This is the first deck that appears on my page in response to a direct request from another person.  The Tree of Life is, not surprisingly, dedicated to the Qabbalah.  There are six different spellings of the word Qabbalah; for the sake of this review I am using the spelling in the booklet that was contained with the cards.

Not being more than casually acquainted with the Qabbalah myself, I read thru the little booklet faithfully before coming to any conclusions on this deck.  My conclusion?  This would only be useable by a person who was way more well-versed in Qabbalistic systems than I am.  What are actually very simple patterns on each card still utterly elude me.

There are the normal number of cards in this deck, but there is a complete absence of any pictures whatsoever.  Instead, the Major Arcana cards feature a series of eleven circles, each supposed to represent one of the eleven sephiroth in the Tree of Life.  On each card, two of these sephiroth are highlighted with the path between them, and the relationship explored between those two equates the meaning of that particular card.

There are the traditional suits of Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles, but I'm not really sure why, as there is nothing on any of the Minor Arcana cards to indicate these items.  Since the Qabbalistic system dispenses with the actual swords, wands et al, there should be in my opinion no reason to cling to their names.  Using the elemental correspondences, astrological references, and new paths within the Tree, the Minor Arcana cards all look pretty much the same as well.

One of the silliest things about this deck had to be pointed out to me by Bill, my resident details expert.  Before I even had the cards out, he had spotted this one inconsistency.  Qabbalah systems are utterly Hebrew in nature and content, and there is nothing in the cards which does not fit in with that -- except for the fact that there is a stylized rendering of the Egyptian god Thoth on the backs of all the cards!  It just didn't make any real sense, when there isn't a single bit of Egyptian lore in the actual cards themselves!

As I stated earlier, for the faithful student of the Qabbalah, this deck might be of some use, although my instincts tell me there would be more appropriate platforms for divination within the Tree of Life system than this.  For anyone who is not a follower of Qabbalah, don't even bother.

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Review Copyright 1998 by Gina M. Pace