This is an updated review of this deck.  My original review was tremendously negative, and recently I decided to give the Motherpeace another try.  This time around produced much better results.  The first time I had this deck for review, I had the full-size deck, and this time I got the Mini Motherpeace.  Yes, it is available in two sizes.  The artwork looks a whole lot better in the smaller size, also it handles way better and I just can't think of any reason to recommend the full-size deck when the mini one is available, and better.  The deck-and-book set which is available has the Mini Motherpeace deck in it, so even they seem aware it's the better value.

This is the oldest round tarot I have seen, which is probably why they have the word Round in the title, it was the first.... The colors are soft, but not strong.  The artwork can be rather primitive and child-like.

The full-sized deck is about five inches in diameter and the mini deck is more like three inches in diameter, which makes it handle much better.  Other round tarots, Daughters of the Moon, Cosmic Initiation and Tarot of the Cloisters, should take advantage of this option and come out with miniature versions.  Both the full-sized and the mini decks handle and shuffle fairly well for a round deck, although it's a little slippery at first till it breaks in.

The Hermit has been replaced by the Crone in the Major Arcana, but all the rest of the titles are the same.  Great pains have been taken to make this a multi-cultural deck, so women of most every color are represented here, interacting with each other in apparently matriarchal societies.

In the Minor Arcana, the court cards are renamed to become the Shaman, the Priestess, the Son and the Daughter.  The traditional suits are used, Cups, Wands, Swords and Discs instead of Pentacles.  I find the symbolism is pretty much intact and for some people the primitive style of the art may be more comfortable.  This deck has a lot more balance for the female perspective, but not quite to the exclusion of the male.

On the second go-round, I find that I rather like this deck after all.  I can't stress enough the difference that it made to me to switch to the Mini Motherpeace deck from the full-sized.  A lot of the designs are intuitive, but speak of different systems of meaning, so I would want the set.  There are also several wonderful books to go with the deck.  I have them all listed below.

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Books written to go with this deck, all highly recommended by me:
Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess through Myth, Art and Tarot
Motherpeace Tarot Guidebook
Motherpeace Tarot Playbook (workbook format)
Making Ritual with Motherpeace Cards

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Review Copyright 1998 by Gina M. Pace