Customer Reviews

The Tarot of the Dead/El Tarot de los Muertos (Spanish Edition)

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3 star:		(1)
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This tarot deck is truely unique as it blends old European divinity with Mexican tradition. The colors are beautiful, and the depictions of the tarot characters are done with loving reverence not to mention a dose of humor. The artist really seems to have embraced the Day of the Dead traditions as it seems to deal with death as a natural element, not something to be afraid of. The fact that the instruction booklet is written in both Spanish and English indicates the level of committment which the artist went to, to create a deck which would "speak" to all of it's traditions. The attention to detail in the drawings is amazing! It's a fantastic tarot deck to have, just for the artwork alone. This is a wonderful deck of cards which I think anyone would appreciate. ***** 5 stars! Well done!

This is a very interesting tarot card deck, because it appears to reflect the views and values of what Plato would call the "Artisan" personality type. What is really interesting is that artisan-types are usually not primarily concerned with meaning, and don't normally attempt to create tarot cards; normally Plato's "Idealist" would be more concerned with things such as this. In fact, most people who study tarot would probably fall into the idealist area. This deck, however, is clearly the deisgn of an artisan-type personality, but one who is perhaps closer to being an idealist than most artisan types.

The "day of the dead" is an attempt to deal with the issues of death by a ritual ridiculing of death. The Tarot is about life, however, and I think that this deck is an attempt to ridicule life, or perhaps the idea that there is any meaning in life (as symbolzed by the tarot), rather than death. As is typical of the Artisan type, the designer of this deck is clearly intimidated by the idea that life has some sort of meaning and purpose. For the most part, the meaning in this deck appears to be related to the designer's attempt to deal with their personal issues and this causes a lot of distortion which many Tarot enthusists probably won't be able to relate to. Many Artisan-types, however, may be able to relate to some of the issues and so may find this deck insightful, though I wouldn't recommend it's use by an artisan who wants to expand their horizons.

I was a bit disappointed by the manufacturing quality of the cards in this deck. It is obviously not printed by Carti Mundi or any outfit which specializes in printing cards. The cardstock is much thinner than is typical of tarot card decks in general, and the cards that I received were cut rather poorly, particularly on the corners. (In fact, I had to take a razor blade to one of the card's corners so that it wouldn't stick out too much.) The quality of the printing seems to be quite good though, and the artwork is quite good (though a bit cartoon-like.) Some of the symbolism is a bit confusing to me (such as the presence of crecent moons on the "gun" suit cards), and I was a little disappointed that the number cards are pips rather than allegorical depictions.

I was also a little disappointed that the pamphlet that comes with the cards consisted of a folded piece of paper rather than a stapled booklet. Also, the booklet contained a few very obvious, and sometimes confusing, typographical errors which should have easily been found before sending to the press. The translation into Spanish is certainly a plus, though I'm not sure that the hispanic people who honor the day of the dead will find much to relate to in the meanings. With regard to the court cards, some of the meanings are extremely Artisan-biased and in some cases just plain distorted. In particular, the Page of Guns (Swords) has an exceedingly negative description which I believe is completely inaccurate.

This deck is more of a curiosity than a deck that should be used as a general tarot deck. Even though I don't consider it that useful as a tarot card deck, since I find that it seems to be too specific to the personality of the designer, it is extremely useful for someone who wants to understand a viewpoint that is extremely atypical among tarot card decks. This viewpoint is useful in understanding how different people, particularly Artisan-types, approach and interpret life and the personalities of other people. I would only recommend it to people who are interested in either the novelty value or in serious and detailed comparative study of different tarot card decks.