Tarot Deck Review

The Enchanted Love Tarot

The Lover’s Guide to Dating,

Mating and Relaxing

by Amy Zerner and Monte Farber

Red Feather Mind, Body, Spirit

163 Page Guidebook

 

The Enchanted Love Tarot: The Lover’s Guide to Dating, Mating and Relaxing, published by Red Feather Mind, Body, Spirit, an imprint of Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 4880 Lower Valley Road, Atglen, PA 19310, is a Tarot deck designed and created by Amy Zerner and Monte Farber.

The Enchanted Love Tarot comes in a 6 inch by 9 inch by 1 1/2 inch cardboard box with a glossy red surface. On the front of the box is The Lovers card; on the back are reviews, bios and three card images. The box is very sturdy, with a magnetic lid and ribbon pull. The cardboard supports inside the box are a bit flimsy and mine ripped as I took out the deck, but the box itself is a perfect place to store the set.

The cards themselves are a nice size, 3 inches by 5 inches, and easy to handle “Goldilocks” size, not too small and not too big. They are made of a bendy card stock with semi-gloss color images on both sides of each card. The deck handles well, the cards slide with ease and are easy to shuffle. The Major Arcana and Court Cards have bordered or framed images with the card name and number at the top of the border and a keyword at the bottom. The pip cards don’t have story-telling images but rather, images of the representations of the four suits: Roses (representing Fire) with pink borders, Wings (representing Air) with blue borders, Shells (representing Water) with green borders and Gems (representing Earth) with yellow borders. The image on the back of all the cards is a deep rose colored semi-gloss with a beautifully detailed Victorian pattern.

Upon opening the lid of the box, the first thing we see is the beautiful soft cover guidebook. The 5 ½ inch by 9 3/4 inch guidebook has 163 full color pages with black typeface. The cardboard cover has a matte finish and contains the same image as the cover of the box. The guidebook begins with an Introduction chapter describing the theme of the deck and offering a bit of information about using the Tarot, followed by Bringing True Love Into Your Life, The Origins of the Tarot, the Major Arcana and The Minor Arcana, and How Does It Work? The next chapter is called How To Do A Reading; it contains 3 basic steps, instructions for asking a question, for shuffling, and interpreting your card, followed by Developing Your Intuition, What if You Do Not Like the Answer You Receive? Can You Do A Tarot Reading For Another Person? Can You Do A Tarot Reading For Someone Who Is Not Present? and A Gentle Reminder, which briefly addresses ethics.

Then comes 125 pages of card descriptions. Each Major Arcana card and Court Card has a full-page full-color image of the card and a full-page description containing an upright and reversed interpretation of the card. The Minor Arcana numbered cards have the card image at the top of the page and upright and reversed card descriptions below. All of the descriptions contain the card name and the keyword associated with the card, are easy to understand, and tailored and focused to the theme of the deck: improving relationships and partnerships, and finding true love.

One good thing about this deck is that you can easily use these cards to answer a yes/no question. Along with card images, name and keyword found in the card description section of the guide book, are three possible one-word messages, No!, Yes!, and Maybe. A few of those are augmented; I saw a few “Maybe, but you never know,” “Yes, but not as strong,” and “Yes, enjoy yourself” versions as well as others. Also, the card description sections of the guidebook are color-coded to match the cards, with purple paper for the Majors, pink for Roses, blue for Wings, green for Shells, and yellow for Gems. This makes it easy to quickly find a particular card in order to look up its meaning.

There are a few things a new reader should be aware of. The Minor Arcana numbered cards do not have the illustrations that can offer hints to their meanings and help a reader to tap into his or her intuition. Also, because this is a romance/love themed deck, the card descriptions do not offer traditional card meanings, so this might not be a good learn-to-read-the-Tarot deck.

The Enchanted Love Tarot is a pretty deck. The color themes are lovely, and the “tapestry-collaged” images have a Victorian/romantic feel to them. I live in a Victorian town full of historic homes decorated with cherubs and wicker furniture; every card image of the Enchanted Love Tarot could be framed and hung in the historic houses in my neighborhood and look perfectly in keeping with the historic era. The card descriptions are meaty enough to enable readers to use this deck for love-focused readings. The whole appearance of the set would make it a fun deck to use for in-person readings. I appreciate the section in the Introduction entitled What If You Do Not Like The Answer You Receive? This is the first guidebook I’ve seen that addresses this issue, and provides some valid next steps for a reader.

Amy Zerner and Monte Farber are a loving couple with thirty years of collaboration. Amy is a uniquely creative collage artist and fashion designer with a deep connection to her own intuition and to archetypal stories and healing energies. Monte is an internationally known self-help author and creator of interactive personal guidance systems offering inspiring guidance and empathic insights. Together, they have also created The Enchanted Tarot, Chakra Meditation Kit, The Enchanted Spellboard, and many others. For more information about their endeavors, please visit their website, www.theenchantedworld.net

 

The Enchanted Love Tarot: The Lover’s Guide to Dating, Mating, and Relating on Amazon

***

About the Author:

Raushanna is a lifetime resident of New Jersey. As well as a professional Tarot Reader and Teacher, she is a practicing Wiccan (Third Degree, Sacred Mists Coven), a Usui Reiki Master/Teacher, a certified Vedic Thai-Yoga Massage Bodyworker, a 500-hr RYT Yoga Teacher specializing in chair assisted Yoga for movement disorders, and a Middle Eastern dance performer, choreographer and teacher.  Raushanna bought her first Tarot deck in 2005, and was instantly captivated by the images on the cards and the vast, deep and textured messages to be gleaned from their symbols. She loves reading about, writing about, and talking about the Tarot, and anything occult, mystical, or spiritual, as well as anything connected to the human subtle body. She has published a book, “The Emerald Tablet: My 24-Day Journal to Understanding,” and is currently working on a book about the Tarot, pathworking and the Tree of Life. Raushanna documents her experiences and her daily card throws in her blog, DancingSparkles.blogspot.com, which has been in existence since 2009. She and her husband, her son and step son, and her numerous friends and large extended family can often be found on the beaches, bike paths and hiking trails of the Cape May, NJ area.