illustrated by Laura Shelley
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| Harmony Tarot Rider/Penguin |
I made the decision to purchase this deck after it had been published and I had had an opportunity to see all the cards. Even with half the reviews I have seen for this deck talking about using this as more of an oracle then a tarot deck. At first I shared this sentiment about the Harmony Tarot being not so much a tarot deck but more of an oracle deck that happens to have 78 cards with majors and minors in 4 suits. But looking deeper into this deck I am now not so sure this is the case.
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| major arcana |
The reason so may have decided that this deck is more oracle then tarot, in my opinion, comes down to the major arcana cards which have been altered to represent magical elements and the natural world. These major cards are not instantly recognisable which has thrown most tarot readers who have come to expect some sort of visual recognition within each card, no mater how diverse and altered the art may be.
So most reviews I have seen for this deck fall into two categories, either they are massive fans of Harmony Nice, the author, and her deck because she created it, or they are somewhat disappointed that it's not more 'traditional' and will use it as an oracle. There were also a lot of people who seemed disappointed that this was a pip deck, but most of these people seemed to be the ones who pre-ordered this deck without knowing exactly what they were buying.
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| knight's of the minor arcana |
If you have seen a few of Harmony Nice's videos on YouTube about tarot, then you may be able to see some of the influences that went into the creation of this deck. The guidebook actually mentions that she stared out with a Rider-Waite deck before being given her great-grandmothers tarot deck, which in one of her videos is shown to be the 1JJ Swiss Tarot, a Marseille tarot deck.
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| suit of spring court |
A lot of people, from what I have seen, have assumed that the 'traditional' tarot the Harmony Tarot is based on, or not based on, is the Rider Waite Smith tarot. However I believe that she has instead used her great-grandmothers Marseille deck, the 1JJ Swiss Tarot, as inspiration and bases for her deck. This can be seen in the Star, Moon and Sun cards having French titles in her Harmony Tarot as they do in her 1JJ Swiss Tarot, and in both decks being pip decks.
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| suit of spring minor arcana |
There was also some talk about people not liking the numbered pip cards having no suit names but just the numbers alone, but this too is seen in both the Rider Waite Smith tarot and the 1JJ Swiss Tarot. As she associates her suits with the 4 seasons and each season is represented by a plant, I have found it easier to remember the sun placement in the minor cards for each season and associated that to a suit/element, so for me Spring is wands/fire with the sun on the right, Summer is cups/water with the sun at the top, Autumn is swords/air with the sun on the left, Winter is coins/earth with the sun at the bottom.
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| aces of the minor arcana |
As mentioned, I believe that this deck does follow a traditional tarot structure, it is just going to take some time working with it to see clearly how the majors do, in their own unique way, represent the 'traditional' major tarot cards. Only here these cards have an emphasis on growth and healing, in much the same way other decks focus on themes of love or shadow. I plan to write more about this and each individual card in future posts, links to each to be found HERE.
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| major arcana |
One thing that I would have found more helpful was if the majors had been numbered, I am tempted to just write the numbers on these myself but I don't really want to spoil the beauty of these cards. The card stock seems to be ok, if a bit stiff, although I am no expert on this. However they are not cut cleanly as you can feel the roughness along the sides of these cards. When shuffling, they overhand fine enough, but I find it a little difficult to riffle shuffle these due to their stiffness and when I do they clump together a bit.
The box for this deck is beautiful, it's sturdy and solid but it is not something I am going to be using to store this deck in. The cards and guidebook are set side by side in this box, with a bit of cardboard used to balance out the hight of the guidebook with the cards next to it. But there is too much room for the cards to move about and get damaged, so I will be finding a new home for these cards. However I may just use the box to store crystals or other such items.
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| Harmony Tarot U.S. Games |
Before I purchased this deck by Rider/Penguin, I did see that U.S. Games was also releasing a copy of the Harmony Tarot. When I looked into what the differences between the two decks might be I was torn as to which copy I should buy. The U.S Games copy had the deck and guidebook on top of each other in a box, which I much preferred to keep the cards stored more safely. I assumed it would also have the standard U.S. Games card stock which would be decent.
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| On the left is Rider/Penguin, on the right is U.S. Games |
Also, I saw that the U.S. Games minor pip cards would have full titles on them, for example 'four of summer' or 'nine of autumn', as opposed to this Rider/Penguin copy just having the 'IV' or 'IX' on the same cards. But after working with this deck a bit I have found that this does not really bother me so much, as I said both the RWS and Marseille decks already use this numbering and I have now memorised the seasons of each card.
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On the left is Rider/Penguin, on the right is U.S. Games |
Ultimately I decided against the U.S. Games copy because they numbered the major cards. Actually, as I said I would have liked the major cards to be numbered, however the U.S. Games copy has numbered the cards '1 The Goldfinch' through to '22 The Orchard'. So because I can see the traditional majors in this tarot deck, this way of numbering has thrown me. I would have numbered 'The Goldfinch' as 0 and putting 'The Lovers' as card 7 and 'The Orchard' that is to me clearly 'The World' as card 22 does not make sense to me. This may be another reason for people to dismiss this deck as non-tarot and more oracle.
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| U.S. Games major arcana |
Both copies include the same guidebook, I know because I asked. There is quite a bit of information in the little guide book, a section for beginners, though I do not personally believe this to be a beginners tarot deck, a section on using the cards, about reversals but not reversal meanings, a number of spreads, and the card meanings themselves. Being a pip deck I would have liked to have seen numerological associations and possibly also court associations, however suit associations are given at the beginning of each suits chapter which is nice.
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U.S. Games major arcana |
The one other thing I wish was included but is clearly missing in both copies is more information in the guidebook about each card, especially for the major arcana. Although each card has keywords followed by about a page of information about the meaning, there is nothing more about the cards image. I would have loved it if there was included why each image was what it was and the symbolism behind it. For example what the Goldfinch symbolised, or why the plant forget-me-not was used for the High Priestess.
I was so tempted to purchase both the Rider/Penguin copy as well as the U.S. Games copy in order to do a more thorough comparative review, but with a price tag of AU$35 and AU$40 respectively, that was just not going to happen. Overall I have found this to be a beautifully unique tarot deck whose art work just calls to me. Laura Shelley did a wondrous job illustrating these cards but I know I will have to spend some time studying the meanings given as well as in further study before I become more comfortable with this tarot deck.
This review reflects my personal thoughts and opinions. Your opinions and experiences may differ to my own.
