Help with the Tarot of Northern Shadows Please

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 21 May 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Kiama	21 May 2003
Hi all, Somebody mentioned this deck to me, so I just had to dig it out of my collection and look over it again. Now, apparantly the creators have used tales from the Mabinogion, the Norse myths, and some other Celtic myths. Problem is, I can't see it. This doesn't bode well at all, after all, if the artist can't actually represent something so that we recognise it, what's the point? I've always wanted a deck which takes its cues from the Mabinogion and other Celtic source texts... Can anybody enlighten me as to what cards go with which story? I think I recognised a few of the Majors, but that's cuz they're mostly deities. The lwb doesn't actually say anything though. I think I see Rhiannon and Pwyll in the 5 of Cups... Kiama

baba-prague	21 May 2003
Well, I can't be much help on this, but I was looking at the pictures of this deck and, like you, thinking I'd like something that relates intelligently to some of these myths - however, reading what you say I'm disappointed. Is it really so poorly done? Like you, I'd be interested to hear what people think on this one. (btw, the style of illustration doesn't appeal that much to me, so I sort of hoped that the deck might rise above that - for me - by showing some interesting approaches to the myths, I wouldn't be that keen on it otherwise).

Kiama	21 May 2003
Hi baba-prague... Well, This deck was a bg disappointment for me. For starters, I'm not keen on the artstyle at all. And secondly, I just can't get over the horrible-looking clothing some of the characters are wearing... The Celts never wore anything like that! (Which is more 15th century than Celtic!) Alot of the time, it looks as though the Minors are just teh RWS but painted differently, and I really can't see which myths go where... :( Kiama

baba-prague	21 May 2003
Hi Kiama, Hmm. Well, I suppose the problem is that anything with "Celtic" on it is popular, so sometimes (perhaps - I hope I'm not being unfair to the designers of this deck) people just sort of paste a bit of Celtic-ness over things. Like some "Oyrish" theme pubs (some of them here sell authentic Irish-style salmon and chips with red pepper sauce - excuse me???? LOL) The Celtic myths, as you know better than me I'm sure, aren't "easy", so to do this well someone would really have to sit down and think about the correspondences. Sounds like they didn't spend enough effort to really do that? btw, someone was looking for this deck on the trading forum (that's what got me looking at it) so if you really don't like it... :-) anyway, looks like I won't be saving up for this one. Perhaps it's just as well - I seem to have bought or traded a lot recently :-) ps - just remembered I wanted to say about the clothing - a Russian visitor we had here who said she is a devotee of all things Irish, asked me to show her my "traditional Irish costume" and when I told her that we don't actually wear Irish costume except maybe for a fair or a performance or something, she was really disappointed. I think people are sometimes given the impression that the "ancient Celts" all went round dressed like Leprechauns - and that some of us still do! I felt I let her down ;-(

The Help with the Tarot of Northern Shadows Please thread was originally posted on 21 May 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.