This intriguing tarot deck-and-book set is a study in contrasts in a lot of ways. Put together by an all-star cast (Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki is the creator of the Shakespearean Tarot; Elizabeth Josephine "Jo" Gill is the creator of the Gill Tarot, and Anthony Clark is the designer of the Magickal Tarot) these cards have something of a history as well as connections to other magical systems.
The Servants of the Light is an organization, a school for the occult sciences, which was founded in England and now has branches in many other places, including America. The Major Arcana cards in this deck were painted by Jo Gill as a gift to the organization itself. These paintings found their way into published form through book covers, illustrations, etc. Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki uses them to illustrate her book Inner Landscapes.
The Major Arcana cards follow traditional titling and order, Strength being 8 and Justice 11 according to the Waite model. The paintings are attractive and anyone familiar with the Gill Tarot will recognize the artist's style here. The titles are at the bottom of the cards, in English, with the Hebrew letter corresponding to each card. At the top are Arabic numerals for each.
Anthony Clark did the Minor Arcana, since Jo Gill was unavailable to do them. As much as I like Jo Gill's work, I like the Minors better than the Majors in this deck. These were done at quite a later date than the Majors were done, and this, in addition to being done by a different artist, makes for a marked change of appearance from the Majors to the Minors. I also notice a strong difference in the work on the numbered cards versus the Aces and Courts.
The inconsistencies are strong here. Suits are Staves, Crescents, Weapons and Spheres. In the Staves suit, the early numbered cards (2, 3, 4, and 5) are pip cards, but the higher numbers seem more inclined towards scenes. In the Crescents, only the 8, 9, and 10 are scenes. In the Weapons, 6, 8, 9, and 10 have scenes. And in Spheres, 3, 5, 7 and 9 are scenes. The rest are pips.
Aces in this deck are replaced by the Prime. For example, the Prime of Staves, etc. All of the court cards are also renamed. Instead of the King, Queen, Knight and Page, we have now the Maker, Giver, User and Keeper of Staves, etc. The artwork in these cards (the courts and the Primes) are the best in the entire deck, in my opinion. They seem to come alive with vitality and energy abounding from every corner of the image.
The backs are a plain white with the seal of the organization of the Servants of the Light on them. They have a tendency to bow forward. The cards themselves are printed on normal stock with a matte finish coating. They are shorter and squatter in size than standard, but not by a lot, and they do shuffle and handle fairly well.
The book which comes with the set is the usual Aquarian Press small paperback book (125 pp) and there is a tendency for the pages to fall out if the binding is opened too far. I noticed this is the case with quite a few of the books in Aquarian Press sets. There seemed for a while to be a problem with the glues used by the printers. Newer decks published by them don't seem to have this problem as much.
This set is out of print and is not readily available, so if you see one you should probably jump on it. It will be an excellent choice for the collection. There are a lot of good points to this deck, although I don't see a lot here that you can't also get from using the Gill or Magickal Tarots by the same artists... it would be acceptable for a beginner but an experienced reader will get more out of these cards. I can definitely recommend it.
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Review Copyright 1998 by Gina M. Pace
Servants of the Light
Tarot by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki, 1991
published by Aquarian
Press ISBN 1-85538-001-3
also by Dolores Ashcroft
Nowicki:
The
Shakespearian Tarot
also by Elizabeth Josephine
"Jo" Gill:
The
Gill Tarot
also by Anthony Clark:
The
Magickal Tarot