The Didactic Tarot by Jeffrey M.Donato published by Schiffer is a deck I’ve been following the progress of for quite some time… I’d seen several images but even so, I still wasn’t quite prepared for what a humongous extravanganza arrived on my doorstep…
There’s a whopping 102 cards -the extra cards coming from 2 extra in each elemental suit, 4 extra in the “Change” suit (Major arcana) and a whole new suit – “Pause”.
I’m immediately struck by the high quality and attention to detail… the book has a sumptuous feel to it… the colour coding running along the outside of the pages makes me quite gleeful! my pleasure continues as I open the pages to find full pages of artwork…
The cards are big… though there is so much packed in there, that part of me wishes they were even bigger…
I soon find myself sat on the floor and swirling them… at first I kind of feel like Scrooge McDuck swimming in his money room… but a combination of the texture of the cards and the sounds that they make as they move across one another brings a strange calmness… at the right pace, it is almost like listening to a rain storm in the distance and moving the deck around takes on the feel of playing a musical instrument… When it comes to shuffling… my old croupier brain reactivates and sections the deck to riffle… I try an overhand shuffle and at a slow pace it’s good… move too quickly and the cards launch themselves into flight in all directions… I particularly like the designs on the back and that although they have a direction, it’s not immediately obvious or distracting if you want to play with reversals…
The deck itself is packed solid with symbols… vibrant, pulsating, creation and destruction looping around and through each other… pockets of humour and pools of tranquility… words that pop to mind… nature! red in tooth and claw! yoni-verse! It’s a deck that feels familiar yet unique both at the same time… a mixture of old deities and new galaxies…
I’ll whistle stop tour through a few things I found immediately interesting…
The Hierophant!
or as he’s titled here – The Orb of Guidance
This makes me smile… he seems to have very much gone out of favour of late… so I’m pleased to find him here looking so full of bliss 🙂
The Four Magicians
Seriously… what’s not to love…
The Moon phases…
Also… the cards are packed with Astrology correspondences… which I heartily appreciate… being far too lazy to either memorise or go look up for the nth time… which brings me to…
Zodiac court cards…
I’m also intrigued by that extra suit… “Pause” which I can see working well enough on its own…
I look through the deck and it feels as though there are many decks in one… it works more than well with just the 78 cards that tarot heads are used to seeing… though I like the big coloured borders that make it easy to sort quickly… it reminds me a bit of lego… here’s six colours… build whatever you can imagine… take it apart, mix it around… do as thou wilt… 😉
I decide to choose one card to sum up the deck…
A-ha!!
The infinite hotel!
Always fully booked and always room for more…
The pure and blessed way 