baba prague,
Three cheers for another cat deck! For me, cats and the tarot are a natural. I am always on the look out for decks to add to my collection and those which utilize cat images effectively will catch my eye every time. I love the cats with each of the Queens in the Legend deck. The Halloween Tarot is rife with cats. The Queen of Wands is frequently accompanied by a cat in decks old and new. I don't think it is a passing fad, many who enjoy the tarot also have a temperament which allows them to appreciate cats as well. Beautiful, intriquing, mysterious, comforting, instuctive, maybe even a little frightening at times. Adjectives one might apply to either his favorite tarot deck or favorite cat?
Actually I do not find that there are not that many decks which use cats exclusively and several of those available are major arcana only decks. It was Kipling West's Tarot for Cats, given to me by a client/friend as a christmas gift, which brought me to the study of the tarot in the first place. Intriqued, I was fortunate to find Joan Bunning's on line course. At that point I needed a full 78 card deck with fairly 'traditional' meanings. Following Joan's advice I searched for a deck whose images appealed to me. Tarot of The Cat People was the deck I chose to learn with and it has remained one of my favorite decks, but it was not exactly what I was looking for. It is my goal to create the deck that I would have liked to have found when I made that initial search.
My journey into the world of the tarot is unique only in that we are each individuals with a story to tell, but in many ways we who have come to the tarot in recent years share a common experience. It does not surprise me that others find the cat an apt substitute for the human form when seeking a way to express the wisdom they have found within the tarot. In a thread about the Cat People Tarot, someone commented that the expressions on the cat's faces often provided a clearer sense of the card's meaning than those of the people. Cats can sometimes seem like patient teachers sharing our lives waiting for us to gain the wisdom to preceive their subtle messages. (You may be correct, baba, a cat has probably reached out to Demoneese
).
Speaking of cat decks, does anyone have the Tarot Du Chat? Thoughts?
Deb