Steampunk Tarot

[silverwings94]

I've been pulling a card a day and they seem to be pretty right on as to the type of questions that I put to it. I've also been reading the book every night. I am now up to the major arcana and find the information really understandable. Not at all hard to understand. There have been some books that have lost me when I've set out to read them but so far not this one. In a few weeks I will be taking the online course "Around the Tarot In 78 days' I hope to use this deck with it and do hope to learn alot. I know that some who already have the book don't find it helpful, but as to someone that really hasn't studied the tarot I think this will help me alot.
I love this deck. The card stock is perfect for me, the cards shuffle really nice, not stiff at all like some decks that I have. The colors are wonderful. I love the muted tones. I don't like cards that are really bold in color.
I feel that this will replace my other favorite decks.
Namaste

[WolfDeca]

Just got my Steampunk Tarot yesterday, after a lot of dithering and finally deciding that I have liked steampunk (or the things it derives from) all my life, dammit, so I'm bound to like this deck for longer than a week.

First impressions:
- Love it! Even though steampunk is (to quote the book) 'what happens when goths discover brown' I really appreciate the splashes of colour amidst all the muted brownish jewel tones. I'm a great fan of muted brownish jewel tones in general, so the cards feel colourful without being garish.

- Cardstock: On the thin side, warps easily (already the deck is a bit warped - the post hadn't been gentle with it. I hope it unwarps just as easily), and because the cards are a tad big for my hands I sometimes bend them while shuffling overhand if there are only a few cards left in my hand. Hope this won't pose a problem later on. I do like how it shuffles - not sticky at all and very little tendency for clumps of cards to stay together.

- Reading & symbolism: I like how the meanings of the cards are traditional but the images aren't always. There's just enough detail and symbolism on the cards for me to read a lot into them, but not so much that I get overwhelmed or feel I need to learn the Big Book of Golden Dawn symbolism by heart to even begin to understand it. Reads like a dream.

- People: Yeah, the women are way too young and pretty. Even the 5 of pents people look well-dressed, well-fed, well-made-up and well-coiffed. Poor 2 of swords girl has legs that look like stilts. Everyone's too wealthy and healthy. And everyone is a very pale shade of WHITE. Steampunk, for me, is a genre in which more diversity would very naturally fit - steam engines unlocked global trade and emigration in a major way (and steampunk definitely emphasizes that focus on exploration and travel with its zeppelins and huge airships), the Victorian era is one in which 'the sun never sets on the British Empire' (so there are people from India, China, Africa, etc), huge class differences arose and what with the beginning of factories and assembly lines and guns and airplanes you got a LOT of people who lost fingers and arms to machinery. And, as a literary genre, steampunk (like cyberpunk) often focuses on the ugly hidden underbelly of society, not the suave upper class. Of course, steampunk as a fashion trends is all about the corsets and the frock coats and the wealth, and less about the grit, so I get where that came from. But even with these drawbacks, this deck makes my heart go pitter-patter.

- Book! Love the book. As an occasional card gamer, I like the flavor texts and really enjoyed the court cards chapter. I also like that there's a bigger, black&white picture of all the cards in the book - more detail, different perspectives because of the colour. Raring to try out the 'differnce engine' spread. Drawback: I disagree with her on 'how the tarot cards work' so that's not a chapter I'm likely to re-read, although I liked the advice in it. Drawback 2: The book cover warps easily as well, and I'm very gentle on my books. Maybe it's the weird hot and sticky weather of the past day.

[shadowdancer]

Well, it has been a little quiet this week regarding this deck.
Just to let you all know, I have now finished entering text on every one of the 78 cards on the study forum. I really do look forward to seeing some replies there, as this deck is one that I believe can be totally enriched by seeing how we all resonate with it, etc. Additional viewpoints will certainly be of benefit to me.

In the meantime, I will now use it in readings. It isn't often I hold back from diving into a deck like this, but for some reason I wanted to really look at it and absorb the detail before doing so. Is it likely to be one of my fab 5 decks? Somehow I don't think it will, but without a doubt it will be a good reading deck. So, look out on the exchange forum in due course for some readings to be offered using it.

In the meantime, has anyone else been working with it regularly? How has the card stood up? Anything of interest jump out from these readings?

Davina

[Sulis]

As Shadowdancer has said, every card in this deck now has a thread in the Tarot Study Groups forum - the deck even has it's own subforum in [url=http://www.tarotforum.net/forumdisplay.php?f=164Individual Deck Studies - click HERE[/url] now.

So come on you Steampunk tarot fans - it would be lovely to see some discussions of the card symbolism happening there. Here's an index of the threads: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=175437

Sulis - Tarot Study Groups moderator .

[aimeedanger]

"I wasn't going to get it at first. Because I figured it'd just be another photo-manipulated card deck. "

What does that mean?

[TreeLeafe]

Originally Posted by aimeedanger

"I wasn't going to get it at first. Because I figured it'd just be another photo-manipulated card deck. "

What does that mean?

Photo-manipulated decks tend to make the characters look posed and to me it doesn't look very natural. It can also look choppy depending on how much time/effort the artist puts into it.

For me, I like to really get sucked into the artwork, and I find it hard to do with photo manipulated decks. I guess they look a bit too obviously unrealistic to me.

Ex:
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/mystic-dream/
or
http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/wizards/

Llewellyn has done a few in the past and I figured that the Steampunk would be another since it's something very popular in the real world and models wouldn't be that hard to find for it.

[iAmRiotEyes]

Hey what were the cards that weren't cut right? I'm finally getting my own and I was wondering what to look out for.

[Emily]

I knew I shouldn't have come into this thread. I've stopped away from it for months, I'm still not sure what "Steampunk" is but I do know that from all the scans of this deck I do like it. I wasn't sure from the very first scans posted but as more have appeared, it looks like a really interesting deck.

I like the gender imbalance, it doesn't happen in most decks. It's nice to see a deck that concentrates on the more feminine without being over biased. It helps too that females are dressed masculine. I can't wait for the deck to get here.

[raeanne]

Originally Posted by Emily

clip..I'm still not sure what "Steampunk" is ...clip

Hi Emily,
Steampunk is a genre of literature/film that has element of Science Fiction and alternate history. Think of what life would be like today if we still were dependent on the steam engine. A good example of a steampunk book/film is "The Golden Compass" which is part of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman.

[iAmRiotEyes]

I got mine!

The only problem I have with the deck, physically speaking, is my Ace and Two of Wands. The Ace has "extra" paper on it's left bottom corner as if it wasn't cut properly and the Two has wear on the same bottom corner.

As for the manuel and the deck itself... I'm in love. I'll definitely be participating in the study group because I've made some initial observations regarding a few of the cards.


EDIT: Yeah I think I'm going to have to get a new deck. The Major Arcana through the 4 of Wands is cut larger than the rest. Really disappointing. I'm going to send it back for a replacement. Hopefully it won't be cut so haphazardly.