Zolar's Astrological Tarot Fortune Telling Cards by Zolar, of course!   This unique set of 56 cards works in a four-way split to provide a kind of multipurpose version of the tarot combined with astrology.  The cards are two-sided and can be used a multitude of ways.  Sadly, I believe that in attempting to make them work this way, the designer has sacrificed all the good aspects of the tarot.   The cards use the images from the Rider-Waite deck, however all the coloring has been removed and the images are cast in a kind of three-color scheme; dark aqua and magenta-red on otherwise black-and-white designs.  Often the colors are assigned to fill areas where they are not an appropriate color.  The way this deck is set up, the 56 card designs of the Rider-Waite Minor Arcana, including court cards, are on one side of the deck, and on the reverse sides, are the Major Arcana designs and then astrology cards are used to fill up the remainder of the deck.   Definitions for each card's meaning are provided in the borders on each card, for both reversed and upright positions, making this a sort of poor relation to the Starter Tarot.  Additional symbols of the traditional playing card deck (spades, clubs, diamonds and hearts) are also figured in the borders of these cards.  Since the design is taken from the Rider-Waite, the suits are the Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles, with King, Queen, Knight and Page being the courts.   The cards are cut out of a cheap type of card stock and coated on one side only.  They tended to bow towards one side, making shuffling difficult.  The stock makes them easy to crease, so handling must be done carefully.  The size of the cards is standard, and the smaller quantity is the only thing that improves the handling capability to decent.   I didn't care for this deck's "amazing and amusing" approach to what I, and others like myself, consider a serious divination science.  The deck is something that I could see being advertised in those cheesy ads in the back of old comic books, along with sea monkeys, pepper gum, whoopee cushions and other nefarious items.  I imagine for a collector it might have some value; as a reading deck, there is nothing it offers that can't be found in another deck just as easily and be more useful.  I can't really recommend it except as a novelty.   Click here for pictures   or here to return   Please use your browser's back button to return from pictures   Review Copyright 1998 by Gina M. Pace