The Whimsical Tarot
A Review by Kimberly Schwartz
The topic comes up from time to time on tarot
e-lists: "What deck would you recommend for working with children?"
Invariably, the questioner is directed to a RWS clone which has soft coloring and
fanciful artwork, like the Tarot of a Moon Garden, or Hanson Roberts decks, or to the
Inner Child Cards. With the publication of the new Whimsical Tarot by U.S. Games,
however, I think that's about to change. Designer Dorothy Morrison and artist Mary
Hanson-Roberts have come up with an ideal children's deck. It's not just
for kids, though. More on this later.
Some general information
first: This 78-card deck is standard-sized for U.S. Games (2-3/4 by 4-3/4).
The artwork is, naturally enough, reminiscent of the Hanson-Roberts deck, gently rendered
in colored pencil (or chalk/pastel). Each card has a white border containing a
colorful "frame" for the card image; the frames are decorated with flowers,
foliage, and scrollwork, and are color-keyed for the suits: orange for Rods, green
for Cups, red for Swords, and blue for Pentacles. The frames on the minors are wider
at the bottom allowing space for a "name plate" for the card. Numbers on
the suit cards are written out, as opposed to using numerals i.e., "Ten of Rods"
as opposed to "10 of Rods" and the frame on each of the 2 - 10 cards also
contains the requisite number of suit symbols. On the Major Arcana cards, the frames
are narrower, and feature a rainbow blending of colors used in the Minors. Roman
numerals in the bottom center of the cards order the Majors, and the title of each Major
card is written inside the frame at the top of the card. Strength is eight, Justice
is eleven, and The Fool is zero. The backs are reversible,
and feature a very attractive abstract flower design framed with stylized Celtic
knotwork. Average weight coated cardstock was used for printing, and the deck is
packaged in a standard U.S. Games flip-top box, and comes with a LWB, such as it is.
More on this later, also.
I really like this
deck. It is billed as "A Deck for Children and the Young at Heart" and it
is apparent that Morrison put some careful thought into the process of sifting through
fairy tales, fables, and myths to select images for each card. In the introduction
to the LWB, she writes:
"Childhood stores are built of simple ideas, have simple plots,
and teach simple lessons. The brain already knows this stuff, so there's nothing to
sort through or think about. That being the case, the messages arrive
undisturbed."
This is a good description of the way this deck works in readings.
Any child (or adult, for that matter) who knows the stories will be able to look at
the cards and have an "ah-ha" experience - instantly deriving meaning, without
sifting through layers of symbolism or complex analysis. I found myself laughing out
loud with delight at how perfect some of the images really are. For instance, the
Four of Pentacles card shows the Aesop's fable of A Dog and His Bone - the one where a dog
who has a bone happens to pass by a stream and, seeing his reflection, thinks he is seeing
another dog with another bone. Being greedy, he opens his mouth to grab the bone
from the other dog, and in so doing, loses his own bone into the fast-moving
water. I probably never will be able to look at that stifled, grasping
man in the RWS Four of Pentacles again without thinking of that dog!
Of course, one could select any set of 78
images from fairy tales and use them as an oracle or guide - likely with meaningful
results. What makes this deck remarkable, I think, is that the images selected and
the meanings they connote actually conform to at least one generally accepted
interpretation for the corresponding RWS card - meaning that a child who learns with this
deck should be able to make a fairly easy transition to any number of other decks when the
time comes to do so. It is this quality which, in my view, sets this deck above the
other fairy-tale-based decks like the Inner Child Cards and the Tarocchi delle Fiabe as a
learning deck. For example: In the Inner Child Cards, the Emperor card depicts
the story of The Emperor's New Clothes. Ok, there is an emperor in the story, but
what has that vain and foolish character got to do with the tarot Emperor? A look at
the accompanying book yields a complex line of reasoning having to do with the the
blending of the polarized energies of the Emperor and Empress; it's an interesting
meditation for a grownup, but not something I'd want to try to explain to a child.
In the Whimsical Tarot, on the other hand, the Emperor card depicts Santa Claus - who, as
every child knows, will provide for you and do nice things for you, but expects you to be
good, the way you should, every single day - that is, to follow the rules.
Simplistic? Yes. Childlike? Most certainly. Nevertheless, a child
using this deck can immediately relate to those aspects of the tarot Emperor, and will
carry that learning with her - and will, I think, be less confused and better able to work
with other tarot Emperors later on than a child who has associated the tarot Emperor with
that naked guy who was the laughing-stock of the village.
As another example, both the Inner Child Cards
and the Tarocchi delle Fiabe depict Rapunzel on the Tower card. Sure, there's a tall
structure in both fairy tale and tarot card, but so what? What does the story of
Rapunzel teach us about the tarot Tower in terms a child could understand?
By contrast, the Whimsical Tarot shows the Big Bad Wolf blowing down the Little Pig's
house of straw - a Tower experience if ever there were one, and moreover, something a
child who knows the story will understand immediately - along with the lesson that
diligence, resourcefulness, and advance planning can lessen the impact of the crash.
Almost every card in this
deck shows a scene or character that is recognizable as being from a particular
story. There are a few exceptions among the Minors where we see the occasional card
which shows a "stock" fairy tale occurrence - like the Ten of Cups, which
depicts a prince bringing his princess home to his kingdom, presumably to "live
happily ever after." This scene could be from any number of fairy tales, of
course. It may be that artist and designer had a particular one in mind, but it's
not instantly discernable from looking at the card. However, this doesn't detract
from the readability. I think "happily ever after" is a pretty good start
to getting a grasp of the Ten of Cups, and it's a phrase I added to my tarot
notebook after studying this deck.
When discussing decks for
children, one of the concerns usually has to do with the "scary" cards.
Whimsical Tarot handles these sensitively, I believe, by choosing images to which a child
can relate - but again, there is a core of meaning to the images selected which will lead
the child in a natural progression to greater insight later on: Death is Sleeping
Beauty, the Devil is Pinnochio while he was still a puppet, the Ten of Swords is Humpty
Dumpty ("....and all the king's horses, and all the king's men; couldn't put Humpty
together again.")
The Aces of each
suit depict an ornately decorated suit symbol. The Courts are interesting:
the King and
Queen of each suit do not appear to be characters from any particular story that I
recognize. They appear to be a matched set in each suit - the King and Queen of
Pentacles are both dressed in green and brown, the King and Queen of Cups are both dressed
in blue and green, and so forth. For some reason, the King and Queen of Cups are
depicted with their backs to us, while all the other Kings and Queens are facing
us. It may be that Morrison and Hanson-Roberts intended
some sort of seasonal correspondences as well - we see the King and Queen of Swords
dressed in fur and standing in the snow and the King and Queen of Pentacles are standing
in a forest where it is obviously autumn - but if so, it is not a set of seasonal
correspondences with which I am familiar. The issue is further confused by the fact
that the foliage on the borders of the courts doesn't appear to match the
"season" in the scenes - for instance, we see fall leaves in the border of the
Rods suit, but not in the border of the Pentacles suit.
Unlike the King and
Queen, the Knight of each suit does appear to be a story character - Br'er Fox as the
Knight of Swords, for example. The Pages are unlike any other deck I've ever
seen. Instead of a person or character, each shows an item, other than the suit
symbol, which is representative of the qualities of the suit - a pile of coins and ledger
sheet for the Pents, a herald's trumpet for
the Rods, a crystal ball or bubble for the Cups, and a spy glass for the Swords.
There are a few things I
would have done differently about this deck. I would have used Arabic numerals
instead of Roman numerals on the Majors, because children generally learn the Arabic
numerals first. I would probably have used Arabic numerals on the Minors as well,
instead of "writing out" the words for the numbers - again, because children
recognize the numerals before they learn to read the words for the numbers. I would
probably have used different colors on the borders of the Minors, because I think even
young children are capable of learning that "Cups are blue, blue is for water;
Pentacles are green, like grass on the earth" and so forth. But these are small
matters. My chief complaint is not with the deck at all, but with the LWB, which is
sparse, even for a LWB. It contains a brief introduction, simplistic keywords for
each card, and descriptions of four spreads of increasing difficulty, which are listed by
age group (The One Card Spread for ages 3 - 6, etc.). It would have been a 200%
improvement if a line had been added for each card naming the tale or character the card
depicts. I hope Morrison and U.S. Games are planning a companion book for this deck.
It certainly deserves one, and perhaps it would straighten out my confusion about
those Court cards.
All in all, the Whimsical
Tarot is a charming deck - pleasing to the eye, refreshing for the soul, and worth adding
to any collection. I think it's the best deck I've seen for children. Adult
beginners would probably also find it valuable, especially if used in connection with
another RWS family deck for comparative study. It would be a fun deck to use for
readings for clients who are not familiar with tarot.
Whimsical Tarot
©U.S. Games Systems, Inc., Stamford CT USA 06902
ISBN #1-57281-253-2
Illustrations from Whimsical Tarot reproduced by permission
of U.S. Games, Inc. Copyright by U.S. Games Systems, Inc.
Further reproduction prohibited.
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