Sun and Moon Tarot [With Booklet] [Cards]

Illustrator Vanessa Decort has created a stunning yet simple deck with her Sun And Moon Tarot. This latest offering from U.S. Games looks rather plain at first glance but on close inspection, there is a richness and complexity that draws you in and lends new, subtle nuances to your tarot readings. Decort describes the deck this way: "The Sun And Moon Tarot considers universal archetypes and cultural symbols, and also incorporates the artist's own personal symbols."

The deck is comprised of the standard 78 cards, with Majors, Minors and Courts. Based on the Thoth deck, it stays true to the titles that Aleister Crowley used (ex: 7 of Pentacles - Failure; Art - Temperance; Princes and Princes rather than Knights and Pages). I've always been somewhat intimidated by the Thoth deck but Decort has taken that influence and infused it with an almost playful, childlike essence. This could be because she has a background as an illustrator for children's books or perhaps she simply wanted to deliver the wisdom of the Thoth deck in a more whimsical and accessible manner. I'm not sure which reason guided her work but the result is an inviting, fun deck that never loses its Thoth roots.

This is a well made deck on sturdy card stock with a somewhat matte finish. It felt great in my hands, shuffled well and seemed built to last. This is very important to me as I tend to be hard on my decks through constant use. The back of the deck is a gorgeous black and white mandala - and it's reversible, another small detail that I like.

Each image is framed by white borders with titles (in English) and numbers clearly printed. The typeface is easy to read, no squinting required. Colors are bold yet muted. I especially liked the choices for the Minors suits - neutral, earthy tones for Earth; dark grey, burnt sienna and orange flames for Fire; rich midnight blue for Water; and light sky blue for Air. These color schemes make sense and allow the reader to instantly know which suit they are working with before they even glance at the title.

There are strong Kabbalah and alchemy influences throughout the deck - each Major has a Hebrew letter and the elemental symbols appear on every minor. Yogic images are scattered about - fro the OM symbol in the Hermit to the dancing Shiva as the Universe (World)! Of course, being a yogi, this is personally very appealing to me!

The Major arcana is especially rich with symbols - the yin and yang in the Temperance and the Phoenix in the Death card convey the meanings clearly. Astrological symbols are featured throughout the Majors - for example, the Cancer symbol on the chest of the driver in The Chariot or the ram's heads and lamb (Aries) in the Emperor.

One of the things I liked the best about this deck was the multicultural imagery. Rather than "standard" RWS people, there are all races represented here - black, white, dark haired, redheads and more. This gives the deck a "modern" appeal and I happen to like that as my own personal life is diverse - so seeing this detail made me feel more connected to the deck.

Despite the Thoth influence, the standard Rider Waite interpretations show up in the Minors. Rather than pip cards, the Minors are fully illustrated with people in various postures and actions - and this makes the Minors easier to grasp. I especially liked the image of the 10 of Wands, which shows an African woman delicately balancing a bunch of sticks on top of her head as she travels across a desert landscape. This lends a more hopeful feel to the standard interpretation (Decort interprets it as: "Ability to adapt when overwhelmed, like reeds bending with the wind.")

I found it odd at first that none of the images had faces. In fact, they were blank like an Amish doll. I am a visual person and I thought this would inhibit my ability to read these cards. Surprisingly though I found that the symbols and the body language of the people allowed me to understand the cards easily. And without any facial expressions to guide me, I started to find that I was less limited in my own interpretations. For example, the 3 of Swords has an image of three swords going through a cloud which forms a thought bubble above the head of a woman who is resting her hand on her knee. Normally I interpret this card as heartbreak or loss - but this image spoke of perhaps reflecting on a disappointment. In a weird way, the lack of facial expressions is a bit liberating.

The Sun and Moon Tarot comes with a standard little white book but I think this deck needs a companion book as I felt there was not enough information to really grasp the possibilities that are present in this deck. For example, I read reversals and there were no interpretations for them. I'd like to see how the artist would interpret these. I'd also like more information on how this deck relates to the Thoth as I feel that it could help to shed light on the Thoth and make it more approachable to those of us who shy away from it. But these are very small, niggling requests.

After going over all those details, I always find the best way to really see if a deck is useable is by doing a reading. So I asked the deck this question: how will the Sun and Moon Tarot work for me? I pulled the Ace of Wands. One of the interpretations in the book was "Spiritual enlightenment and intuition". I feel this is an appropriate description as for me, this deck does not have any of the "same old same old" stuff that I tend to rely on - I have to really pay attention to the symbols and energy and let the faces come alive without my preconceived notions. This IS intuition in action.

I'm giving this deck two Swords up. It is a unique and interesting deck for any tarot lover's collection.

Blessings!
Theresa

Ask & receive! I put my intention out to the Universe last year to send me a tarot deck that suited me better than my "Rider deck for Idiots" as I affectionately called it. What I found was the Sun & Moon deck - truly something for me! The imagery is everything I could ever hope for in a deck; faceless, multicultural figures dressed for a festival against consistent backdrops that are dripping with symbolism I can grasp. The booklet is extremely handy for helping me interpret a challenging spread & gives just enough information about the symbols on each card so that I don't feel like an uninitiated neophyte. I also really love the balance of masculine & feminine in this deck; As I rather enjoy the energy of my male human counterparts, I didn't want an anti-male feminist deck nor did I vibe with a male-dominated typical European deck.

The title, Sun and Moon Tarot, conjures celestial images, thoughts of outer world versus inner world, masculine and feminine, and, of course, two Major Arcana cards. In looking through the deck, it is unclear to me why it is so titled. There don't seem to be any obvious references to celestial bodies, light and dark, God and Goddess, or inner and outer worlds. The deck does have a sense of universality; we are all different, and yet all one. Perhaps that is what Vanessa Decort was trying to convey with her heavenly title; that we are all the same under the sun and the moon.

Unlike many tarot artists, Vanessa Decort is both a tarotist and an artist. Her first introduction to tarot was the Crowley Thoth Harris deck. According to the deck's accompanying materials, Decort designed the deck "to deepen her understanding of tarot's messages". It was her goal to incorporate in Sun and Moon Tarot "universal archetypes and symbols from many cultures".

The colors of Sun and Moon Tarot are lovely and the images are evocative. This deck is like no other I have seen, and yet it is grounded enough to make it serviceable and understandable. While there are many tarot decks available, there are very few that are both unique and truly usable. Sun and Moon Tarot is.

The cards are standard sized, and have a plain white border. The card titles are on the bottom, in the border. There are no capital letters; all words on the cards and the box are lower case. .Numbers are written out in the card titles; there are no roman numerals. New students will enjoy the ease with which they can identify each card, even the pips, by name.

Sun and Moon Tarot honors both Waite and Crowley. The Crowley keyword for each pip card is boldly printed in the top of the white border. The images themselves are often reminiscent of Waite images. Justice is card eight, and Strength eleven, as in Crowley's deck. Major Arcana fourteen is called "art-temperance" and twenty is called "the aeon-judgment," melding the Crowley card names with the Waite card names. The Court is comprised of Princesses, Princes, Queens and Kings, but the Kings are pictured riding steeds, as Knights normally would. The backs are reversible but no reversed meanings are included.

Sun and Moon Tarot people are shaggy, baggy, dreadlocked folk of many skin tones. They have no distinct facial features. They are dressed in cargo pants, stripes and layers. In fact, they are dressed like the young adults you might see at an art opening, a drum circle, or on the way to Burning Man. This is adorable in some cards, meaningful in others, and ludicrous in a few. The Emperor, for instance, in his striped tee shirt and sneakers, needs to do his homework, take out the garbage and stop playing video games. Well, that's what happens in my mind when I see him dressed and slouching like my fourteen-year-old son.

Many of the characters and images seem small, set against immense backgrounds; skies, moons, walls, oceans and fields that are often monochromatic and always textured. Occasional metaphysical "symbols from many cultures" sometimes fit well, and sometimes seem contrived and out of place. Some of the trees and costumes may have been inspired by Tim Burton and Amy Brown.

As in many tarot decks, the people in Sun and Moon Tarot are often accompanied by animals. The deck loses some favor with me in that many of the animals are so cartoon-like that they just seem silly. Perhaps they were inspired by anime and Spongebob; things I am just too old to understand.

Despite the monkeys and alligators, the Major Arcana is really brilliant in a lot of ways. The Magician is a Rasta dude with a djembe on the beach. The Moon has lighthouses for its two towers. Death is called "death-rebirth" and pictures a phoenix. The High Priestess is powerful and ethereal.

The Minor Arcana uses Swords for air and Wands for fire. The elemental triangle is placed at the top of each card, just below the keyword. The icons of the suit do not appear in each image. The Minor Arcana cards are not as detailed as the Majors. In some cases it is hard to see how the Crowley keyword fits with the image. In other cases it makes an interesting point.

For instance, the Ten of Pentacles is "wealth". Here we see a couple (he's wearing a hoodie, she's barefoot in a billowy dress) hugging each other with a tree between them. They each have their faces pressed against the tree. This neatly represents family legacy, being grounded to the earth, and the Kabalistic Tree of Life. That is a nice depiction of true wealth, better than the typical castle and coins!

Sun and Moon Tarot is youthful, fresh and casual. I had thought perhaps it would be more appealing to younger readers and clients. I tested that theory at a tarot study group, and found that age played no role in determining which tarotists would fall in love with this deck. I also discovered that some readers rejected the deck on first view, and then began to appreciate it after spending some time with it. Sun and Moon Tarot kind of grows on you.

The deck is packaged in the classic US Games box with a little white book, also written by the artist. I love it when artists write about their own decks. However, Decort's little white book is a little bit irritating. It may have been limitations of space, language or skill that caused Decort to feel complete sentences were optional in her card interpretations.

Not everyone will appreciate Sun and Moon Tarot. The fifty-year-old in me wants capital letters, realistic animals, complete sentences and appropriate dress. The professional reader in me wonders how clients will react to boldly written keywords like "failure" and "debauch." But my inner tarot intellectual thinks this is a smart, workable and unique contribution to modern tarot. And my eternal, ageless, timeless inner child is delighted by Vanessa Decort's Sun and Moon Tarot.