Normally I don't make a whole separate review for the different colored versions of the Rider-Waite deck.  However, this one is so tiny, so cute, that I thought it deserved its own review.

I know at least one person who has lost them immediately upon opening them, that's how tiny they are.  I think of these as dollhouse tarot cards.  I keep seeing references to them as being something you can carry around in your pocket or purse, so that you can do a reading anytime, anywhere.  I carry around a Pocket edition Rider-Waite with me everywhere, and challenge that if you are traveling so lightly that you can't carry anything but this tiniest of decks, you are not likely to be going anywhere you are going to want to do a reading, more likely you are going whitewater rafting or something.

These cards are adorable collector's items and really are a must have for anyone who loves tarot.  The pictures are lighter in color than the standard sized Universal Waite, something I imagine is a sizing/printing thing.  Another anomaly is that the corners on the deck are sharp square corners instead of rounded off ones.  In the catalog the picture shows a tiny deck with rounded corners.  However, the images in the catalog are not copies of this deck's cards, but detailed drawings of how they should look, so they won't be exact.

The entire deck is tiny enough to shuffle in the palm of your hand like runes.  The best way to shuffle them (if you wanted to shuffle them at all) would be to drop them all inside a lunch-sized paper bag or shoe box and shake it really good.  The card stock used is standard thickness but because the card size is so tiny it makes for really sturdy stiff little cards.  If they were full-size it would be like printing on floor tiles.

The box they come in is deceptively large.  This is to hold the little white booklet which comes with the deck.  Believe it or not, a full set of divinatory meanings comes with these cards.  I can't imagine anyone buying these and using them without having any other backup for the meanings, but there it is.  Half the box is taken up by the folded up booklet.

The cards themselves are each smaller than half a stick of chewing gum.  I have seen other decks out there (back in the 1970's tarot novelty craze, especially right before US Games acquired the copyright to the deck and actually exerted it) that purported to be the World's Tiniest Tarot Deck.  Those cards are the size of a quarter.  These are definitely smaller.

Once upon a time, I made a comment about someday seeing a Barbie doll tarot.  I think that day has finally come!

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Review Copyright 1999 by Gina M. Pace

Tiny Universal Waite Tarot by Mary Hanson-Roberts
(based on designs by Pamela Colman Smith)
published by US Games, Inc.  ISBN 1-57281-122-6