So recently (as in sometime in the past few months?) Katey Flowers on YouTube did a hashtag challenge and I really enjoyed it. I haven’t done one of these “non-VRs” in a while and I thought this would be a fun one to jump in on.

What trends/tropes in tarot annoy you the most?

Lack of diversity while being marketed as diverse. (Hello, Modern Witch Tarot which was initially marketed as “diverse” and yet is women only; and the Lady Tarot Cards which says they are “for LGBT women and nonbinary people” and “absolutely trans inclusive”, and yet again, only depicts women. Keep in mind here, I’m not against all-women decks. What I’m against is the false advertising/marketing bullshit of saying something that they aren’t in order to drive up the hype.

Labeling decks “tarot” when they are not a tarot deck. I wrote an entire post about this.

BIG f’ing deck boxes. W.T.F. They’re inconvenient, unwieldy, and take up WAY too much space. I don’t understand why, instead of making the box fit the book, they can’t make the book fit the box by making it smaller in surface area and thicker.

Which deck do you feel is overrated?

The Wild Unknown. It’s not so much that the artwork isn’t great and the deck isn’t amazing. The artwork is great and the deck is amazing, and for its time when it came out? It was groundbreaking. The thing is? It’s constantly mentioned as a “beginner deck” which it absolutely is not.

Can you learn with it? Yes. But there’s a vast array of truly beginner tarot decks out there that will make that learning process far smoother, quicker, and easier.

What are your least favourite decks you’ve seen since joining TarotTube?

I don’t broadcast on YouTube, but I have been watching it for a few years. So least favorite?

Hmmm, Mystic Mondays Tarot. I hate to say it, but the creator pretty much turned me off to this deck. It came out first through Kickstarter and there was a whole kerfuffle about it ending up releasing mass market prior to people getting their KS copies. The creator did not handle the kerfuffle well and was extremely rude (bordering on abusive) in her responses. It just completely turned me off a deck I wasn’t really all that interested in in the first place.

Tabula Mundi. This might be because I struggle with the artwork in the original Thoth deck? The Tabula Mundi feels like very similar artwork/energy… just modern and edgier.

The last isn’t really a specific deck, but a style. That gold on black design that’s become really popular the last few years.

The Marigold Tarot was somewhere at the beginning and is absolutely beautiful, but there’s so many of them out there now, and honestly? They all look the same to me because it’s just gold on black over and over again. I own a few, but I find that I rarely reach for them because it just feels so very over-done now.

What is one card that has ruined a deck for you?

The afterbirth/urination card (Magician / Sorceress) in the Tarot Restless. (ew!)

The dog shit card (Five of Pentacles) in the Mystic Garbage Tarot. (again… ew!)

The revised Ten of Swords in the Light Seers Tarot. The original artwork is something I connected to very deeply, and the new version that Chris Anne replaced it with when people went into an uproar just doesn’t… connect the same for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a beautiful and expressive deck, but the deck just doesn’t connect the same for me personally with the replacement card.

Which out of print deck do you wish was still in print?

The Slow Holler tarot. So beautiful. So brilliant. I feel it should be more circulated than it is, and needs a lot more love instead of “holy too-expesive-to-buy-now reverence”.

It should be loved for its theme, it’s artwork, and what lies behind its creation… not just known notoriously as the deck out of everyone’s reach because getting one’s hands on a copy is so expensive.

What are some of your tarot and TarotTube pet peeves?

I think my biggest is the same as Katy Flowers’ in this case. It’s the “should” and “have to” that run the course of actually being exclusionary to people that say… read with reversals or don’t. Do mediumship, or don’t. Do predictive readings, or don’t. Tarot practice is not a cookie cutter practice so it bothers me when I see people looking down on others for this or that as if it’s “distasteful” or wrong, when instead it’s just simply another way of doing things.

At the same time? Tarot is a system. It has a specific structure. It bugs the hell out of me when people just make up their own meanings for the cards that have absolutely nothing to do with the tarot meanings at all. Why not go with oracle or image-only cards if you’re going to do this? Why instead corrupt an established system?

What are some decks that you feel should have more recognition?

The Stolen Child Tarot – The artwork in this deck is absolutely breathtaking and it’s a take on the cards that I have not seen done before… and is done well.

The Ink Witch Tarot – Absolutely brilliant modern representations in the tarot in an art style that is both beautiful and soothing to the senses.

Journey of the Bearded Tarot – I love the illustrations in this deck, and I can’t believe I’d never heard of this deck before when I stumbled across it on Etsy.

Wonderland Tarot in a Tin – This deck is has the sharpest tone when it answers questions out of any deck I have ever used. It isn’t mean, but it is bare-bones honestly blunt and sharp, and takes no prisoners.

Thera-Pets Emotional Support Animal Cards – If you suffer from depression? You may benefit from this deck. I know that I certainly have. Whenever an MDE comes on, I pull out this deck to help in the journey through the depression and subsequent climb back out of the pit.

What are your thoughts on negative reviews (on decks)?

I think that addressing both the negative and positive qualities of a deck are both important. People read/watch reviews in order to know if the deck is something they’ll want to purchase, and as such it’s important to cover both the good and bad elements of a deck when doing a review. I don’t particularly like reviews that are only good or only bad as they just seem biased and that I’m missing the full picture. I want to hear both.