Weiser Tarot: A Complicated, Rambly Review

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[@oyasgirl7777]

Hi Tom. I have this deck. Again, I think this production is another example of performative bypassing. The use of different colours doesn't make a deck inclusive. I have full lips and an afro. Where is that shown in this deck? Just because the palette is different doesn't make it representational. I am tired of companies still trying to feed me arsenic while telling me it's chocolate cake. Can't wait to get the Pixie Pop deck in my hands. 😉. I just received a deck from MudPuddle. The cardstock is craptacular (I'll back it with contact paper), but the coloration and human representation is much more palpable. What exactly is the purpose of this deck's existence besides being a money grab? At least with the ugly yellow box, I know the devil I'm dealing with. Weiser, you're late to the party.😤

[@ikalesunflower]

I m really enjoying this deck. I only become familiar with Weiser books a few years ago via Queen Ausset. I was unaware with their association to Stuart Kaplan of US games and that they were going to rewrite the key to the pictorial tarot in the early 70s. I also really enjoyed the information in the little guide book. Sometimes people outside America are not always aware of historical events of US publishers or book shops. I enjoyed hearing your commentary on this deck🤎

[@rifflinthemind.5793]

In 1909, Great Britain had just given South Africa 'dominion' status, executed an Indian nationalist for assassinating a British Indian military politician, had only just accepted a practicing Jewish man into the Cabinet and the Anglo Siam treaty was signed giving Great Britain ownership of a huge part of Malaysia and Thailand. That was the climate that the RWS was published in, it's a deck of empire, domination, and colonialism. I am uncomfortable with skin tone changes as a remedy to that context, it seems insulting and bypassing the reality. I get the feeling that gender neutrality might be more that PCS was drawing on her friends theatrical stuff and her suffragist roots so there is diversity in costume, which is not the same as gender.

[@catbookfashion]

I am old enough to have shopped in Weiser's wondrous store in lower Manhattan; glad to see this deck and hear your thoughts; I think I'll buy it; love the coloration

[@AuntyKsTarot]

Thanks Tom. I think the colour pallete is all I like, so I super appreciate this. I'll stick to my Fortune Queens and Mystic Medley's as my RWS "clone" decks lol. Also I am really tired of people trying to remake PCS to justify their use of RWS.

[@thefoolsjournal]

That makes lots of sense to me. ♥️

[@ScholarBot]

Complicated is right. Representation doesn't equal liberation; A recolored RWS doesn't erase the colonial themes depicted within the illustrations. Although, I admit I am waiting on my copy to arrive. 🤡 Thanks for sharing your thoughts. 🙇🏽‍♀️🖤

[@tigerlybalm]

I'm surprised this deck is getting any compliments for its "innovation". Colouring skin to be various shades of white to brown is NOT diversity. Racial diversity isn't just about skin pigmentation; it's about hair textures, facial features, eye shapes, etc. As an East Asian with a Middle Eastern partner living in a highly diverse community, I didn't see anything recognizable as familiar here, just card after card of "painting the roses red". This deck reeks of performativity and therefore of a cash grab and I'm not buying it (figuratively or literally).

[@Tarotismagic]

"Poor little white tears, save them for something else, season your food."😂 LOVE IT.

[@amandawood9440]

Really interesting commentary!👌 I wasn’t aware that the tarot with its use of Kabbalah had been used against Jewish people (I’m not at a Kabbalah level learning yet), I would be interested to hear more about that. I certainly agree with the multitude of sins against innumerable people in the past (& ongoing - sigh), but personally I’m not sure how a society can move forward as one of equality if it is based on a ‘sins of the father’ mentality. That and there have been so many atrocities I do not think we can put a price on the loss pain and suffering of others without turning into an insurance company that assigns a seemingly arbitrary monetary value on an individual’s pain by comparing it to another’s. I don’t know what the solution is 😔 free education for many would be a good start perhaps ? You made a really interesting remark about the deck reviews being entirely white , and that your review however layered was also white. This is something I think about often when I personally find something offensive to an ethnicity or orientation than my own. As a heterosexual white voice I often feel it is not my place to object, but to wait for someone who it does effect to object and then support them (This does not apply to direct bullying!) My quandary is what if they feel the same way but also remain silent? I’m not sure which is worse? Sorry for the ramble ❤️

[@kelly-annmaddox]

'I'm white. If I can handle it, you can handle it.' That's all I'm ever saying. 🤣 Great review. 👍 I love RWS because I learned with it, because of its legacy etc. At some point, I would have been in the market for this deck. But we are getting some excellent inclusive imagery at this point, with different skin tones, body types, abilities, genders, PLUS the heightened visibility of Tarot meaning that far less people feel they need to reach for RWS first.. All of this leads me to feel that MERELY the changing of some skin tones is too little, and bringing it out in 2022 is too late.

[@aquamarine18]

Thanks for sharing.

[@JudyReadsCards]

"The colouration that everyone hates." Thank you! Being lumbered with that deck (self-inflicted - "original", right?) almost killed my love of tarot. I really want every first deck buyer to know this deck is awful so they don't suffer like I did. 😂

[@thefoolsjournal]

🤣🤣

[@StellaWaldvogel]

I don't mind the coloration. Its the linework - Pam B, isn't it? The changed facial expressions, the Dudley Do-Right chin on that lady on The Lovers...ack!

[@SparkleDivineTarot]

I appreciate you breaking it down by numbers... it's hard to argue with statistics

[@justinmichaeltarot]

This is soo pretty!!

[@Lunarclaireity]

You’re perfect/love it… don’t ever change 🥰😂 And btw, sincerely enjoy your review videos/it’s so helpful and always appreciate the honesty

[@thefoolsjournal]

Thank you ♥️♥️♥️

[@championofcoinstarot7232]

Tom, thank you so much for this thorough review and for continuing to push forward vital conversations about diversity and representation in tarot. You've given me much food for thought. I'm glad that decks like this exist as a mass market option because we desperately need better racial diversity, but I do agree that they don't address the root biases that are within the source material. Also, as a Jewish tarot reader I deeply struggle with Kabbalistic appropriation in the RWS and Thoth. I try to get around this by reading tarot from a Jungian perspective, but it doesn't change the fact that the damage has already been done. I rarely hear other readers talk about this and am so grateful that you are bringing awareness to this issue as well. Thank you!

[@maureenbrinkman6374]

It’s a nice alternative for those just starting out on their tarot journey who want to use a RWS deck for learning purposes. Side note- I bought your book -“Tarot on Earth” last month and really enjoyed it! I thought I would also enjoy joining the Facebook discussion group associated with the book but have received no response from my requests to join. Is that group defunct now?

[@thefoolsjournal]

I’m glad you’re enjoying the book! I wound up shutting down the group cuz it wasn’t active. I think folx think they’ll want to engage more than they do. 🤣

[@maureenbrinkman6374]

Thanks for your reply. Mystery solved. 😆 Yeah, so true. A group sounds good in theory, but then members actually have to contribute and participate-and that’s where you lose them. 😏

[@amber.cartomancer]

Yay! I'm first...I think...do I have to have finished the review to be first🤣😉😊

[@morphinpink]

I think I'll wait for the release of the Fyodor Pavlov Tarot for a RWS clone. But maybe eveh then I may not get, I still have none for reason. Being Jewish I try to integrate kabbalah in a way that makes sense to me but it's really hard to overlook the way it's been misused and, frankly, appropriated by the golden dawn and Tarot readers as a whole. The colour palette of this one is pretty but hhhh, the art style just doesn't do it for me.

[@morphinpink]

the autocorrect in this comment is atrocious 😂 i wasn't having a stroke, just typing fast on my phone haha!

[@donnareadler]

Though I think the background colors are pretty, slapping brown paint on white faces screams “blackface” to me, and makes me cringe hard. I much prefer the gloriously beautiful Melanated Classic tarot.

[@shelbygivens1648]

Out of all of the rws decks I am so sick of seeing this one is by far the most tolerable. Coloring is A ➕️ isn't it?!

[@StellaWaldvogel]

If they wanted it diverse, they should've tweaked the linework to reflect that. This just looks like blackface. It's actually offensive.

[@rifflinthemind.5793]

(Also, we just had the Queen Elizabeths funeral today in England and the return of very old school, very regressive social mores came right out this week. It's felt like a glum, oppressively right wing Sunday here, all kinds of pageantry and nonsense. Queens and Heirophants are certainly not relegated to our past yet.)