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Disclaimer: I was given a free copy of this deck by the publisher for review purposes.

The Lost Tarot of Nostradamus by John Matthews and Wil Kinghan is a unique and historical deck that will have Tarot deck collectors practically peeing their pants with excitement. I’ll tell you why in a hot minute…

Details: published by Tuttle Publishing in 2012, this deck and book set comes in a nice sturdy box. The cards are of a thick stock with a matte finish.

Likes:

• Is a historical, fascinating deck that tells us a lot about the time period in which it was originally created
• Has a mysterious, old world vibe
• The companion book is packed with useful information about this deck!

Dislikes:

• Hard to shuffle (thick cards)
• Lots of popes and other religious figures on the cards
• A very challenging deck to read with. Plus, roman numerals!

The coolest thing about this deck is the story behind it! In 1994, an undiscovered volume of Nostradamus’ work was found. In it was the drawings for a Tarot deck that Nostradamus had been creating. The authors took those images and created The Lost Tarot of Nostradamus.

Reading with this deck really does make you feel like you are traveling back in time to the 1500’s. The cards have a very old, mysterious feel to them, which makes for a really unique reading experience.

This is certainly NOT a beginners Tarot deck. I have been reading Tarot for years and I had to look up the meanings in the book for some of the cards. This was due to the fact that the imagery, card names and suits differ from the standard Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck and the cards have Roman numerals on them. If you’re unlike me and paid attention in school and know your Roman numerals, you are one step ahead.

The companion book is awesome! It has all the information about how The Lost Tarot of Nostradamus was discovered and created, detailed explanations of each card meaning and three Tarot spreads, as well as some additional information about meditating and reading with the cards.

The card meaning section is essential because without it its hard to know what the hell is going on in half of the cards. Much of the symbolism is very different from your standard Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck, so don’t expect to just pop this deck out of the box and begin reading with it. Take your time to get to know this deck.

But what’s really interesting is seeing how Nostradamus portrayed each Tarot card. Studying these cards has given me a new understanding of certain cards, causing me to see them in a different light.

Since the Church played a huge role in 16th century European society, this deck is packed full of popes, cardinals and religious symbols. For some reason, looking at drawings of popes puts me in a pissy mood. I am not sure why. If I had to guess I would say it stems from a past life where I was forced into religion. To be honest, most artwork from this time period kind of creeps me out. But if popes are your thing, this deck will knock your socks off!

Watch my video review of this deck…

Buy this deck if…

• You are a deck collector and you want something unique and historical
• You are an advanced Tarot reader who wants a challenge!
• You have an interest in the works of Nostradamus

 Buying options:

Amazon.com (my affiliate link)

The Tarot of the Dream Enchantress was created by artist Marco Nizzoli and published in 2008 by Lo Scarabeo and Llewellyn. It is a 78 card Tarot deck, based on the Rider-Waite-Smith deck structure.

The deck comes with the standard LWB (Little White Book) that has the basic Tarot card meanings, two really cool dream interpretation spreads and some brief information about this particular deck and how to use it.

Likes

• Lots of nudity!
• No words on the cards
• Imaginative artwork full of fairies, angels, mermaids, dragons and other weird creatures

Dislikes

• A distinct lack of naked men. Although there is a very sexy blue haired angel in The Lovers who makes up for this lack of male anatomy 😉
• The Kings, which are women wearing creepy masks
• Roman numerals! Arrgh!

As soon as I looked through this deck, I could tell right away that artist Marco Nizzoli loves drawing naked ladies. And who can blame him? Nude pixies, fairies, and angels frequently prance through this deck. In this way, it is a very feminine deck, as all the cards feature women. There are very few men here, save for the occasional background lurker.

A very strange thing is that all the court cards depict women, even the Kings and Knights. All the Kings are actually women wearing bizarre masks. This kind of threw me at first and even after using this deck for years, it still catches me off guard. Even Major Arcana cards that usually depict men – such as The Emperor and The Fool – are instead women wearing creepy masks.

These masked figures are tough to read and it can feel like your trying to read a blank card. It’s like having a conversation with someone who is wearing sunglasses – it feels unsettling and irritating! You may find these masked ladies intriguing, who knows? But it just didn’t work for me.

What is really amazing about reading with this deck is that you feel like you are stepping into a different realm – a realm of naked pixies and scantily-clad angels. This seems like such a free, innocent world and when you read with these cards, that sense of freedom rubs off on you. This is perhaps what I love about this deck!

Another bonus is that this is not a Rider-Waite “clone” deck as it strays a little from the conventional meanings in many cards, but not so much that it becomes a struggle to read with. The meaning of each card isn’t always obvious, which forces you to contemplate the images and interact with them, making for some interesting readings.

You will not see any words on these cards. The Major Arcana are indicated by Roman numerals and the Minor Arcana cards have a symbol at the top – like a cup or wand – and a regular, non-roman numeral number at the bottom. This is both annoying and a relief.

I find it less distracting when there’s an absence of words and this lets me access my intuition more easily. But since I don’t know Roman numerals very well, I have to rely completely on the Major Arcana card images to tell me what card is what. Sometimes it gets confusing, but overall I really like this design.

I have had this deck for a good four years now and I am well past my “honeymoon phase” with it – I often buy a deck, fall in love and then quickly lose interest. Not so with the Tarot of the Dream Enchantress. This is one of those decks that I just keep bringing out again and again to play with. I say “play” because I rarely use it for doing professional readings. I use it for creative writing inspiration, meditation, contemplation, journalling and personal readings.

Buy this deck if…

• • • You are looking for a more “out there” deck with fantastical, sexy images
    • You have been reading Tarot for a while and want a challenge!
    • A purely feminine deck would be a nice addition to your Tarot collection

Purchase this deck on Amazon.com (this is my affiliate link)

 

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