Modern Spellcaster's Tarot Delayed Until September 18th

Telspepper said:

LOL I was so excited I didnt think to ask. I assumed youtube.

Ill try to find out.

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To be honest, I'd rather she just do a series of written blog posts detailing each card. It seems like it would take less time to produce on her end and less time to consume on our end.

I appreciate that she's willing to do this, but I can't help but think that she may be making more work for herself than is needed. (And also more stress if she's nervous about being on camera).

I would be perfectly happy if she would just write about the symbols she chose to put in deck and post it somewhere online.

I received my copy today.

There is something oddly appealing about it - lots of billowing garments and expressive personalities (and not just in the courts) - and yet despite it's spirit of inclusiveness, there is something over-idealised and sinister and at the same time fairytale-like. Can't put my finger on it. The mountains, fjords, hoods and medievalism. Something grandiose and Wagnerian.

I do actually like it. But it is very sinister. The cardstock, I have to say is shocking. Really. Like nothing else I have in my collection. ´Tis paper. I do like the imagery but I look at it and think there is no way I could use this deck long term. Certainly not with heavy-handed shufflers I don't trust.

Le Fanu said:

I received my copy today.

There is something oddly appealing about it - lots of billowing garments and expressive personalities (and not just in the courts) - and yet despite it's spirit of inclusiveness, there is something over-idealised and sinister and at the same time fairytale-like. Can't put my finger on it.

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Sinister? Fascinating. If you figure out what gives you that "sinister" vibe, I would love to hear you expand on that. Maybe it's all the cloaked figures? Or all the squirrels; the little one wearing the black hood on the Nine of Pentacles is clearly up to no good, and the giant one on the Knight of Pentacles looks like it could claw your face off. (I kid, I kid!)

Speaking of the Knights, one thing I found curious is the fact that three of the four Knights are riding three of the four animals depicted on the card backs (the bird, the fish, and the squirrel), but then the fourth Knight is riding some kind of bison (I think?) instead of the fourth animal depicted on the card backs, which appears to be a wolf. Just seems a bit odd.

Amazon and Llewellyn

I too pre-ordered this back in May.
When this was supposed to be shipped I kept checking Amazon. At one point it said out for delivery should arrive by Sept 14-15. That came and went. Then it said "delivered".
I contacted Amazon about these issues.From there I had some back and forth with Amazon. They first said that the release date of Sept 8th was a mistake, it was never supposed to come out then (lie). And then they said something about the back order (I was a pre-order....). I got fed up and contacted Llewellyn. They told me that there was a delay at the printer's and when to expect them from Amazon. Amazon just straight up didn't know what they were doing and weren't bothering to find out. It took me 5 minutes to find out from the publisher. Sigh....was it worth it since I got a discount? Debatable. The delay was not Amazon's fault but their knowledge and follow trhough sucked.

Finally ordered a copy; I've been looking forward to this one for a while now. I had the opportunity to take a workshop Melanie Marquis offered at Pantheacon earlier this year and she sincerely is a very sweet devotee of the Tarot, especially its uses in magic.

It's also so lovely to see such well-painted cards in this age of computer-generated collage claptrap.

Melanie Marquis youtube video series on MST

Hello,
I heard from Melanie Marquis today about her youtube series on this deck.
You can find the video through facebook, MelanieMarquisauthor, or her YouTube channel, United Witches.
Its a little grainy as its from her mobile phone but I enjoyed the introduction to her video series.
I will be watching them all as she posts.
I've purchased a small but fancy notebook to take notes and use along with the
companion book.
Thank you Melanie! I'm really excited to learn more about your wonderful tarot deck!

Video on The Fool

Melanie Marquis creator of Modern Spellcaster's Tarot has posted another video and shes starting with The Fool, of course. Check it out on youtube, her name is United Witches.
Have you guys watched them? What did you think?

A friend did some readings for me today with this deck. In the first reading the 9P was one of the cards. The cards were on their sides for me, but the first thing I saw in the card was that the squirrel had a hood over its head. My reaction was, "What the ....?!?!?!?" Also had the KnS who's riding on an animal (an ox?) that I don't equate with speed. And of course neither of those things is discussed in the book. If this were sold in a deck-only version, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. But I don't need another useless companion book. I already have so many and space is getting to be at a premium.

My friend left me her set to look at so I'll take a good look through the companion book. But from what I've seen so far I seriously doubt I'm going to change my mind about the set.

Oh, and I like the cardstock in this deck. I riffle and bridge and that works wonderfully with this deck.

Rodney

I've just been watching her youtube videos which are certainly more interesting than the generic book descriptions. I love how she calls wolves 'woofs'. Cute

Warning to people buying this for magical work- the swords are fire, and the wands are air despite the minors being RWS style. This unfortunately jars quite badly for me, and in some cases makes the imagery on the cards contradict the explanation in the book.

The card stock is a bit thin and over bendy, but the copper metallic titles and the backs are lovely. I personally would've done backs and titles in the same metallic colour.

The book is very focussed on cleansing and charging the deck at the expense of detailing why and how the artwork came about. The advice for using aconitum for cleansing the cards I found very over the top, and should probably not be attempted by anyone seriously. Might as well rub poison all over the deck, because after doing what she suggests I'd always think my deck was more contaminated rather than less contaminated!

That hooded squirrel definitely needs some explanation

earthair said:

I've just been watching her youtube videos which are certainly more interesting than the generic book descriptions. I love how she calls wolves 'woofs'. Cute

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I was really enjoying her videos as well, but a few days ago she posted a video about The Magician card and I noticed yesterday that it has been taken down (or possibly just hidden so that it is no longer public). So now I'm wondering if that's just a mistake or if she decided she didn't like it. I posted a question about the disappearing Magician video on the most recent of her remaining videos, but she didn't respond (I'm in no way grumbling about that; I'm sure she's quite busy, and filming videos has no doubt taken up even more of her time!). I just hope she doesn't start feeling overwhelmed and burnt out and decide to stop making the videos.

earthair said:

Warning to people buying this for magical work- the swords are fire, and the wands are air despite the minors being RWS style. This unfortunately jars quite badly for me, and in some cases makes the imagery on the cards contradict the explanation in the book.

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I'll admit that the switching of those correspondences threw me. I've just decided to ignore that and read the swords as air and the wands as fire anyway. It's not a perfect solution, but it doesn't ruin the deck for me by any means.

earthair said:

The card stock is a bit thin and over bendy, but the copper metallic titles and the backs are lovely. I personally would've done backs and titles in the same metallic colour.

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I agree that the cardstock is thin. Personally, I'm okay with it, but those who like a really firm cardstock will probably hate it, for sure. As for the card backs, I like the dark blue they went with, but that's a really interesting idea you had about using the metallic copper color on the back. I'll bet that would have been really nice as well.

earthair said:

The book is...[SNIP]

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As much as it pains me to say this, I would have to finish that sentence with the word "disappointing". And I feel horrible for saying it, because Melanie seems like such a sweet, wonderful person from what I've seen. But...the card descriptions are so generic you could practically copy and paste them into the little white book of almost any Rider-Waite-Smith clone deck and not have anyone even notice that the descriptions had been written for this specific deck.

I did like the fourth chapter, though, titled "Using the Tarot for Magick"; it was a nice introduction to the concept of tarot spellworking, which is completely new to me.

It's a perfectly fine book for a tarot beginner, but I was just hoping for a bit more.

earthair said:

That hooded squirrel definitely needs some explanation

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TRUE STORY! LOL