This deck delivers some of the most stunning artwork I have ever seen in a multi-cultural tarot deck.  Each suit in the deck, including the "suit" of the Major Arcana, represents one of the major contributing world cultures from ancient times.  The idea has been done before, in the Ancestral Path Tarot, but different cultures are used in this deck and so the comparisons are minimal.

The Major Arcana are represented here by Ancient Egypt.  The author calls the land of Egypt by an older name, Kemi.  I have not heard this name before but it sounds similar to something else I've heard, so it may just be a translational thing.  Bill says the swords are wrong for ancient Egypt, but in this case I don't feel it matters in the slightest.  The cards are so beautiful that technical inaccuracies may be easily forgiven.

The four suits in the Minor Arcana are each represented by a different civilization as well.  Swords are taken from ancient Viking culture.  Batons (replacing Wands) comes from the south, from Africa.  The name of the tribe represented is not given by the author; however, with my limited amount of African history I would venture to guess it might be Mandinka.  Suggestions of slave trading are shown.

The suit of Cups comes from the Aztec civilization.  At times I feel it looks, however, more like a composite of the Mayan, Incan and Aztec cultures combined.  The last suit, that of Coins, comes from the east, and shows us some ancient Hindu culture.  Typical courts of King, Queen, Knight and Page are used.  Bill's strongest complaint here was that all of these peoples looked like caucasians with different colored skins to fit into their appropriate culture; in other words, that the anatomy was not culturally accurate.  This may be true.  However, the art is so well done that it is forgiveable.

The deck itself is smaller than standard, and narrow as well, so it has a nice, small feel in the hands and shuffles easily.  On each of the Major Arcana cards, and on the court cards, there are astrological correspondences.  The Majors also have qabbalistic correspondences shown.

Overall, this makes a lovely deck for the collector, as I think it falls under the category of "art" deck more than anything else.  One could read with it but I wouldn't suggest it for the beginner.  The little booklet provides a good amount of information; however, it annoyed me that all the card meanings are phrased in the first person singular.  "You are....."  or "You will...."  You are not featured on the card, so it didn't seem to fit per se.

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Review Copyright 1998 by Gina M. Pace