This is a tarot deck and book set which features the lovely little Zerner-Farber Tarot deck. The creators of this set, Amy Zerner and Monte Farber, are responsible for bringing us a host of wonderful tarot and divination products, many of which are reviewed on this site. I have reviewed the deck on its own as part of the Enchanted Tarot review in the past; however, I feel that this packaged set deserves a separate review.
The Instant Tarot Reader is a set which has been created specifically with the tarot beginner in mind. The deck features artwork from Zerner's really gorgeous tapestry originals which were also used for the Enchanted Tarot. These cards, however, have been printed in a size which makes them very easy to handle and use. Amazingly, even though the card size is so much smaller, the details of the artwork have not been lost in shrinking the image, since what was cut away was pretty much limited to the borders and non-essential parts. These cards have no border on them, and the title is floated on a banner against the image, so the card is essentially all one image. Zerner's fabric collages are highly evocative and symbolic of the card's meaning.
The Major Arcana cards use traditional titles and the symbolism is more or less universal. Those who have experience working with the Rider-Waite will recognize most of it, although the form it comes in is innovative. At the same time, those who have never seen tarot cards before should be able to gleam something of the meaning just from studying the image, since they use full scenes. Strength is 8 and Justice is 11, according to the Rider-Waite model. The titles appear on lavender bars across the bottom of the image and the Arabic numeral for the card (much easier to read) is in a black diamond at the end of the bar.
With one exception, the Minor Arcana uses the traditional tarot suits. Swords, Wands, Pentacles and Hearts instead of Cups are used here. Hearts are more commonly associated with love and emotion for people who have no tarot experience, and those who have used cards before have no difficulty making the connection. The court cards use King, Queen, Prince and Princess instead of King, Queen, Knight and Page. This restores a gender equality to the courts. All of the numbered cards feature full scenes, not pip cards. Again, the titles appear in bars across the bottom; the color changes for each suit. Wands have an orange bar, Hearts have a fuschia bar, Swords have a blue bar and Pentacles a green bar. The suit icon appears in the diamond in place of the number.
The cards themselves are smaller than average sized and shuffle and handle excellently. The cardstock flexes better than I thought it would at first. I was a little timid about handling them roughly but I've been casino shuffling them every night for two weeks and they haven't even begun to show signs of wear, yet they shuffle well. The edges are smooth and the corners nice and round. The back design is purple with white symbols on it which are made up of the Z and F from Zerner and Farber's last names. This is a reversible design, although this system does not use reversals so that is sort of a moot point. There is no little white booklet with this set, as it comes with a full book.
As lovely as the deck is, the book is actually the real treasure of this set. The first of its kind, this hardcover book actually takes each of the 78 cards and explains its meaning in each of the 11 positions of the Celtic Cross Spread (counting the significator as the first card). Literally all one has to do is lay out the cards in the spread and then look up each card according to the position it is in. I was highly skeptical of this at first, because it sounded "too easy" to someone of my years and experience with tarot. However, as I stated earlier, I've been using this set every night for two weeks, playing with it, exploring it, seeing what it can do, and the readings I've gotten with it have been really quite accurate and good. (I set aside my own thoughts on the cards and went with it as if I didn't have any forethought of their meaning, and it works really well!)
I highly recommend this for the beginner most especially, but the insights of the book are handy for almost any reader. It makes a good reference to keep around for when you get stuck in the middle of a reading, too. The cards, of course, are lovely. The Instant Tarot Reader takes the intimidation out of beginning to read tarot cards. I've been saying for a long time now that anyone can learn to read the tarot; this set makes that possible! This is the single best-selling tarot set in the store where I do my readings.
Click here
for pictures
or here
to purchase this deck and book set now!
or here to return
Please use your browser's back button to return from pictures
also see
The
Enchanted World of Amy Zerner and Monte Farber
also by Amy Zerner and
Monte Farber:
The
Enchanted Tarot
Karma
Cards
The Psychic Circle
Cupid Cards
The Alchemist
Oracle of the Goddess
Zerner-Farber
Tarot
Review Copyright 2000 by Gina M. Pace
Instant Tarot Reader by
Monte Farber and Amy Zerner, 1997
published by St. Martin's
Press, New York, NY
ISBN 0-312-16681-8