Doreen Virtue's Angel Tarot

[Gracie2k]

I Love them because they are large part of who and what my mother was about deep purity and love. The cards to me show that very well.They aren't perfect no, because the images a too elaborate for the size of the cards I find the images very squashed and too focused on the meanings under the cards. I wish for this deck it didn't have the tag words so large under them and the borders so big. I feel there could have been a much better way than this.
That is my only complaint that the images seem like they flood my mind too fast and and are murky. I do dislike the fact that I can't see the images clear enough. I like clear images.

[Myrrha]

Originally Posted by Gracie2k

I Love them because they are large part of who and what my mother was about deep purity and love. The cards to me show that very well.They aren't perfect no, because the images a too elaborate for the size of the cards I find the images very squashed and too focused on the meanings under the cards. I wish for this deck it didn't have the tag words so large under them and the borders so big. I feel there could have been a much better way than this.
That is my only complaint that the images seem like they flood my mind too fast and and are murky. I do dislike the fact that I can't see the images clear enough. I like clear images.

Gracie2k That is exactly the problem for me as well. The images are large-scale scenes with very tiny figures in vast detailed backgrounds. You would think that after so many decks Hay House would realize that although these are beautiful paintings they need to be edited to work well in the card format. Most of the images would work quite well if they were zoomed in a bit. Then the type and borders could be made a little smaller.

Overly detailed imagery and tiny figures in wide landscapes is a trend I've seen in tarot over the past few years. The Mystic Dreamer suffers from this and the Shadowscapes as well. Most of the production process takes place on the computer now and the decks are marketed on the internet. You don't realize how tiny and squashed the imagery is when it is on screen. Professional artists like Ciro and Robert Place work on the computer but they know about scale and how things will look when they are reduced.

Compare these decks to the Tarot of the Cat People or the Cosmic Tarot or the Connelly Tarot or any deck by Robert Place or Ciro which have bold imagery with large fields of color. Even the Russian Tarot of Saint Petersburg which has tiny detailed imagery has more visual impact because the imagery is bold and defined. Lo Scarabeo has been producing cards of various kinds for many years and I notice that their tarot decks don't seem to suffer from this problem as their editors are aware of what kind of art works well in reduction.

I have been enjoying the Angel Tarot in spite of having to squint to see the imagery. It is really colorful with a vivid almost hallucinogenic quality. When I close my eyes and imagine heaven or the energy that connects all things or the spirit world I see bright colors like this or the Connoley tarot. The interpretations in the book are pretty standard but very well expressed. They tend toward useful advice rather than more abstract ideas. Not "Decisions" but "Think carefully about any decisions you might be making right now."

[hunter]

I'm just coming back from a long tarot break. All my books and decks are in a box buried in the closet. I was just too lazy and uncourageous to dig the the box out. I had a B&N coupon and had to pass by the store. The tarot selection was almost nonexistent. I bought the Angel Tarot Cards.

I like them better than I thought I would. They are not all Angels, but 5 suits of different beings. It's like having 5 novelty decks in one. The art work is more consistent than any of her oracle decks, even with the 5 themes.

As for the meanings being "safe and gentle", I have to laugh. The only readings I have ever cried over are DV oracle reading that I took too literally. As a stalking and domestic abuse victim, I have hardships in my life that are not of my making, and at times have been REALLY scary. Card meanings that imply that everything bad that happens to me, is my fault, or just not that bad, sting on my bad days when I'm my most fragile. I almost left the deck on the shelf because I was afraid of it. LOL. DV decks are the ONLY decks I am afraid of. I figured with a tarot instead of an oracle, I'd be okay, since even though I am VERY rusty, I still have previous meanings memorized for each card.

I am a very tactile person. How the cards FEEL means so much more to me than how they look. I think these are going to need to be trimmed. Has anyone trimmed a deck yet?

I also care more about the SYSTEM of a tarot than about each card. I'm disappointed to hear that maybe the angel system is a little inconsistent. I'll have to see what I think after some study.

I left the store a bit disappointed, wishing that there had been a better selection. After looking through the deck, though, I'm excited to spend some time with it.

[PulchraElectri]

Its a great deck. And yes the air suit is represented by unicorns. Their horns represent the sword. If you look closely at the horns, they look very sharp. In the booklet that comes with the cards, doreen explains that she used unicorn because they look more peaceful than swords. The artwork on these cards is AMAZING. Fire is represented by dragons and dragon wands, water is represented by mermaids and ocean themed cups, and earth is represented by fairies and glowing coins. Its a very soothing deck.

[gregory]

That's exactly what I have against it. I don't look for soothing in a tarot deck.

[hunter]

Originally Posted by gregory

That's exactly what I have against it. I don't look for soothing in a tarot deck.

Turn! Turn! Turn!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4ga_M5Zdn4

There is a time for every purpose, including self-soothing.

Unfortunately I don't see any way to trim these cards. I've already abandoned them for playing cards.

[HOLMES]

I went into my local store and to my suprise i saw the doreen virtue angel tarot for only 16.99 dollars even.
I brought it and showed it to my mom as we ate lunch.
I just opened them and shuffled them well, and well try them with a reading after.

the cards are a fair size so the images themselves are a little bigger then i expected so what I mean is there is lots of details in some of these images.
i did notice that micheal was used twice so it would be hard to say oh micheal is the emperor when he is another card.
so now that I saw the deck i went from like a 4 to an 8, aka the images could of been bigger, and I dont know about the key words yet if they will distract me or not.

[Asbestos Mango]

I just did a DotW with mine and...

it just isn't Tarot. Not completely useless, I think it would be a good deck to break out when your depressed and feel like eating a whole box of chocolates and can't deal with any potential dark imagery.

Many, if not most of the images do not convey the meaning of the card. Renewal and Life Experience don't convey any meaning at all. Nine of Air has a lovely group of unicorns lying in a clearing like they're taking an afternoon nap. Really.

Sorry, but Tarot has a lightening struck Tower, a Death card, and a card with a picture of a guy lying on the ground with ten swords stuck in his back. And a Devil, and I have a few decks where the Devil is a positive, vital figure (Thoth, anyone?)

The Doreen Virtue deck is basically an oracle deck that has been named Tarot to widen her market without alienating the Happy Fluffy Angel and Unicorn crowd.

[gregory]

Originally Posted by Asbestos Mango

I just did a DotW with mine and...

it just isn't Tarot. Not completely useless, I think it would be a good deck to break out when your depressed and feel like eating a whole box of chocolates and can't deal with any potential dark imagery.

Many, if not most of the images do not convey the meaning of the card. Renewal and Life Experience don't convey any meaning at all. Nine of Air has a lovely group of unicorns lying in a clearing like they're taking an afternoon nap. Really.

Sorry, but Tarot has a lightening struck Tower, a Death card, and a card with a picture of a guy lying on the ground with ten swords stuck in his back. And a Devil, and I have a few decks where the Devil is a positive, vital figure (Thoth, anyone?)

The Doreen Virtue deck is basically an oracle deck that has been named Tarot to widen her market without alienating the Happy Fluffy Angel and Unicorn crowd.

Thank you ! That is exactly what I feared when I saw the description, and what I felt myself when I saw the cards.

[HOLMES]

perhaps it is in the eye of the beholder after all.

i did a reading with it,, fearing that it wouldn't go well but it actually ended up well.
the ten of air with the unicorns forming up a circle of sorts to protect the family resonated well with me, and the reading got good feedback.

for me it is a tarot.
edited to add
however if someone is used to her oracle work,one can easily see it as that as well.