Illuminated Tarot - Carol Herzer

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 11 Jul 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Sulis	11 Jul 2003
Hi, I have a bit of money from my birthday and I`m considering ordering a copy of Carol Herzer`s Illuminated Tarot, I don`t have a Rider Waite deck, it`s just never interested me, but this version does. It seems to be very good quality as well. Those of you who have this deck, is it worth the money? Carol`s renamed some of the cards; does this help or hinder? Am I right in thinking that she`s changed Strength and Justice back to their original positions of 11 and 8 respectively? I must say I much prefer them this way round. Last question: What are the back designs like? On her site she has a few marbled designs, a sunflower design and some blue flowers, can`t decide which one I like best so wondered what others who have the deck think. Thanks in advance Love and light Crystalmynx xx

soiitaire	11 Jul 2003
I absolutely love this deck and I have over 350 decks. It's well worth the money. I'd say this deck makes my top 20. As a matter of fact, I love this deck so much, I bought all three sizes, the tiny, the medium (which is best if you want to shuffle the cards) and the large (best if you like to look at the art). If you are going to get this deck, definitely go for the extra illumination which is a few dollars more. The deck glows and sparkes. It's beautiful. I guarantee this deck will become a favorite and treasured deck. Carol also allows you to customize the deck to your own tastes. She let's you pick out the color for the back of the cards and the fabric and lining for the bag. She also affixes a card to the front of the bag. You pick a card that you relate to. For my large size I have a blue flowered card back and a blue sparkly bag with a Fool card; for my medium size, I have royal blue backs with a green brocade silky fabric with a royal blue silky interior with the High Priestess card. Her bags are lined and very special. Justice is #8 and Stength is #11. Soiitaire aka Brigit..

Sulis	12 Jul 2003
Thanks Solitaire, my next question was going to be ; Are the hand painted illuminous colours worth getting? You`ve already answered for me, Thanks. I e-mailed Carol for some info on shipping costs to the UK and she`s going to send me a sample card. Love and light Crystalmynx xx

truthsayer	26 Sep 2003
i just got this deck today and i love it. there's something about the original rws that draws me that i can't get away from. this deck is a wonderfully recolored version. there is attention to little details like faces are given slightly different look. the extra luminosity is worth the extra money. it gives the deck that extra umph to make it more special that just another rws clone. the way the cards are coated just makes them glide so easily as i shuffle. they are bendable yet strong so they can take a little riffling without damage. in fact, this deck is the best deck i own for shuffling! the cards don't stick together. i felt bonded with the deck pretty quickly so i gave myself a reading. it was right on target and even brought up something i had not considered in the situation. when thing carol asks you to do is name a few of you fav cards so she can put one on the bag she prepares for your deck. i said that the high priestess, the star and the hermit are my favs. the HP is on my bag and she sent 2 different stars and a large hermit. you can choose whether you want traditional names on the cards or what she has renamed them as. i took the renamed b/c i thought it might add an interesting new slant. i like the change but i've read tarot so long that a change doesn't throw me in the rws. for the bag colors, she asked me to name some fav colors. i chose, purple, green, pink or blue. i got a nice teal green inside with a purplish green outside. it's very pretty with the HP on front. the bag is extremely well made and the edges are finished with a serger. i think another reason i love this deck is that i feel like it was created especially for me. i even got to choose the back design of the cards. she has several pretty designs to choose from. i chose blue flowers. how custom made can a deck get? anyone else got this deck recently? has anyone not really liked it and why? i'll stop singing praises now... }) ;)

lark	08 Nov 2003
Has anyone else bought this deck? And what do you think. I've been looking at it for months.

Sulis	09 Nov 2003
Lark I decided against it in the end as I didn't like the very glossy laminated finish on the cards. If you e-mail Carol Herzer she'll send you a couple of sample cards to look at. I'm really glad I did this as I would have been disappointed if I'd bought the deck. I much prefer a matt finnish to the cards. Love and light Sulis xx

Jen	09 Nov 2003
I have the medium size of this deck. I like it quite a bit. The medium size is only available in her card titles, whereas with the large size you can opt for either her titles or the traditional ones. The cardstock is not like most published decks. It's very bendy and when you lay the cards down a couple of the corners curl slightly up. (Not a big deal though) And they do have a glossy finish. They are easy to shuffle. I asked carol about why she choose this cardstock and she said she had tried a more typical one before and the cards where really hard to shuffle. When cards are all stacked together, the deck is a bit thicker than the publisher type I originally wanted the sunflower backing for my medium deck, but carol told me the sunflowers were spaced very far apart on the medium size. She told me she had two solid backings of light blue and bright blue that were not shown on her website. So I choose the bright blue. I'm ok with it, but I'm wishing I had chosen the light blue. Just a personal thing. I definitely recommend paying the extra money for the iridescent colors. Also, if you have small hands, the size of the medium is a perfect fit. I was really please about this. Like truthsayer mentioned, the bag really is beautiful. Although if I order another deck from her, I think I'll ask for it without the card adhered to it. Another personal thing. :) I'm considering ordering the larger size with the sunflower backing and trad titles. The colors and the way she painted these cards is so swirling, flowing and beautiful - I'd like to see them in a larger size as well. It looks like she painted the auras of the people and objects in the cards. I asked her if this was the case, here's her reply: "I have never seen auras, but I suppose what I was painting was sort of like that. It was painted back in 1988, at the time Neptune was conjunct my moon, that is considered to be one of the most psychic of all transits. I think of the images as being about energy, and the whole thing has a quality of healing energy." I give this deck 5 stars. :D

lark	09 Nov 2003
Two totally different opinions. Sulis I did send her an email last night and she is sending me out some samples. Isn't that nice of her? This would be the most money I have ever spent on a deck so I really have to be sure. Thanks for the suggestion. Jen thank-you for taking the time to send me such an indepth reply. This helps me so much because if I like the cards now I have totally changed my mind about what i would get. I was going to go for medium, irridescent, blue marbled or blue flowered back (haven't decided yet) with the 9 of Coins or the Moon card on the bag. But now after hearing from you I think I'd go with the large, irridescent with no picture on the bag. I don't really like when the traditional words are changed. It's just a bugaboo with me. I'll let you know what I think when I get them. Namaste

The Illuminated Tarot - Carol Herzer thread was originally posted on 11 Jul 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.