Decks inspired by the Toltec Path

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 04 Dec 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

seawomyn	04 Dec 2004
Hi, I'm new on this list and a little discussion got started in the introduction area and I thought I would bring some of my comments over here because I would love to hear anyones opinion on Toltec inspired decks, or any of the South American/Mexican inspired or based decks. Here is a little history of my deck experience, partly quoted from the intro area. Yes, I also consider the Rider-Waite deck an "old faithful" deck but also it's a deck I use when I'm deep into the Western Mysteries. All it's symbolism speaks to that lineage. I started there in my late teens and 20's, but in my 30's and early 40's I was deep into Women's Spirituality and multi-cultural spirituality and symbolism which the Motherpeace deck speaks to beautifully with symbols from mythic tales from all over the world, including Africa, South America, North American Indians, India with some Western Mysteries in there also. I worked with the Daughters of the Moon deck a little at one point but it doesn't run very parallel to other traditional deck patterns and has very little that speaks to the male situation so I found it frustrating to read, especially at fairs where men and straight women would come to my booth. The Motherpeace deck can speak well to the situation of anyone in my experience. The Daughters of the Moon deck is beautiful and I think works very well for a woman's meditation and some of her inner journey. For the last 8 years or so, I've been deep in Western Mysteries and working with a strongly varied community so the Rider Waite deck is back to being my #1 favorite. Although most recently, over the last year, I've been very fascinated with the Toltec path of Miguel Ruiz and have begun to eye the decks inspired by that path. So does anyone have an opinion on these decks?

Cerulean	04 Dec 2004
A deck inspired by the Day of the Dead, the Mexican holiday, by Monica Knighton only has one visible human in this review, but she doesn't quite look like a woman of Spanish-Mexican heritage, if that is important... http://www.tarotpassages.com/dead-kh.htm It is said to be very tarotlike and quite recently reviewed. There is a deck known as the Toltec Oracle, but it's not tarot. I've seen an Italian-language deck with beautiful 80-card images in a lovely matte-finish paper by expert Laura Tuan, but it's more a Mayan oracle with 78 cards with some tarot-like touches by online scans. I've not bought it yet. I've heard of an old deck called the 'Mayan Tarot'---but I don't understand the symbology of this path. http://www.themysticeye.com/pics/xultan.htm -------------------------------------------------- Forgive these suggestions if these are not similar to what you are looking for...I've only mostly historical and art tarots, but they don't celebrate any of the themes you mentioned, except Rider Waite facsimile and recolorings. The only Spanish tarot I have is the El Gran Esoterico, which is not Mexican or Toltec... Regards, Cerulean

Cerulean	04 Dec 2004
I looked a little on the web to see if I could find a bit on Don Miguel Ruiz and the Four Agreements http://bodhitree.com/lectures/ruiz.html I may have two suggestions that might be interesting for you, based on the little that I've read... The Intuitive Tarot by Cilla Conway...which not necessarily focused on just feminine idealogy, it has a softer, yin-oriented and dreamy feel to those who like the delicacy...I think sometimes the deep color contrasts of the Daughter of the Moon Tarot are similar and there's a rounding element in the frames of the images: http://www.cillaconway.com/cards_tarotB.htm And somewhat folkloric, lively and shamanistic in an international, colorful way, the Tarot of the Four Elements...bolder, brighter, which might follow a Motherpeace style? http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=27255&page=1 Hope those help! Cerulean

seawomyn	05 Dec 2004
Thank you so much Cerulean. You definitely took some time and effort and thought into helping my search and I appreciate. All of those decks were intriguing in different ways. I shall go over to Shamballah and see if they have any of them to look at the whole deck. Thanks again. seawomyn

seawomyn	10 Dec 2004
I don't know if this had any interest to you also, but I just stumbled on a fascinating book. It's called The Winged Prophet From Hermes to Quetzalcoatl, An Introduction to Mesoamerican Deities through the Tarot, by Carol miller & Guadalupe Rivera. It's very intriguing not only from the standpoint of Mesoamerican Gods and symbols but also some of the parallels they draw from around the world.

HudsonGray	10 Dec 2004
Wasn't the artist of the Toltec Oracle on this list? It may not be 'tarot' since it only has 33 cards, but if you have questions you can always ask the artist. http://www.bellaonline.com/ArticlesP/art25981.asp

Strange2	11 Dec 2004
seawomyn wrote: I would love to hear anyones opinion on Toltec inspired decks, or any of the South American/Mexican inspired or based decks. Greeting, Seawomyn! I recently got a wonderful Ukranian deck called the "Rocambole-Tarot", which is inspired by South American and tribal artwork. Here is a link to some cards from the Rocambole: http://www.docstrange.com/Tarot/Tarot_images_2.asp#Rocambole The only place I have seen the Rocambole-Tarot for purchase is on eBay. It has become one of my favorite decks, due to its bold geometric designs and exotic nature (I can't read Russian, so the words on the cards seem like alien/ancient scripts enticing my subsconciousness!).

JanetBoyer	13 Dec 2004
The 2 Toltec oracles I know of is the Nahualli Oracle and The Toltec Oracle. There are 2 meditation decks based on Don Miguel Ruiz's books, that I know of: The Four Agreements cards and The Mastery of Love cards.

The Decks inspired by the Toltec Path thread was originally posted on 04 Dec 2004 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.