This is a deck which is intended to assist both women and men to connect ever more closely with their feminine power in the journey towards wholeness. The accompanying leaflet provides a surprising amount of information on how to move forward on such a journey, and for those who want to read more, Bridges has written 'The Medicine Woman Inner Guidebook'. All the cards are sensitively illustrated, in a rather child-like manner, and are a joy to see.
The Major Arcana cards all have the original titles in small print at the top and the 'Medicine Woman' titles in much larger print at the bottom. Some examples are 'Seed' (The Fool), 'Vision' (The Hanged Man) and 'The Grandmothers' (The Moon). There is very little of the original Tarot symbolism but the main link between all the cards is the connection between people and nature.
The Minor Arcana suit names are 'Arrows' (Swords), 'Pipes' (Wands), 'Bowls' (Cups) and 'Stones' (Pentacles), and the Court card titles are 'Apprentice' (Page), 'Totem' (Knight), 'Lodge' (Queen) and 'Exemplar' (King). Each suit has its own power animal - 'Arrows, the Coyote', Pipes, the Eagle', 'Bowls, the Dolphin' and 'Stones, the Snake'. The Minor cards again break with Tarot tradition in that they don't bear the number of suit symbols according to the card number, and this seems in keeping with inspiring people to take a fresh look at 'the world'. There are two extra cards in the pack, one being an invocation to 'the Mother Creator' and the other, a welcome to the elemental energies, both of which come across as powerful and sincere.
Although this deck is structurally the same as most Tarot decks, it has a different feel completely, and I have to say that I haven't found it that easy to connect with as a whole. It's a bit like being presented with a cool summer soup when you've been used to hot winter broth - perhaps not the best analogy I could have made, but I hope you get the picture.
