Zerner Farber Tarot Deck?

The Enchanted was my first and only deck for about 12 years or so. Then I got a copy of the Zerner-Farber.

Didn't get another (different) deck until a couple years after that.

I have the DVD set, too. (Zerner-Farber tarot, DVD, and a small, color booklet.)

In an ideal world, I think the book that comes with the Enchanted would come with the Zerner-Farber deck. In fact, I put together a set with that configuration as a gift for someone once. lol

The Zerner-Farber comes with a different book, called The Instant Tarot Reader. It's not bad, but quite different in design, and the images are in black and white. The Enchanted Tarot book is just a must have.

I tend to think of it all as the same deck, and I love it. I don't think it sugar coats things. Death, The Devil and The Tower and some of the Swords cards in this deck were scary enough to me that eventually, many years later, I got curious about whether there were any decks in existence with less harsh depictions (especially of the Tower). I'd made peace with them all by then, (by going through a process of deliberately setting out to do so), but I was curious whether any such decks existed.

Anyway, it's gorgeous. All of Amy Zerner's work is. There's a beautiful energy about it, too, in addition to the artwork. (From the book, perhaps.) Also, it's been quite accurate for me over the years.

I'm glad you have a copy of your own. I hope you come to bond with it in the future. You don't need to consign it to love or romance readings at all, unless you just want to do so. It works for everything. Enjoy!

Hear hear! Just what I feel (see my post on 1st page of this thread.)

Purply, vibrant colours, intricate embroidery & Victorian style do not = sugariness at all here. I find the Zerner-Farber / Enchanted one of the deepest, most meaningful decks in my collection.
It is multi-layered ... personally, the truths depicted in the pretty art/craftwork move me far more than self-consciously 'scary' or 'dark' decks.

The 3, 5, 7 & 9 of Swords (in fact all the Swords) really cut to the quick.
No sugar-coating here!

And the 10 of Swords is THE most tragically heartbreaking card I have EVER seen.

Scarletsky said:

I think it's a nice enough deck, but a little too busy. I never read with it anymore.

Click to expand...

this is exactly how i feel too is that its a bit busy but i am glad to hear all the input. i will definitely work with this deck more.
what i like about it is that is a small deck ,easy to carry it around.

Starshower said:

Hear hear! Just what I feel (see my post on 1st page of this thread.)

Purply, vibrant colours, intricate embroidery & Victorian style do not = sugariness at all here. I find the Zerner-Farber / Enchanted one of the deepest, most meaningful decks in my collection.
It is multi-layered ... personally, the truths depicted in the pretty art/craftwork move me far more than self-consciously 'scary' or 'dark' decks.

The 3, 5, 7 & 9 of Swords (in fact all the Swords) really cut to the quick.
No sugar-coating here!

And the 10 of Swords is THE most tragically heartbreaking card I have EVER seen.

Click to expand...

Exactly! Always glad to see others who love this deck.


It is ornate compared to some other decks, but that's the style of this artist. It never detracted from reading with it, for me. The dvd might be helpful though for some, with regards to that. The cards are animated and different elements of the images move or only appear one after another. Might help draw the eye to certain things or make other details pop for some.

I hate to go against the grain here, but in the interest of fairness, I'd like to rain a little on this parade.

I do not like the ZF. I got it and the accompanying book when I was younger and I tried so hard to love it. It was purple (one of my favorite colours), and it was a good size to shuffle. I wanted to love it so much. I wanted to be able to read with it fluently. I tried.

But, every time I picked this deck up, I felt trapped, suffocated and twitchy. The images were so stiff and unyielding that I couldn't connect with anything. It was honestly like looking at a corpse. The body is there, but no spark of life.

I got rid of that deck and book and didn't pick up another tarot deck until five years later.

Just my experience, don't let this get you down if you really want it.

Well, I've finally been able to do it-- I laid out cards from the Enchanted and the Zerner-Farber side by side, in person, to see just how different they really are. The color intensity of the ZF is so superior to the Enchanted that it looks like a completely different deck! The surface sheen on the ZF is much more apparent, whereas in the Enchanted, the white borders somehow give the cards a matte appearance. The ZF cards do not look compressed to me; in fact, I actually find the details easier to see. But there is one thing: the ZF card images are cropped, and the card titles do obscure part of the design, so you aren't able to see the artworks in their entirety. I agree with Mellifluous-- to get the best of both worlds, use the ZF deck with the Enchanted book. The book shows the cards in full color and detail, and the photographs are lovely, much nicer in fact than the actual Enchanted cards themselves. I haven't read with the ZF yet, so we'll see how that goes!

Mellifluous said:

...I have the DVD set, too. (Zerner-Farber tarot, DVD, and a small, color booklet.)

....The Zerner-Farber comes with a different book, called The Instant Tarot Reader. It's not bad, but quite different in design, and the images are in black and white.

Click to expand...

Mellifluous, can you please tell me what is on the DVD in the Z-F set you mention above? Is it meditation/guided imagery or what?

I own the Z-F deck which came with the book - Instant Tarot Reader, but wonder if the DVD would help me understand the card images better, and kind of "bond" with them?

I first owned the Enchanted, but passed it on, and now I'm wishing I had just trimmed it, but I was too new to tarot to even think of such a thing. Oh well!

AprilFool, I can tell you a little about the DVD. There is an animated introduction and a page-by-page guide to what meditation is best for each card. The next menu is divided into categories: the suits and a video about tarot. When you click on a suit, it will bring up a list of all the cards in that suit. Clicking on a card title will bring up the image of that card (from the Enchanted Tarot). If you click on the play arrow at the bottom of the screen, the card will become animated in a few minor ways and there will be a voice-over talking about the card (just briefly). The meditation guide information is also duplicated in a nice little color booklet that comes with the set. I was hoping that there would be a way to do readings, but apparently the DVD is not set up for that.

I only just saw this. Haven't been on here much lately.

I haven't watched the DVD in a while now, but as I recall, there are a few meditations/introduction-type videos, as WyrdRaven said. (A grounding ritual, an overview of tarot, the major arcana, the minor arcana, etc.) Monte Farber posted (at least) one of them on youtube... yes, it's here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlIPqks0Tmw

I don't know any other way to describe the animation besides what I wrote in my previous post. It's very simple, but interesting.

The spoken words when you click on individual tarot cards are more or less the written meaning in the book that comes with The Enchanted Tarot. It's very gentle and peaceful to listen to though, much more relaxing that reading the book yourself, so it does have a sort of meditative vibe to it.

If you've ever looked at Amy Zerner and Monte Farber's web site, they offer free tarot readings on there and the spoken portion that plays after you choose a card is the same as on the DVD, I think... but I don't remember the cards being animated on the web site. It's been so long since I've looked at their site though, I may be wrong! You might want to check it out for yourself though to get an idea - assuming they haven't changed anything.

The only thing I wished the DVD did, that it doesn't, is play one whole suit of cards continuously. You have to select each card individually from the menu.

Hope that helps!

WyrdRaven said:

AprilFool, I can tell you a little about the DVD. ... I was hoping that there would be a way to do readings, but apparently the DVD is not set up for that.

Click to expand...

WyrdRaven, thank you! That helped me quite a bit! Despite not having the readings capability, it still sounds quite interesting.

Mellifluous, thanks to you too! What nice, thoughtful answers.