The Vampire Tarot [Paperback]

I have to admit that I approached this Tarot with some trepidation as I wasn't sure of the concept of "wrapping" the Tarot around a novel, but I'm pleased to say that Robert Place has done a very good job.

The book and cards are held in a wonderfully sturdy cardboard box. Should you feel so moved you can knock on it as though it were a door without damaging it, quite unlike the vast majority of modern decks.

The book is a fairly hefty 220 pages long, starting with a 60 page discussion of the history and philosophy of the Tarot. There then follows a 70 page chapter on the vampire in legend and art. The rest of the book describes the deck itself without including pictures of the card under discussion: a sensible move as you have the cards sitting next to you.

The cards themselves are larger than the average deck at 9 by 13.5cm and are heavily laminated. Almost too heavily as they slip and slide over each other, or else stick together which makes shuffling more difficult than it need be, especially given their size. They rest in a plastic holder. Unfortunately, there is no smaller box for the cards themselves, which makes this Tarot a little on the bulky side to carry around.

A further let-down is that the cards are cut square, instead of having rounded corners. Already, after only a couple of weeks, my cards are already showing some damage, despite the care I take in handling them.

Several of the major arcane have new names derived from Stoker's Dracula: The Fool becomes Jonathan the Fool, The Priestess becomes Mina, The Empress becomes The Brides, The Hanged Man The Madman, amongst others. The suits are Holy Water (Cups), Knives (Swords), Garlic Flowers (Pentacles) and Stakes (Wands). The Court cards are illustrated with people associated with Bram Stoker and the Dracula legend, Stoker himself being the King of Garlic Flowers.

The pip cards mix scenes from the novel with vampire legend and "vampirised" versions of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. I always feel that it's important for the suit symbol to be present on the card the appropriate number of times, and that certainly happens in the Vampire Tarot, with more than half the space of some cards being given over to the suit symbols.

Curiously, although the reverse of the cards is symmetrical, suggesting that the deck is intended to be used with reversals, the book is quite clear that reversals should not be used as the theme of the deck is quite dark enough already. The artwork uses little shading as such, almost resembling woodcuts. With some familiarity with Bram Stoker's novel the deck can be read quite intuitively, but it isn't a deck for a beginner.

I would give this set five stars; the box is excellent and the book is thorough, but the set is let down by the quality of the card stock and the square corners of the cards, so, regretfully, I can only give it four stars.

I am a great fan of Robert Place's artwork and this deck does not dissapoint. I own several "dark" or "gothic" type decks, but this one is my favorite.

The deck itself comes in a very sturdy box, which houses a very readable book and a plastic insert which holds the deck of large size cards. For the price that this deck is currently selling at is exceptional value for money. I would personally recommend you remove the insert and put the cards in a wrap, or nice bag and store them in the box with the book.

My only gripe and it's a minor gripe, is that the cards are a bit sticky and they have square corners this makes them hard to shuffle and deal, but they get easier to handle with use.

The artwork itself is breath taking, Based around The novel "Dracula" it gives an overall theam to the cards, rather than just being dark. It makes a nice change to the "Vampires are cool" attitude in current culture. The book itself also gives very good justifications for the card choice and a very good concise history of the Tarot and vampirte mythos.

The cards themselves give quite clear, if sometimes unsettleing readings, recommended either for subconcious type redings or maybe in conjunction with a lighter deck for light/shade type readings.

A must buy for all goth vampire types but highly recommended for any tarot reader/collector

I absolutely cannot wait to get my hands on this deck and book. I've been eagerly awaiting it for the last couple of years now. Having been in the highly privileged position of viewing the original artwork back in New York at a Tarot School Readers Studio I have grasped every opportunity to find out more about Robert's Vampire Tarot. I'm a huge fan of his work, the artwork is glorious, the text, the thinking, the study that goes into his work is exceptional.

I love the fact that this deck stays much truer to the Bram Stoker story. Robert really "gets it" and I'm glad that he has held some fantastic courses and teleclasses around this. And soon, very soon, we will have the completed deck and book which I know will surpass all expectations. I just can't wait to get my hands on this deck having purchased a copy of the limited edition Majors back in the spring of 2008.

Thank you to Robert for bringing the most beautiful and deep Tarot decks into the world for us enthusiasts.

So . . . how many days to go until it's in my hands???