Ancestral path tarot

Mixed feelings on A. Path

I find it very interesting that there have been both admiration and hesitancy expressed, regarding the Ancestral Path Tarot. It took me a long time to warm to the deck. In fact, I leafed through several open decks in different shops over a couple of years, before it "grew on me" enough to actually purchase it! Now I'm faced with having a deck that I like on the one hand, but am a bit uncomfortable with on the other. And I'm not sure why!? Has this been a common experience, or just my own? I don't have this mixed reaction to any other tarot deck.

I like it on the one hand and feel "edgey" on the other, too. I thought it was just me. It's good to see I'm not the only one.

(sheepishly raises hand)
I too have this deck, had wanted it for ages and once I finally got it, I couldn't read with it!!
I love the artwork, except for a few of the Cups I think....love the Wands and the Swords and the Sacred Circles.

Maybe I should bring it out more often.

Maybe we should form a support group, lol.

This was the deck that I thought would end my Tarot deck accumulation.

I saw it, and immediately the themed aspect of each suit (being Arthurian, Japanese, Native American Indian and Egyption) really appealed to me. The book is very good and I still think that this deck has one of the best Fools and Hanged One cards ever.

Considerable effort went into the deck and the artwork is beautiful.

I only used the deck for myself and haven't used it in a long time but I feel like getting it out to have a look at the cards again now.

Moonbow* said:

I still think that this deck has one of the best Fools and Hanged One cards ever.

Click to expand...

The Hanged One is truly awesome. I have heard some people express doubt that a deck based on four different cultures could "hang together" enough to be used for readings. That hasn't been a problem for me. In fact, it fascinates me to imagine characters from feudal Japan interacting with King Arthur or Grandmother Moon!

I'm glad my search pulled up this thread. I just got the Ancestral Path deck yesterday, and as is my custom before a new deck reading, I did a card by card list of the cards that spoke to me - either positively or negatively.

Normally, the two of cups is a favorite card of mine in most of my decks. But as I looked at the 2/Cups in this deck, I was stunned at my gut reaction to it. The female of the couple clearly wants the male. . . she leans into him, looking up at him, with desire in her eyes.

He appears to be holding back from her. . . as if he is not sure/disbelieves, etc., yet the interpretation on the card is the traditional partnering/coupling interpretation of most 2s of Cups, and adds that the card can also mean reconciliation after a time apart.

Methinks one of the partners isn't quite there yet on the reconciliation. . . anyone else see that?

One of the things you definately need with this deck is the book. The suits are set up from 10 to Ace not the reverse. Each suit also has it's own story which changes the meaning on some of the cards to a new direction. It's not a RW clone for this reason.

AND the book has a timeline that the deck can portray, each card covers a distinct part of the year, usually a span of a few days, if the reader wants to use the deck as a 'timing' deck in certain questions.

Swords & Cups suit in general

I think there is an oddness to the uneasy Sword suit, as the family and woman is faced with a nightmarish belief that she sees a sad future...so she agrees and resigns herself to an arranged marriage. That seems to be the story of the suit in that deck, from my recall.

In the book there's an interesting side story of an Ainu woman who actually makes a happy marriage and ends up singing in terms of having a wonderful life and prosperity.

In the Cups suit I get the feeling that Guinivere and Arthur is looked at as reconciled after Lancelot...I do not recall if there is another side story in the book about this mix of old and new cultural blends.

I think I saw many interesting reviews of this deck, scroll down on this page.

http://www.advancenet.net/~jscole/tarotpostmodab.htm

I've kept this, as it is an interesting deck to refer back. The size of the cards is very nice...I like the minors and courts. Some of the majors make this seem like a personalized mix of the author/artist in a way that might not match the theme of the deck...if there is another deck by the artist that matches the handy size of the old deck, I'd like to try to mix new majors with the old stories in the minors and courts.

Best regards,

Cerulean