Touchstone Tarot

Mind Body & Soul Ezine Card Deck Review: Touchstone Tarot by Kat Black, published by US Games Systems. Boxed set of cards and guidebook. £22.99

One goes on learning from this deck and enjoying studying and recognising the origin of the Baroque and Renaissance era images in museums and art galleries. At the back of the guidebook, the artwork, artist and their galleries are given. There are lots of symbols in these cards and I find the figures speak and have interesting backgrounds. You can choose a card for the day, a 3 card spread of Past Present Future, the Celtic Cross of 10 cards, of the Love Knot Spread of 8 cards. 

 

Kat Black created the very popular Golden Tarot. Touchstone Tarot also follows loosely the Rider-Waite-Colman Tarot and it has all illustrated cards, both Majors and Minors. There are two extra bonus cards in this pack making 80 cards in total. One is ‘Touchstone Tarot with the request “Touchstone Tarot tell me true this is what I ask of you although the artists and the subjects of these paintings have long since died, may they reach out to you across the centuries as they have to me. May they be 78 friends you can hold in your hand.” The other extra card is titled Happy Squirrel and it dicts a young woman gypsy palmist reading the hand of a young man with an ostrich feather in his cap. A crystal ball is on the table with a squirrel eating a nut! Gold leafed edges to these cards make them special! Reversed cards refer to a time of inaction, an opposite approach or to stand in the other person’s shoes! 

Sample card and reading - Justice: “A young woman in a classical robe sits on a large marble and guilt thrown. She holds a sword above her head in her right hand, and then her left she balances a set of scales. And our purchase above her. Meanings. Do the right thing. Protect the week, and guard against your own weaknesses. Treat others as you would be treated, and consider the common good not just what is best for you. In all things be fair. Reversed: An undeserved result. Injustice, inconsistency and unfurnished. If you do something you know is wrong to get ahead, your conscience should not allow you to enjoy your success.” Image sources: landscape, castle, sky, body. Caesarean da Sesto Madonna and Child with the Lamb of God c1515 Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan lion. Cranach, Lucas the Elder Sampson’s a flight with the Lion 1520-25, Kunstsammlungen, Weimar. 

I think you will be enabled to provide very good readings from these Tarot cards, especially if you study the original images and stories related to them. This could be your only tarot deck, you need no others! I am recommending you give Touchstone Tarot as a gift for a friend who is an art lover. 

Review by Wendy Stokes https://wendystokes.co.uk