Does anyone has anything wonderful or horrible to say about the Fountain Tarot?
The production values seem to be fantastic (that is what most reviews I've read are gushing about) and it looks pretty and airy and easy to read and perfect for spring...
But on the other hand I'm worried that it is only a pretty face; that it's simplistic and one-dimensional.
And I look at my Thoth and think, I have all the sacred geometry I need right there, in a much meatier package....
Thoughts? Pros/cons?
What are the readings like that you do with it?
The Fountain is totally different from the Thoth, I wouldn't know how to compare the two. I started out with the Thoth.... and I use and enjoy the Fountain without comparing them. They're too different.
The Fountain is very people-oriented. You can see that these are real people looking at you in the cards, they're portraits. Sometimes their energy is so strong that it nearly irritates - you can't feel the archetypal energy so well when there's an individual speaking to you. But then, you push a bit more and the archetype is there, too, in the individual.
The use of geometry is very clever and beautiful to behold but completely different again from the way Frieda Harris used it. In the Thoth, sacred geometry is the visual backbone of the deck (just as astrology, mythology, alchemy and kabbalah were the esoteric backbones of the deck). It's like a net that holds everything in place. That what makes it so wunderful to trim the Thoth - you put Temperance and the Fool together and you notice they fit nearly seamlessly. The whole deck is held together by geometry.
In the Fountain, there is geometry, but it is used as element of style - to juxtapose abstract shapes with the portraits of individuals, to make us think, to use the visual language in a more abstract way. It appears differently in different cards, not as underlying "grid" to pull in the whole deck.
I enjoy the Fountain very much although I haven't done many readings with it (most of my readings are with decks I don't choose but the employer picked beforehand, and that's very good for my tarot muscles). The readings I did were clear, like spoken in a low, pleasant voice that carries far.
I think this is a very good deck for conflict situation because it is "cooling" and encourages you to think. It has this Airy feeling to it - cerebral, open, a problem solver, bringing clarity. Maybe because it was made by three people who certainly had to communicate all the time, be fair and just and learn to cmopromise? Air talents.
The Thoth is a Classic, the Fountain is contemporary and new. It will take some years until people can see whether it has the staying power of the older tarots or whether it ages. (And there are decks that carry the strong signature of the time they were created in... but are still beloved and relevant reading decks - Roehrig, Cosmic, Morgan Greer...)
If the Fountain speaks to you, I'd say, listen. It's a good deck IMO that throws new light on many cards.
ETA: Oh, and the meatiness IMHO doesn't depend on the deck but on the reader. Nisaba could change your life with a collection of Mickey Mouse collecting cards, I'm sure. She's of the opinion that a good reader can read with every deck, and I take that as encouragement to try at least. If your question is good and your intuition is inspired by the Fountain, why should it give shallow readings?
I don't think the many esoteric symbols on the Thoth card make it such a good reading deck.