The Llewellyn Tarot Deck: Artistic and Emotional Beauty

The Llewellyn Tarot Deck is a Welsh-based deck published by Llewellyn Publications. This deck comes with a companion book in a box set that includes the book and cards. The book is by Anna-Marie Ferguson, who is also the artist responsible for the beautifully artistic watercolor card images.

These cards come in a lovely, illustrated box that opens and closes similar to a book. There is a nice reddish-golden, slightly transparent, drawstring bag with beads hanging from the bottom that comes in this set as well. A separate smaller box is inside to store the cards or anything else you would like to put with your deck.

The companion book has 264 black and white pages. There is history included with card meanings for the Major Arcana. The Minors have short, to-the-point definitions usually amounting to the length of 1 paragraph. These definitions may be short, but they leave plenty of room for personal interpretation while giving the reader the general idea of the card.

The one main complaint received about the cards is that they are too thin. They are thin, but not paper thin, and not so thin that I would be afraid or ripping or damaging them easily. Personally, I would not complain about the thickness of the cards in this deck. All decks are going to be different. The cards are very slippery, though, so be careful until you get the "feel" of them. I myself think the slickness of the cards makes them easier to shuffle and spread.

The art of the cards is very beautiful. The deck is based on the Welsh history and Gods. The Majors are a bit more dramatic than the Minors, but the Minor Arcana are very beautiful and colorful as well. The Swords have alluring deep blue, grey, and soft lavender tones. The Pentacles include lovely red and golden tones. The Wands are decorated with beautiful brownish-gold, and auburn-red tones with hints of green. The cups have a gorgeous multitude of gentle tones including soft blues and sea-foam/forest greens.

The Major Arcana have the name of the Welsh God shown on the card placed at the top, and the number and name of the card at the bottom. These are the only cards that have the name of the card actually on the card (example: The Moon, Death, etc.). The Minors only have the number and name of the card across the bottom (example: 9 of Swords, 2 of Wands, etc.). This is not all a bad thing, though, because this leaves alot of room for your own interpretation instead of getting in the habit of just going by the book meaning by itself and not actually looking at and studying the picture.

The card width is just over 3 1/8 inches wide and 4 5/8 inches tall. They are not too big or too small, and handle very well once you get used to the slickness of them. Someone with small hands would be able to handle them well, also.

The border around the picture on the front of the cards is tan with marbled light grey and a small trim of lovely design. This border is approximately 1/4 inch on the sides and 1/2 inch on the top and bottom. The words on the cards are written in script cursive, which might seem hard to read, but this isn't the case when looking at the cards right in front of you.

The back of the cards is made to look wooden, almost similar to leather as well, with deep browns and caramels. There are ten pale golden diamond shapes, five on the top and five on the bottom and a golden medallion in the middle. The medallion has a nice tan reddish-pink color inside it with a swirl vine pattern and a red dragon in the center.

There are also two extra cards with a spread on each. One has Llew's Spread which is a five card spread. The other card has the Red Dragon Spread which is a seven card spread.

All in all, I recommend this deck for the experienced, beginners, and collectors. The pictures convey the meanings and emotions very well. It is well worth the money to use and collect. Most who purchased The Llewellyn Tarot were satisfied and loved it. Of course, there will be those who don't, but most were very happy with their deck as am I.

Therefore, I give The Llewellyn Tarot a big "thumbs up!", and hope you choose to take this wonderful journey of artistic and emotional beauty.