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.