A Masculine Deck

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 20 Mar 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

HudsonGray	20 Mar 2003
Ok, well they mostly all are, but I ran across this on ebay & found it funny. It's by Lee Bursten, apparently pulled off the market according to the seller. The Moon card...hard to tell if the moon 'cut the cheese' killing the dog and lobster below it.... VERY weird stuff! http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2165996716&category=35837 Not all the art matches the same style. Don't know if that would be a problem or not. Check out the 2 of swords--the blindfolded lady is doing a 'get back vampire' cross with them, but what's in front of her is either a werewolf or just an ordinary fox or dog. Gives some different insights into the card, it does. I like a fun deck.

wolfen045	21 Mar 2003
Thanks for the link! I am still giggling !.... my sister is always buying things off e-bay( I don't have acredit card or paypal account:( ) so iam gonna have her put in a bid on it for me. That has to be the STRANGEST tarot I have ver seen. blessings on you for making me laugh at such a dreadful/stressful time! wolfen

Shade	21 Mar 2003
Hey isn't that the famous Miss Cleo deck?

MrLucid	21 Mar 2003
I have been sitting and wondering why vendors would be pulling a deck off of shelves, except at the request of the artist or publisher.. hmmm (fun little mysteries to ponder). Oh well. Thanks for the peek! If anyone buys it, please let us know whats up with that! lol

Kiama	21 Mar 2003
I haven't seen the deck yet cuz Ebay is 'temporarily unavailable', but Lee Bursten you say? Lee Bursten is the creator? What a dark horse we have here in our midst. }) ;) Kiama

Lee	21 Mar 2003
LOL! No, it's not me. They say, "Review of this tarot deck by Lee Bursten." They mean the review is by me, not the deck. But I wrote them and told them to remove my name and the quote from my review, because they altered the quote to hide the name of the deck. Silly! -- Lee

cjtarot	21 Mar 2003
Hi, I agree, it looks like the famous Ms. Cleo deck..want a few more giggles, look her deck up... CJ

felicityk	21 Mar 2003
Here's a link to Lee's entire review on Tarot Passages: http://www.tarotpassages.com/cleo-lb.htm Felicity -- My Collection: http://home.attbi.com/~felicityk/tarot/

Pollux	21 Mar 2003
I have the same feeling of the 2 of Swords's woman in front of this deck! *LOL*

HudsonGray	21 Mar 2003
Ahh! Yeah, that IS confusing--a review of a 'deck by Lee B.' sounds like you did the deck, not the review. So this is the Miss Cleo deck? I always wondered why she never sold the one she uses on tv, she made a new one up & never used that on the infomercials. Hmm, after reading the tarotpassages review, maybe the reference of vendors pulling the deck is that Walgreens stopped carrying it on their shelves?

Cerulean	21 Mar 2003
This is silly, but I just thought... ...I just thought of this recently. Ms. Cleo's Jamaican actor accent...using the Giant Rider Waite in her previous year's infomercials...A recent look at a scholarly reference from Ms. Parson's reference to Pamela Colman Smith being African-American (I don't know if that is true--her darker hair or face in Victorian times and being from Jamaica might cause British/Irish to surmise she had blood ties to the West Indies...). Hmm, was that part of Ms. Cleo's packaging? This is probably a mistaken assumption from me putting random factoids together...or Mr. Stuart Kaplan's quote of others perceiving Pamela Colman Smith's as Japanese or of exotic costume... Well, none of the above goes with the pseudo-Egyptian motifs of the masculine deck discussed. Has anyone found it to be a good design, a must for them? I am fond of the Egyptian-style motifs designs in some historical decks, but didn't want to buy it when it was at Walgreens last year...and when I asked later about the deck, they said they pulled it from the shelves because of lawsuits being filed.

ihcoyc	21 Mar 2003
I don't know what Pamela Colman Smith's racial ancestry was. I do know, though, that she did live in Jamaica for at least part of her childhood, and wrote and illustrated a book about Jamaican folktales. The only picture I have seen of her has her dressed in Jamaican costume; she apparently had a stage act telling the stories. IIRC, it was a black and white picture and it was somewhat hard to tell what colour she had, but she did seem to have a rather flat, wide nose and almond eyes. It would not surprise me if she was in fact part African.

Icestorm	22 Mar 2003
Geez the two of swords is soooo funny! The woman's like going "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE dont come any closer! I cant handle it! arrrgghhhh!!!" -And I have NO idea what the Moon is about..... wierd. Nice crayon colors though... not my type of deck, masculine or not :]

felicityk	22 Mar 2003
The essay on Pamela Colman Smith in Kaplan's Encyclopedia of Tarot Vol III indicate that she was born in England to American parents, and she definitely looks Caucasian in the photos. Kaplan states, "Although some published sources suggest that Pamela Colman Smith was raised in Jamaica, she and her family actually moved frequently, spending time in London, Kingston and New York City." Felicity

wolfen045	26 Mar 2003
Not only did my sister bid on this deck for me, but she won the auction! Soon I'll have this weird looking deck in my hot (ok not so little!) hands. hehehe:)

Cerulean	26 Mar 2003
If you do open a thread on your new deck reading or just post here, I am curious how it reads for you. The experienced reviewer/reader information that I remember from Tarotpassages.com actually seemed pleasantly fine with the reading ability. I've a few decks with mixed reviews that work for me, so I'm curious how you like the art and if you enjoy how it works for you. Mari H.

The A Masculine Deck thread was originally posted on 20 Mar 2003 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.