Publication Facts and Rating (0 to 5 stars) "At-a-Glance"

Publisher: West Yorkshire Printing Company Ltd (England)
Publication Year: 1997
Number of cards: 26
Quality of artwork -- 3 1/2 stars
Usefulness for meditation/pathworking -- 1 1/2 stars
Readability (Divination) -- 2 1/2 stars
Symbology -- 2 stars
Value to Collectors -- 4 stars

General Commentary
Take a look at the cards The Witch, The Teacher, or The Sun, and perhaps you'll see why I find myself wanting to refer to the Sugar Mystic Tarot as the "Austin Powers Divination Deck." Everywhere you look, you'll find straight, "Katherine Ross-y" hairdos... bright, psychedelic colors... and absolutely everyone is wearing those "groovy" sunglasses.

Despite its "flower child" feel, however, this deck wasn't published back in the 60s... it's a 1997 offering from "Sugar" magazine. "Sugar" is sort of a British version of "Sixteen" magazine -- oriented toward teen and preteen girls. The Sugar Mystic Tarot was included as a giveaway with one of its issues. So the focus on bright, kitschy images in this deck comes as no surprise, given its intended audience.

The cards use the collage approach to their imagery, with each collage composed of a combination of photographic and drawn elements. Stars, orbs, flowers, and other bright-and-happy symbols abound around the heads of the very young, very hip looking figures centered on most of the cards. You'll find no "Death" or "Devil" cards here... only "Change" and "The Slave." "Many are wary of tarot," states the introduction in the accompanying booklet, "but if you know what you're doing (and you will once you read this booklet!), you'll find it can be a lot of fun and not scary at all." What a relief, eh?

Gentle gibes aside, I don't mean to speak unkindly of this deck. I personally find the style of this tarot very appealing, although I'm certain that there are folks out there who would not care for it one bit. I'd hazard a guess that if you like the look and feel of Perry's Tarot of Love or Hilton and Star's Unicorn Tarot, then you might also enjoy these cards as well.

However, the Sugar Mystic is not exactly a "standard" tarot. It would be classified as a "majors only" deck, except that it has 26 cards instead of 22. While a few of the cards share titles with their traditional counterparts, most have been renamed. None of the cards are numbered; their descriptions in the accompanying book are listed in alphabetical order of the cards' titles. However, there does seem to be a one-to-one correspondence between the standard majors structure and 22 of the Sugar Mystic's 26 cards, leaving four "miscellaneous" cards that could be either included or removed for reading purposes. The table below shows the title correspondences between the Sugar Mystic and the usual majors titles. These correspondences are based solely on my personal analysis, although some are quite obvious.

Despite the "mappable" correspondences as shown above, I'm guessing most folks would probably not care to read using these cards, with the notable exception of the group for whom the deck was obviously created: teenage girls who are new to using divination decks. From the standpoint of the latter group, I'd rate the deck as being reasonably high on "readability" -- the images are varied and engaging enough to spark the intuitive "juices," but not overwhelmingly cluttered with symbolic minutiae. However, anyone interested in trying to read with the Sugar Mystic will, of course, need to obtain a copy -- something that may not be easy to do. As stated at the beginning of this review, this tarot was only made available for a limited time as a promotional "freebie" with Sugar Magazine. So it will probably take some work to track down a source for this deck, as the usual on-line retailers and secondary sellers won't have it. Which, of course, makes it a rather desirable deck for collectors.

I was lucky... a friend of mine who knew of my passion for collecting tarot spotted the magazine on the rack back in '97, and simply took the initiative to pick up a copy for me. Another collector friend of mine said that she managed to snag her copy through an eBay auction (deck only; magazine not included -- but unless you're interested in reading articles like "Brad Renfro -- What a Tasty Geezer!", who cares?). I've never seen it listed on any of the auction sites when I've monitored them, so it probably shows up infrequently at best. The remaining alternative may be to write the publisher of "Sugar" magazine directly. However, while "Sugar" apparently commissioned and distributed the deck, they did not print it -- the deck publisher is listed as the West Yorkshire Printing Company Ltd., with no address given. Also, you may want to note that there is a disclaimer in the magazine's masthead reading "We're sorry, but it may not always be possible to include free gifts on copies of Sugar distributed outside the UK." (These cards are not "insert punch-outs," as is sometimes the case with "periodical specials" -- they are packaged in their own plastic slipcase, which was then combined with the magazine in a sealed plastic bag.) In any case, "Sugar" is published by Attic Futura, which apparently has no locatable semblance of a website or even a public e-mail address. Attic Futura's mailing address for "Sugar" magazine is: Sugar, 3rd floor, 17 Berners Street, London W1P 3DD. The Sugar Mystic Tarot was included with Issue 33, published in 1997 (no publication month is listed).

In the final analysis, I think its safe to say that the Sugar Mystic Tarot isn't a deck for just anybody. Its symbol system is very stereotyped, and its artwork has both a retro and "mass market-y" feel. In short, it depends on whether you like your tarot "serious" or "fun." In either case, collectors looking for interesting and potentially valuable decks should consider taking advantage of opportunities to obtain a copy, since only three years after its publication, it already seems to rather difficult to find.

Speaking for myself, however, I have to say that I think of the Sugar Mystic Tarot as one of my collection's "guilty pleasures." Do I like it? -- well, as Austin Powers might say -- "Yeah, baby... it's groovy!"

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Guest review copyright 2000 by Jeannette Roth
Used with permission