The Wildwood Tarot Deck: Wherein Wisdom Resides

I had already been doing copious research into my Celtic heritage, so the numerous references to Celtic myth had immense appeal -- and the collaborators have put in real British Isles landmarks; one reviewer complained about the "emphasis on genitals," but the Cerne Abbas giant (Five of Bows) is just as real as the sheela-na-gig carvings, one of which appears on the Green Woman's cauldron. How are you going to deal with ancient themes of sexuality and fertility by censoring the culture this deck is based on? Heaven forbid that reviewer ever stumbles across Edo-period Japanese woodblock prints.I also have to put it right out there that (a) I apparently got a reprinting of the deck in which the card stock isn't the least bit flimsy, and (b) I wasn't upset by the fact that this deck doesn't correspond perfectly to the Rider-Waite standard major arcana and interpretations. If I wanted Rider-Waite, I would have bought that. The Devil card has morphed into a bear skeleton guarding a cave -- but it is still challenging the querent. If greed is an obstacle for them, the Rider-Waite Devil will come up. If there is some obstacle preventing the querent from going further on their journey -- as it is heavily implied that the querent wants to, or must, enter whatever the Guardian's cave represents to them -- then humans being what we are, it might be greed, whether material or emotional. I don't see a problem. The Devil card, using a representation that is a slander of Horned Gods like Pan and Cernunnos, simply wouldn't have fit a Celtic/Druid reconstructionist deck that uses many, many horned or horn-wearing figures. (The Ancestor, number 5, is a benevolent figure; even the one experiencing death, in the newly construed Journey card, was a reindeer in its most recent life.) This is a different deck that has obviously resonated with many, including me. It might not be for everyone. If you want the standard Rider-Waite system, and just can't map their "Cups" onto the "Vessels" of this deck, then this might not be the one for you.It is, however, the one for me. I've always been a nature lover (not, as a different reviewer thinks that implies, a humanity-hater), and so the arcana and court cards with beautiful illustrations of herons, kingfishers, stoats, swans, and even a horse that looks very much like those in cave paintings absolutely resonated with me. The magick shop on the grounds of the Renaissance Faire where I work commented that they can hardly keep this deck in stock (at more than twice Amazon's price, mind), and having it in hand, I can see why. I had done some looking through the available "Look Inside" images and liked them, but the photographs just don't do them justice. Looking at the Hooded Man up close, I can now see what the book comments on: that there is light shining through the cracks in the hermit's door, and it looks like a snug and cozy little home-sweet-tree. It may indeed be a hermitage, but it's one with friendly wrens around it, hardly as bleak as the truly solitary Hermit imagery appropriated by Led Zeppelin for album cover art.Another positive reviewer commented that they wept at a few of the cards, and I fully understand this, too. The first one that got me was arcanum 10, The Wheel, which is now an unfinished robe with that design, rather than the sort of Miltonic Catherine-wheel apparatus from Rider-Waite that is constantly dumping people off at the bottom. I couldn't say (yet! I haven't asked these cards anything yet -- they just arrived today) whether this was because the lyrics of the Grateful Dead song "The Wheel" instantly leapt to mind -- while their main lyricist used images of American myth like cowboys and trains, which could make a fascinating deck in and of themselves, he also used far more ancient ones -- or what else about it stirred me emotionally. The book comments that we create our "wheel" and wear it around with us, rather than being passive victims of it. Maybe that struck a note.I think, partly, that what makes this a deck I'm fascinated with is beyond even my beloved Celtic imagery, or the association of the cards with the quarters and cross-quarters of the year. A large part of the story is told by card 0, which is The Wanderer here, rather than The Fool. In Rider-Waite, the rather well-dressed youth is about to walk off a cliff, despite what we imagine is the frantic barking of his little dog, and will clearly be hurt by doing so. In this deck, the Wanderer can see something that others who came to this cliff might not be able to: a rainbow bridging the mist and leading into the forest, and we come to understand that the barefoot youth, standing in for the querent, not only can but must walk over this bridge created by their own mind, imagination, or heart. I find this reimagining a great deal more symbolically and psychologically potent.I can see using this deck for readings, but as the book suggests, for myself or with a querent who seemed likely to come up with a genuinely productive question: e.g. "What energies or aspects do I need in my home?" rather than "Should I buy this particular house, and where am I going to get the money?" The book points out correctly that most such oracles are better for asking the question at the root of the issue, and the spreads provided in the back of the book reflect this (although The Bow Spread was designed for situations where there really is a single question to be sorted). There is a simple three-card spread that sweeps away all of the "fortune-telling" aspects of the Tarot, which someone with the right knowledge could accomplish with a deck of ordinary playing cards and a few cold-reading skills. This spread places the main question in the middle, and flanks it with "actions or paths I should definitely not take" and "actions or paths likely to be helpful." Much like the way the student who pleads for a passing grade is unlikely to be failing your class alone, the querent is likely to have more situations needing resolution than just the money for the fancy house, and this deck seems more likely than most to help them see the common threads in their experiences.On representation in human figures: The deck does skew a bit male in its human representations, although I like The Ancestor and The Archer looking female, and this deck is not the only place you'll find a Green Woman to accompany a Green Man. I do find that, although the book states that the robed figure on the left in The Forest Lovers is male and then goes into a bit of protesting-too-much about the necessity of the gender duality, I have no difficulty seeing the robed figure as another woman. Also, the imagery is very specifically European throughout the deck, and much of it taken from a time when Britain simply wasn't as ethnically diverse as it is today. If a querent needed to see themselves represented in a deck, which might be something really necessary for that person, there are other decks with beautiful art that show people of color (The Cat People Tarot comes to mind, and there have got to be others I'm not thinking of just now). I think this might have been one of the many reasons behind having animals throughout the deck (I note the salmon who is the Queen of Vessels is female for very obvious biological reasons; the Queen of Bows is a female hare; and the boxing hares on the Two of Stones also represent a real behavior specific to females, although that one is a bit more obscure). If a potential purchaser wants to skip over this deck because they have a lot of querents of color, who don't want to have to go without representation when they're laying their souls bare and there just weren't a lot of people of their ethnicity in Bronze Age Britain, fair play -- although that would also be a reason to give Rider-Waite a miss, in this era where there are alternatives that aren't based solely around white Europeans -- or around Christians, for that matter.What I do know is that, for me -- having been turned back to Celtic history, culture, and ultimately religion like the aforementioned salmon, who is returning to her birthplace, but more importantly a Wildwood lover since very early childhood -- the deck is a total delight. (I had to look to find the copyright notice on the backs of the cards, and, as a content creator myself with friends who have made careers in visual arts only to have their art stolen and used for commercial use by someone else, I am simply not that bothered by it.) The artwork and symbolism rang the proverbial bell for me. And I don't mean a handbell, I mean one you could use in a cathedral tower to be heard for miles. It's also rather a feat to have a card where a lady in/of a lake is in the foreground, with a still figure lying in a boat in the background -- as the book explains, to be taken to an island and healed -- and not ever say "Avalon." But just as video-game fans delight in finding "Easter eggs" -- little in-jokes, references, secrets -- embedded in their entertainment, I was thrilled to find all of the little Pict-orial references to real prehistory and early history: not only is there a sheela-na-gig on the Green Woman's cauldron, but the Shaman's robe has a real-world, very early depiction of a bearded man staring at the viewer, wearing a deer skin and seemingly in the process of transforming into a deer or at least taking on the persona for religious or celebratory reasons. The artwork on the Ace of Stones will be familiar to those who like to study such things -- and that identical labyrinth reappears on arcanum 21, The World Tree, as the final puzzle to be solved before the Wanderer's journey is finished. There are more. (I will leave the ability of the Hooded Man to have a repeating, rather intricate design woven into his garb like modern flowered fabrics as an exercise in pondering for the reader.)I did wonder why two cards showing celebrations and camaraderie were heterosocial. The Four of Bows seems to depict only women, while the Eight of Bows is only men (the latter is the more puzzling because "family" is repeated twice in the book description, and even families of choice often include both biological sexes). Maybe there is some anthropology I have yet to read that will support this?But my delight in this deck is complete. I discovered I had a gift card balance I wasn't aware of, and the deck, with tax and shipping, came just 20 cents shy of the card balance. I really don't think I could have used it better, given both personal religious reasons supported by the deck, and the simple joy of imagining myself in the Wildwood. The second mystery, besides the magic money that paid for it, is that my gentleman friend, since I opened the deck earlier this evening and both of us had a look through it, has repeated several times that he's glad I got this deck. While he shares my ethnic and cultural heritage and supports my related research interests, this man has never expressed any particular interest in Tarot or oracle cards -- we've lived together for seven years; he knows I have multiple Tarot decks; and he's never so much as requested a reading. My best guess on this one is that he's just pleased to see me so happy with this deck!Okay -- I can't stop -- more responses to what I found to be strange complaints about the deck: 1. There are no reversals. Okay, so it's been noted by positive and negative reviewers alike that many of the cards are substantially different in name, image, and meaning from the usual ones. I'm at a loss for how you'd go about reversing the meaning of this deck's Guardian, for example, or how you would reverse the symbolism of a heron, horse, stoat, eel, et al. There are also other oracles, or parts of them, that don't have reversed meanings -- off the top of my head, I can think of at least four of 24 Elder Futhark runes that don't have reversals when used for divination because they're symmetrical, and you can't tell the difference between the symbol reversed or not without marking the top of the rune stone in some way... which is pretty much cheating (and useless if you add a blank "Odin's rune" to the set).2. There are too many animal cards, because admiring animals or their symbolism means you hate humans or being human. Unfortunately, this kind of dualistic thinking is much too common -- like the folks who think a white person supporting Black Lives Matter must hate their own whiteness or at least feel some sort of guilt for it. This is ridiculous on its face; in this deck, for example, there are still plenty of human or humanoid figures, and a few with neither human nor animal pictured (or pictured only as tiny background spectators, like the three herons in The Wheel). I guarantee I don't feel guilty for not being a standing stone or a house.3. This deck "pushes a hippie political agenda." I'm not sure they had hippies in Bronze Age Europe. I also can't find any trace of a political agenda, unless you look at the Six of Stones/"Exploitation" card and somehow translate "Please don't smash open all the beehives, because we, as a species, need living bees to pollinate plants if we don't want to starve" as "politics." Or maybe the prominence of tartan fabrics on the clothed human figures (even the woman in that card is still wearing a plaid) is some kind of "hippie" push for Scottish independence. I don't even know with this one.4. The suit cards have little words on the bottom margin reminding us of a main meaning of a card. This is a complaint? Really? As with the reversals "problem," I'm left wondering how many new meanings (because there are, as discussed previously, some cards that are completely different from their counterparts in other decks) these people want to memorize. There have been studies showing humans can only remember, at best, the names and faces of 200 or so people at any one time, and in order to meet and remember new people, we have to forget the names of some others. I wouldn't be surprised if Tarot card meanings had a similar limit.Seriously, this may not be a deck for the beginner, unless you want it mainly for self-study -- which is never a bad reason to have an oracle around, as the book itself points out. (However, a beginner might also come to it free of the cultural baggage of other decks, and specifically won't be comparing it to Rider-Waite every two or three cards.) But what it is, save for some of the prefatory material about each contributor -- I could have lived a long and happy life without knowing that Mark Ryan voiced two characters in the godawful Michael Bay Transformers movies -- that needed a sterner editorial hand, is excellent. Certain visual concepts which are repeated throughout the deck help in learning the meanings: whenever a figure is flanked by two trees or bow staves, for example, there's a gateway for the querent to pass through. And the ways repeated motifs change ask questions of their own. The Ancestor, a deer-headed woman with a bodhrán frame drum and bone striker for it, becomes The Stag just a few cards later: the gender is changed; the round skin-covered object is now a shield, and the raised object in the other hand becomes an axe. What's the difference? Back to the book to read the descriptions again, and gain a deeper understanding of each card in doing so.Humans like to see reasons for things all over the place, and sometimes there just aren't any. I am profoundly thankful that I had an Amazon balance just enough to allow me to get this wonderful deck, especially at this point in my life and study of early Celtic myth and culture. Some people would say a higher power knew that I needed this deck right now. Maybe. I'm not ruling it out, especially given the Horned Goddess figure appearing on the box's cover. I just couldn't be happier that I now own this beautiful deck, accompanied by the book and its sometimes pointed insights into human nature.

The Wildwood Tarot is a long awaited remake of the Greenwood Tarot. This time around, it is John Matthews and Will Worthington who breathe new life into Mark Ryan's creation. I must say, I was taken aback by it. This tarot is a must-have for tarot collectors, specially so if you like pagan/celtic themed tarots.These cards are bordered white, numbered and labeled at the bottom. However, the back of these cards is plain: dark green with a thin white line forming a rectangle within the card.The Major Arcana are numbered and labeled at the bottom. All the standard names from the Rider Tarot have been changed on these cards.0. The Wanderer - 0. The Fool1. The Shaman - I. The Magician2. The Seer - II. The High Priestess3. The Green Woman - III. The Empress4. The Green Man - IV. The Emperor5. The Ancestor - V. The Hierophant6. The Forest Lovers - VI. The Lovers7. The Archer - VII. The Chariot8. The Stag - VIII. Strength9. The Hooded Man - IX. The Hermit10. The Wheel - X. Wheel of Fortune11. The Woodward - XI. Justice12. The Mirror - XII. The Hanged Man13. The Journey - XIII. Death14. Balance - XIV. Temperance15. The Guardian - XV. The Devil16. The Blasted Oak - XVI. The Tower17. The Pole Star - XVII. The Star18. The Moon on Water - XVIII. The Moon19. The Sun of Life - The XIX. The Sun20. The Great Bear - XX. Judgment21. The World Tree - XXI. The WorldIt's hard to pick just a few Major Arcana to describe! In The Journey (Death), a raven is depicted on top of the skull of an antelope pealing away the remaining meat. A huge Moon it seen on top, and other ravens flying away on the distance. In The Guardians (The Devil), the skeleton of a bear is depicted standing in the entrance to a cavern. Finally, In The World Tree a huge tree is prominent, the four seasons neatly depicted in its leaves. There is a door at the base of the trunk, with a circular, labyrinth like pathway in front.The Minor Arcana are labeled with at the bottom. The standard symbols of swords, wands, cups or pentacles have been replaced with arrows, bows, vessels and stones, respectively. As expected, these represent the elements of air, fire, water and earth, but also a season in the celtic tradition (arrows - Imbolc, bows - Beltane, vessels - Lammas, and stone - Samhain). The imagery on these cards is sometimes evocative of the elements their suit represents.On the pips, you may expect to see a number of the suit symbols depicted in within the imagery of the card. In addition, there is a keyword added to the label. The court cards follow the Rider Tarot tradition, labeled as page, knight, queen, or king, but the people have been replaced with animals.These tarot come in a kit which includes a guidebook. The guidebook is organized as follows:RETURN TO THE GREEN. Preface by Mark RyanTHE WILDWOOD SONG. Preface by John MatthewsPART ONE: INTO THE GREEN. An Introduction by Mark RyanPART TWO: THE PATH THROUGH THE FOREST. The Cards and their MeaningsPART THREE: FINDING YOUR WAY. Working the CardsPart One - I think this is an essential read. Mark Ryan's introduction fleshes out the foundation of this tarot. He explains how his journey started toward the culmination of the Wildwood Tarot. He explains what the Tarot is and what it isn't. Finally, he describes how the cards of this tarot conform to the Wheel of the Year.Part Two - Each Major Arcana is explained in two pages including a b/w picture of the card, Description, Meaning, Reading points and a series of key words called Roots and Branches. In contrast, each Minor Arcana is explained in one page. The explanations of pips only include a b/w picture of the card, Description, Meaning, and Reading points. Instead, the court cards include a b/w picture of the card, Meaning, Reading points and a series of key words called Tracks and Pathways.Part Three - Several Tarot layouts are presented. These include: The Pathway Spread (3 cards), The Bow Spread (7 cards), and The World Three Spread (8 cards).This is an interesting remake that was worth waiting for. I may not recommend this one for beginners, but certainly a must for tarot collectors.

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