I have seen examples of Courtney Davis' work many times before, he has a website with some of it up and has illustrated many books.  So I anticipated liking this deck long before I got my hands on a copy.  Since it is available only as a deck-and-book set, it took me a while to be able to get one.  This deck, and all Aquarian Press Tarot deck sets, have recently gone out of print, so get them while you can!

I was surprised to find that despite the quality of the artwork on the cards, which is painstakingly gorgeous and intricately detailed, as a tarot this deck left me feeling rather cold.  The detailing on the cards is almost ill-served by the small size of the medium in which they are presented.  I feel that they would be much better as full-sized wall prints.

The setup of the deck is based on classic styled decks, with the numbered cards in the Minor Arcana being beautifully detailed "pip" cards, or, arrangements of the number of items in the suit.  Classic suits of Coins, Wands, Cups and Swords are used.  The court cards are the King, Queen, Knight and Page as follows tradition.

The Major Arcana are lovely as well and follow traditional naming and order.  Many of the designs look nothing like traditional trumps as far as symbolism goes, I imagine Mr. Davis reinterpreted them entirely within the context of Celtic myth and lore.  Many of the cards are intuitive.  Many more are not.

I would recommend this deck for the collector and for those looking for a deck with good art.  Its content, however, is not easily used for interpretation in my opinion.  I would not recommend this deck for beginners, and I don't think serious readers would be satisfied with it.  However, like I said, it is a beautiful work of art.  As stated above, this has recently gone out of print.  As of 5-28-01, Amazon still has copies available though.

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also see The Celtic Tarot by Courtney Davis

Review Copyright 1998 by Gina M. Pace