Voices of the Saints Tarot - NEW

I just came across this recently-released deck at Hastings, and thought it was odd that I'd never heard it mentioned anywhere before! It calls itself a tarot, but Llewellyn calls it an oracle so I'm not sure what to make of it. I can tell that the cards are numbered sequentially rather than divided into suits, and this is probably why it is referred to as an oracle, but there are 78 cards. I'm not sure if the card titles are traditional or not. It's a Christian symbolized deck that is on sale a bunch of places on the web from what I can see, deck alone. I can't seem to find much info on it or pictures but what I've seen looks beautiful! This is the most I can find for pictures and info, pretty much:

http://www.llewellyn.com/bookstore/book.php?pn=J610

Alidastore also has some other pictures of them listed under their new releases section under Tarots: http://www.alidastore.com/indexen.html

Might be worth checking out!

The images of the cards of this deck are a bit reminiscent of the images of the devotional cards for individual saints available at Roman Catholic shrines and bookstores.

Interesting. I was wondering if the cards simply stated names of the saints or if they are really like tarots at all. I can't read the print on the site, it's too small...they are pretty though.

deadstar,

In Italian, this deck is being labelled by Lo Scarabeo as an oracle rather than tarocchi. As LS is quite accurate about these kinds of things in Italian titles, I'd presume it's an non-tarot oracle deck rather than a tarot deck.

http://www.trigono.com/Tarocchi/oracolo_dei_santi.htm

At that webpage, it's mentioned three times that it's a 32-card deck.

Yes, the cards are quite attractive, but after looking at the Llwellyn site, it seems they are just portraits of saints, and not a true Tarot.

If you are looking for a true Tarot in the same vein, check out Robert Place's Tarot of the Saints. Beautiful artwork and an amazing book! (Also by Llwellyn)

Asher

I'm leery of any tarot deck that contains strong references to any religion. The pictures are lovely, and I'm sure it could make a nice oracle (more of the meditative type than divinative, though, if you ask me) if you took the different personalities and callings of the saints into consideration, but I don't see it making a good Tarot deck.

Rusty Neon said:

deadstar,

In Italian, this deck is being labelled by Lo Scarabeo as an oracle rather than tarocchi. As LS is quite accurate about these kinds of things in Italian titles, I'd presume it's an non-tarot oracle deck rather than a tarot deck.

http://www.trigono.com/Tarocchi/oracolo_dei_santi.htm

At that webpage, it's mentioned three times that it's a 32-card deck.

Click to expand...

Rusty, the deck you show is very similar, but I'm sure it's not the same. The box is different, but the images are the same from what I'm looking at, I think, so I'm guessing that is an older oracle that was recreated in this new 'tarot'? The one I see listed on websites for purchase says 78 cards and the one I've seen in Hastings twice now clearly has that many. It is the size of any normal tarot deck. Although I think you all may be right, although it is called the "Voices of the Saints TAROT" it is more like an oracle deck (not the first time this has happened). Since I am not very familiar with Christian symbolism or Christian saints, this deck would probably not work for me as an oracle because one would most likely have to read with knowledge of biblical figures rather than traditional tarot cards/symbolism. In that case I will probably not be getting this deck, but I think the images are beautiful and I'm sure there are some people out there who will truly appreciate this.

Deadstar,

Your post and everyone's replies left me wondering as well, so I looked in my "little" collection and discovered that I have them both!

You're right, there is a deck that has 78 cards, but the official title on the box has neither the word "oracle" nor "tarot" on it. It's simply "Voices of Saints." The 32-card deck is titled, "Saints Oracle Cards."

The images are *very* similar between the two decks, but there is no artist listed on the oracle deck. But the credit given on the 78-card deck is: "graphic by Pietro Alligo."

Reading the LWB's, these cards are used in exactly the same way. Of course, the 78-card deck has more cards! And there are little differences. The oracle deck has no titles on it. The 78-card deck includes the name of the saint, or archangel, or apostle, or... there's a whole legend in the back to tell you what the abbreviations mean. Also, of course there are images in the 78-card deck that aren't in the 32-card deck, but there are also a few cards in the 32 that aren't in the 78.

I bought these decks because they brought back fond memories of my roots, although I'm a recovering Catholic today (solitary wiccan). But in my personal opinion, I feel this deck would be best used by someone wanting to connect to the energies of these Christian Icons. I don't really see the point to use them for divination; I would use them for meditation and guidance. (I mean, the Catholic Church frowns upon divination, to put it mildly, not that many Catholics would use this deck!)

I've attached a picture so that you can see the image differences. Aesthetically, I prefer the 32-card oracle because it reminds me so much of all of those funeral cards I've collected through the years.

There ya go... just a little bit of info for you!

Blessings,
Karen


The first pair:
Saints Oracles: Joseph (1st-century Palestine) - Protects the father of the family and craftsman. Middle-aged man, paternal and wise.

Voices of Saints: S. Joseph Spons. B.M.V. (1st-cent. B.C. Israel-Palestine) - Husband of the Virgin Mary, protects fathers and carpenters. Protective man. Mature age.

The second pair:
Saints Oracle: Queen Elizabeth (13th-century Hungary) - Protector of bakers. Family of origin, old woman. Solidarity.

Voices of Saints: S. Elisabeth Reg. (13th-cent. Hungary) - Protector of bakers, helped the poor her entire life. Motherhood. Family of origin. Volunteerism.

Oh, yeah. The same person, Isa Donelli, wrote the instructions for both decks.

Thank you Earth Angel! Now I think I want to get both the decks! I love the saints and it's nice to have a lot of images collected together.

Kes

How interesting! Thank you for the info, Earth Angel, it is much appreciated. I suppose the slight descriptions do help draw up personal meanings for the querent from the saints. Interesting oracle(s), I may still consider this one