Deck Name: New Babylonian Tarot
Artist: Roxana Paul http://www.roxanapaul.com/
She has created other decks including the Venetian Carnival Tarot.
Deck Structure: The full 78 Cards, including 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana Cards. **Based on of the Rider-Waite-Smith system. The Images are borderless, so the illustrations go from edge to edge.
Minor Arcana Suits: Cups, Swords, Wands, Pentacles
Dimensions Regular sized Deck: 2.7 inches by 4.7 inches (70mm x 120 mm)
Card Stock: 350 gsm high-quality stock. The corners of the deck are very well rounded and the edges are gilded, giving the deck a very nice finish.
Dimensions Jumbo sized Deck: 3.5inches by 5.75 inches 89mm x 146 mm.
Card Stock: Printed on 300 GSM German superior card stock with a black core.
***Both Deck orders come with a box with a 120-page book. Various packages available on Kickstarter which allow you to explore her other decks.
New Babylonian Tarot Deck Review
The New Babylonian Tarot explores magical divination practices and rituals from ancient Babylonian culture. This deck is rich in color and contrast and this is excellent as a deck to use if you like to work with elements. For example, the Cups are very blue, the Wands are very red, so the coloring of the card imagery very much helps connect with the characteristics of the elements that suit represents.
This deck features beautifully illustrated clear faces so you can really connect with emotion and see what the artist imagines what historical features would look like. Great care attention has also been given to the costumes, details, and accessories.
The High Priestess is shown as a beautifully jeweled woman dressed in all the pomp and all the personal decorations that you would expect from a High Priestess in a High Temple. Babylonian mythology lovers will appreciate that the traditional symbols are now communicated with Babylonian symbolism. Instead of a cloth draped behind the High Priestess that stops you from seeing through the pillars into the temple, we instead see the Priestess seated in front of a wall and you can see that there are more treasures and buildings past it. There is curiosity as to what is behind the wall but you need to pass her to enter through that gateway. Other details include the symbolism of water mirrored through the blue colors of the card and a book of sacred texts at the High Priestess’ feet.
The Ace of Pentacles is shown as a gate to a really lush garden. There is a path that is very inviting and the door is half open for you to walk in and enter. it seems very homey and you know that once you enter those gates there is comfort and support and nourishment. The element of Earth is reflected in all of the greenery, and abundance of the garden.
The Ace of Wands is just burning, reflecting the element of fire. Burning desire is reflected in the hot sand, and in the fire red sunrise sky. A new day, a new idea, wonderful potential for new inspiration.
The coins in the suit of Pentacles are lovely as they play into the Babylonian theme. The Wand is consistently ornate in all of the cards which I really appreciate. Sometimes the Ace of Wands is much more decorated or more ornate than the the other cards 2 to 10 and even with the Court Cards.
The Death card is just gorgeous. We see a figure of Death covered in a hood, adding skulls to a pile of fire. What’s beautiful is the way that the way your eyes follows the story of the card in a cycle of death to rebirth. First, you notice the figure, and your eye moves down because it’s looking down to the skull that it has in its hand, which then brings your focus to the pile of burning skulls at the bottom of the card. but because the flames are burning upwards, your eyes move up through the flames and follows the smoke as it waifs up, You eye then rests on the sky where you can see the very beginning of sunrise.
This Deck Review for the Baylonian Tarot Deck was written in November 2017 while the deck was still in the funding stage on Kickstarter.com. If you feel some of the information on this post requires updating, please let me know to trigger an update!
I love supporting up-and-coming tarot decks and their creators. If you are working on your own deck and would like to collaborate, let’s have a chat!
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