Minoan Tarot by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince

Rodney, your excellent review decides it for me . . . I was wavering on whether to buy the Minoan or not, and now I'm quite sure that I'm not interested .

The changed suit names, changed Major titles, changed Court titles, and the artwork on the minors all = a deck that I am not interested in using.

And, rabid collector that I am, I still won't buy a deck if I can't envision myself using it.

My personal peculiarities aside, though, it does appear to be a fantastic, unique deck by an exceptionally talented artist. I can see why it appeals to many.

Thanks Rodney, for taking the time to do such a thorough review. I think I'm w/ Annabelle; i don't know if i can see myself using this deck. I love Crone and dark goddess, but in both those cases the art really grabbed me from the get-go; this time around i was thinking, I like what Ellen has to say, if it has a really good companion lwb, its probably worth it. But in truth, i don't know between all the boobs and the happy minoan culture all having happy sex-- sorry, i'm in a gloomy phase. not having any happy sex I also do not have any deck buying funds so really this should be a halleluja posting. Halleluja i dont have any money, and i'm not having any happy sex.

Nevertheless, would like to hear how anyone's reading experiences go w/ this deck.

Dark Victory '39 said:

But in truth, i don't know between all the boobs and the happy minoan culture all having happy sex-- sorry, i'm in a gloomy phase. not having any happy sex

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Err, it's not so much that they had happy sex, in case you're picturing orgies and scenes from Eyes Wide Shut. "Open sexuality" means that many were comfortable with exposing their breasts or genitals as not constantly sexualized objects in public, like some current groups in Africa.

Women who went bare-chested are believed to often have been priestesses where it was an expression of the fertility of the Earth.

I'm not trying to convince you to like the cards either way, just saying that it didn't quite imply "rampant" or "frivolous."

i didn't think it was rampant or frivolous sex necessarily. Rather that the whole deck might have a more frivolous vibe in general than what i was after. Not that i consider the Dark Goddesses or Crone, dark decks; but i see them as having a lot of substance. For readers who are familiar w/ her other decks, how do you find the minoan in terms of substance? I guess, from what research I've done (poking around on blogs) to find excerpts of the accompanying lwb, it didn't seem to hit me as favorably as lorenzi-prince's writing usually does. I think she's a really thought-provoking deck creator, but i wasn't sure if she was pushing the envelope here for me, like she usually does.

But is anyone loving it, who has it? Again, would love to hear anyone's reading experiences.

I received the deck!

It really is a neat little gem. For those wanting a connection with the natural world, the use of animals for three of the suits’ pip cards is well done and the book is packed with details. Every one is inspired by a real Minoan piece of art; there’s very little ad-libbing. Lorenzi-Prince opted not to sacrifice the original designs to make them more like familiar Tarot images. Sea-9 shows two dolphins as they were originally painted on their fresco, not turned into a pod of nine.

The Minoans revered Earth, Sea, and Sky as the major divine realms, so those suits are nature, and humans make up the last, Art, our unique contribution, our fiery living spirits.

Each of the numbered cards is linked to a keyword. The Sixes are about Harmony. So Sea-6 shows a school of fish, one swimming away but nothing disrupting the flow. Art-6 shows a Minoan musician creating literal harmony. Earth-6 is a loving dog with its master.

This is not a RWS-patterened deck. It also isn’t quite a Pips-as-Trumps affair; the pips don’t quite correspond. The 7s are about Spirituality, but Major VII the Chariot, although a goddess is in the chariot, doesn’t quite give a meaning of spirituality.

Most of the Majors are deliberately made women: I is the Priestess, V is the Singer, VII a goddess Charioteer, XI a female visionary, XIX two ladies under the Sun. I love the Death card, called the Ancestor, who has “been where the living have yet to go.” This is not some spectral figure or even a goddess, but a person seeking solace in one of their forebearers. Men are present mostly as the God in a few cards, and males in the court cards. This is not a politically feminist deck with a statement, but using a perceived matrifocal culture to explain the cards. Men should be able to find a place for themselves in it as much as women will.

So there is quite a unique learning curve to the deck, but its rich detail affords an excellent experience of Minoan history, art, and religion. The book is definitely required to understand context; I don’t feel this is a deck that can be intuited.

Thanks Aeric. Awesome review. It's back into my 'thinking about it' category.

For me, as someone new to tarot, I enjoy this desk because I don't have any of the preconceived connections that I have with the traditional RWS deck.

I also see this deck as more helpful for spiritual guidance and connecting with the divine than one that helps with the future, if that makes sense. If you're interested in the goddess tradition, I definitely recommend this deck.

philotes said:

I also see this deck as more helpful for spiritual guidance and connecting with the divine than one that helps with the future, if that makes sense. If you're interested in the goddess tradition, I definitely recommend this deck.

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Thanks philotes! It's definitely on my wishlist. I love Tarot of the Crone and the Dark Goddess Tarot.

Who loves this deck?

It's been a while since anything has been posted about this deck, to my knowledge!

I just recently got the Dark Goddess deck, and I am just wowed. But it was a close call--up until the last day, I couldn't decide which I would want more. I still really want the Minoan!

I've decided I would probably like the Minoan deck eventually. A consistent cultural theme in the style of Mz Lorenzi-Prince just seems awesome--and it could be a nice, lighter counterpart to the Dark Goddess. (Or maybe they're too different for such a comparison.)

Has anyone had a good working relationship with this deck? What are your experiences after using it for a while? Thanks for any feedback!

I love the Minoan. For about a year I've been fascinated with Minoan civilization and what we can piece together of its native religion's elements that influenced later Greek.

What's embraced of native Crete in Tarot largely comes from the Goddess movement decks, but is unfortunately scant and biased. The Motherpeace book incorporates the classic Minoan "snake goddess" into its art and uses Minoan figures on some of its cards, but doesn't really go into any detail about their context except to say that Minoans were Goddess worshippers. That's true, but it's also a generalization and goes no further. The vast majority of Minoan religion revolves around a Goddess, and there were priestesses, but modern focus often detracts from the role of male priests of these same Goddesses, as well as male gods. That's where this deck harmonizes focus.

There have been many goddess decks like Dark Goddess, but global mythology is so popular that most users already have some knowledge of the deities used and can jump straight in to reading. But Minoan religion receives much less focus as it's often overshadowed by Greek religion for its smaller archaeological evidence. To understand what we know of its religion it's important to have some basic knowledge of Minoan history, so the book is indispensable.

Once you do, the deck comes alive. It gives perspectives from both the human and animal world as the Minoans viewed them. I rarely use Tarot for forecasting, but it's excellent for providing a perspective for advice.