I found this tarot deck for sale on the internet and couldn't resist buying it.  A tarot deck? resist? me?  Hah!  Anyway, it's not a complete set per se, there are only 12 cards done and out of that, one is the intro card and then there are two Moon cards, as if the artist changed his mind after creating one.  All the cards that are done are Major Arcana.  The artwork is erotic, but simply fascinating.  I believe that this is the deck that the Baphomet Tarot of the Underworld by Akron/Gier was trying to accomplish, but without the sado-masochistic stuff.  This is dark, yes.  Erotic, definitely.  Gothic and vampiric looking, absolutely.  And somewhat sexist, in that there are no male figures in the deck.  I guess if the deck ever gets finished I would like to see some sexy men in there too.  I know it is titled Dark Sirens but my association with Sirens is erotic luring sexy gods and goddesses, so you could have beautiful beings of both genders in there, in my opinion.

The cards included in the set are the title card, the Magician, the High Priestess, the Empress, the Emperor, Death, the Devil, the Star, two versions of the Moon, the Sun, and Judgement.  The cards are presented in full color.  Black overall, with images rendered in dark colors (naturally!) the images are outlined with a fine white line and the titles appear in white bold print at the bottom of the card.  Borders are black.  There are no Minor Arcana, so no suits or courts apply here.  And since the Major Arcana is not complete, there are no Justice or Strength cards.

The cards themselves are large, approximately the size of postcards, and are printed on a thin, flexible stock which is coated on one side only, the front.  The back design is a flat blacl paper with a spiderweb on it and what looks like a coat of arms crest in the center.  The shield in the crest says "Dark Sirens Tarot" and Dorian's name appears in a banner underneath the coat of arms.  This deck is not meant for shuffling or for divination but as an art collectible.  As such, it may remain incomplete; since it is marketed as is, I don't think that additional cards are necessarily forthcoming.

For anyone who is a diehard tarot fan, or for fantasy or gothic vampire collectors, this set is an interesting addition to collections.  Copies are still available but remember this is a limited run collectible, I just found out there are only *500* sets of this printed, so it won't be around forever!  If you like what you see, make sure to get a copy asap!  Since there are only 12 cards in the set, copyright issues prevent me from showing more than a certain percentage of the deck for review, so I have as many shown as I can.....

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Review Copyright 1999 by Gina M. Pace

Dark Sirens Tarot by Dorian Cleavenger
self-published?