. Over the years, however, I have experienced some extremely odd coincidences, and now associate certain cards with certain events.

The companion book provides an excellent discussion about the inspiration for the images, and for the most part, a good sense of the meaning behind the images. Eventually, once one has used the cards for a while, the images can drive the reading, without constant referral to the guidebook. One drawback of the companion book is that it doesn't provide a variety of readings. For that, I would suggest "Tarot for Yourself."

One of my all-time favorite decks--however, it cannot be fullyappreciated without the book. I genuinely found it surprising thatsome reviewers believed the book to be "male-bashing." Although this deck is clearly feminist and female-oriented (the majority of cards contain female imagery and the Goddess is the central spiritual image), it is not anti-male. It *is*, however, anti-patriarchal. You may take the title, "Motherpeace" as a major clue! I would think that women would like this deck more than men, simply because it speaks to women's experience more than to men's. Here is one of the passages about a male card, the Son of Wands. You may judge for yourself whether this is anti-male or not...

"The Son of Wands represents the Horned God of ancient shamanistic religion and contemporary witchcraft. Unlike the Son of Swords, this Son is not cut off from the Mother or the group, but dancing at the center of it. He represents 'pre-macho' masculinity, the archetypal positive male principle whose elements are light and fire. 'He is untamed,' as Starhawk says of the Horned God. 'But untamed feelings are very different from enacted violence.' Instead of going off to seek individual glory, 'he remains within the orbit of the Goddess; his power is always directed toward the service of life.' His sexuality, though wild, is also 'gentle and tender.' Traditionally the lover of the Great Mother, the Son delights, amuses, and entertains. He celebrates life in much the same way as his sister, the Daughter of Wands.

"The Son, like the sun glowing behind him, represents the directed warmth of summer sunshine, ego expressing itself through a dance of life. The I Ching describes the sun as 'the Gentle, the Penetrating,' and in this way this Son represents the initiating force. In his hands, he holds a rattle and a prayer stick, Wands that will focus his energy in sacred ways and keep it clean and light.

"Ruled by Mercury, the Son also represents thought and the positive power of the mind fired by intuition and joy. Not only Eros, he also represents Logos, the power of the mind. In witchcraft, there is 'no opposition between the two.' The God of the Witches is the untamed male presence in a world that predates patriarchal sex roles and control by males. He represents for all of us--women as well as men--the untamed part of us that will, says Starhawk, 'never be domesticated, that refuses to be compromised, diluted, made safe, molded, or tampered with.'"

I may not agree with all of Noble's scholarship (this book was written in the late seventies), but I find her writing a rich and lovely weaving together of many diverse strands. She incorporates the viewpoints of many mystical traditions, from the metaphysics of Alice Bailey to Tantra. In no way do I find Noble to be "mean-spirited." Rather, her writing is holistic and empowering.

When I first encountered this deck I disliked it because of what I perceived as child-like artwork. This prejudice kept me from working with the deck for many years (my loss!). It's true that the drawings are not technically sophisticated--I believe some of it was actually drawn with the artists' non-dominant hand in order to connect more fully with intuition--but they are quite rich in symbolism and meaning. I've grown to genuinely love this deck over the years. It's the one I use for day-to-day questions, and I find it to be eerily accurate and full of useful advice. In the Preface, Noble writes:

"Motherpeace was written as if I were talking with four particular friends. In this diverse group, the first friend is a feminist sister who, in addition to the struggles to improve the quality of our everyday lives, wants to recover a vision of the Goddess and the kind of society that would honor her.

My second friend uses a traditional Tarot deck, as millions do, but is excited to hear about a wholly new set of Tarot images that, while drawing upon tradition, recast it to embody more fully the lives and aspirations of women.

While working on the book, I also kept in mind a third friend. Strongly visual, she records and meditates on her dreams and, like others influenced by Jung, seeks to deepen her knowledge of myth as a way of understanding her own psyche and the dramas being acted out around her.

This brings us to the fourth member of my imaginary audience--a friend who is deeply concerned about the lack of peace in the world and, in particular, about the numbing prospect of a "nuclear exchange." No longer believing that the system will cure itself, he wants to explore visions of society other than the patriarchal one now dominant.

In response to the concerns of these friends--who, of course, are also parts of myself--I have addressed the issue of personal and global peace in a positive spirit, through pictorial images, against a background of myth and art that date from an age when the Goddess was still the joy of humankind's desiring."

If you have don't like this description, you probably won't like the deck! END

I am not a Tarot expert. I collect decks because I like the art and the idea of a spiritual tool for examining the self. I am not trained to recognize esoteric symbols and so many tarot decks have them, that I usually give up in frustration of ever learning to recognize them again, let alone know what they mean. The only deck that has spoken to me personally and allowed my imagination to come up with multiple interpretations is the Motherpeace deck. I was put off at first by the seeming simplistic artwork, but after using them and playing with them for a couple years, they started to to grow on me. Yeah, I know, a couple of years is long in this fast-paced world, but instant attraction isn't always the best sign of a good relationship and the decks I found myself most attracted to ended up being empty vessels. With Motherpeace, for the first time, I felt that I could trust my own interpretive intuition and that alone is more freeing than anything else garnered from tarot work. I love it so much that I'm ordering the mini-Motherpeace to take to work with me. The images are nurturing and androgynous and I really don't know what the fuss is about when discussing male and female representation. I found it whole and comforting. Definately worth a look.

I've had the Motherpeace deck for more than ten years. I've used it much more than the traditional deck.

The round cards show varying degrees of determination or hesitation, and I find that refreshing. So much in life is shades of gray, not simply black and white or yes and no. Personally, when giving a reading, I find that they do seem to stimulate my intuition.

As to the feminist perspective- round "is" the feminine, and peace does entail compromise and lack of agression.

What is wrong with expressing a female view? Perhaps the playbook does need a new century update but I use a different playbook, and this review is more about the cards themselves. See the end of this review to see which playbook I use.

With the cards themselves, and the playbook I use, I don't see evidence of male bashing, but I do see evidence of using the feminine perspective to create peace, and as a tool to encourage personal growth among women and "gentlemen".

At first I too found the artwork to be childish. It grew on me over the past ten years. The art is symbolic, trying to connect the reader with the archetypes we all carry. Some are masculine, some are feminine, some are good, and some are negative, but even the death card carries an image that radiates change, thereby making something that many if not most of us find frightening into something that engages the mind instead of the adrenelin gland.

Do not be afraid of the feminine perspective of these cards. They will not force you to change your belief system should you be more directed to the masculine side of our culture, though they may point out some things about women in general.
They are a modern take on an old tradition, and of course, that is going to rankle traditionalists.

I have found them to be a positive tool for enlightenment and self-actualization. Remember, the cards don't read themselves. We interpret them through our own conciousness.

The playbook I have is by Vicky Noble and Johnathan Tenney- who is an astrologer. I find it to be a nice blend of masculine and feminine. It is called The Motherpeace Tarot Playbook published by Wingbow Press.

I have read Tarot for over 20 years now, starting with the Rider-Waitte deck. I found this deck 10 years ago and love it. The drawings are beautiful and speak to the heart & soul. I have found the readings I have done with this deck to be more accurate and much more loving and positive than with any other deck I have used. True, it is feminine based, and much of the time focuses on the inner strength of women, but that is something many women need to remember. I highly recommend trying these cards.

Guys can be feminists too, and this deck is great for us! You'll learn so much about the much-neglected nurturing that our lives lack. A must for all.

I guess when I use my Motherpeace cards I'm not looking closely enough for all this hatemongering, malice, bad art, and all-around stupidity that other reviewers mention. Or maybe, just maybe, it's possible that different people have different tastes, especially concerning something as personal as a tarot deck.

I like the art. It's simple yet evocative and makes the deck easy to read without spelling everything out. I'm just not into the medieval decks or the photographic decks or the pretty-pretty superairbrushed decks. These images make me want to get out a pencil and draw, and I like that.

The many women of many cultures are portrayed in many situations, positive and negative. Because it's a round deck, the cards can be read in varying degrees of positivity or negativity. The male images can be read the same way, as can the images that don't even have people on them! Fancy that. Pretty biased, if you ask me.

So I guess you could say I like the deck. I like the book that comes with it and the other books, too. Some people, apparently, find it nasty. I don't, but maybe I'm just naive.