This is a post I wrote about the Sirian Starseed in another thread:
The other thing about Sirian Starseed: any enterprise about which the creators state, "our co-creative journey was guided, at the outset, by the blessed Sirian High Council," will set off alarm bells ringing in many people's subconscious. I think people are naturally wary of "high councils," especially ones that guide or govern creative or spiritual enterprises. We can't help but connect the dots to "unwholesome authority," which, when combined with a child's haunting vacant-eyed gaze on a card like "Indigo," makes the mental leap into "cult" territory.
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Having looking through all the cards, skimmed the booklet, and just done my first one-card draw with it, I can say I get no "creepy" or cult-y vibes from the deck itself. I ignore the most culty-creepy card (the blue-eyed "Indigo" child as The Magician) and instead allow myself to be annoyed at more prosaic concerns: the blurriness of many of the photographic backgrounds, for instance. I thought it was my eyes but I switched on the reading lamp and the blurriness remained. I don't care if images are in the background; I want them in-focus.
However, I must say that for all my protests--"Creepy! New Agey! Love and Light-y!"--this deck has thus far come up roses.
To begin with, the size many people goggle over as mammoth is not unwieldy because the card stock is fairly thin and very flexible; with the moderate gloss on the cards, it's all the easier to swoosh them about in the "wash" method of card randomization. [Disclaimer: I AM a person who generally favors large cards. But these are extra-easy to handle when compared to other large decks with less pliable card stock].
Second, Sirian Star-what? Yes, in the booklet (a very nice, concise booklet--neither scanty LWB nor eye-roll-inducing tome) the author does mention Starseeds. But the way she uses the word throughout the section describing the Major Arcana, you can just as easily substitute the word Fool and see it as a Fool's Journey instead of a Starseed's. For the Hermit (retitled Reflection):
To achieve the silence to contemplate such important lessons, Starseed is guided to go into a sort of hermitage.
And so on and so forth throughout the descriptions of the Majors.
Any time she mentions Higher Self, Divine Guidance, or anything else that doesn't jive with your (my) personal beliefs, you can mentally delete the word and keep moving until you reach her "generic" card descriptions...which are actually rather good.
And that's the second surprise of the deck--that the book is well-written. I am not familiar with this author, Patricia Cori, but she seems to be a decent writer or else well-edited. Her card descriptions are generic in the sense that they are not heavily based on Sirian Starseed philosophy and are in fact very in line with general tarot traditions, but that's not generic in the bad sense.
Each card description section ends with a series of self-help-y questions that might actually be of use to the self-reader:
For the Three of Orbs/Swords, which I pulled at random this morning to clarify a disturbing dream I had, she writes:
It is a problematic card, filled with the obscurity of the mind's own illusions. Through the dark hour of the soul, when all appears to be dim and the mind's eye is clouded...the light of understanding is within your grasp...The card invites us to conquer the mind's focus on pain and loss and look to the light, where we can transform our thoughts into acceptance and forward motion.
Moving beyond the uncertainties of the Twos, what new element is taking shape in your mind and stirring you emotionally?...What is being added to your perception that allows you to form new and more complex ideas? What fear of separation or discomfort is causing you to suffer? What new insights have you gained from this process?
You see how Corsi focuses on the elemental and numerological aspects of Air and Threes, respectively? The general meaning is the same as the RWS's for this card, yet unlike some deck creators, she does not appear to be blindly parroting key words but in fact has reached her own understanding of the card in light of its element and number.
So far, the deck has impressed me rather favorably--a second surprise after I surprised myself by buying it in the first place.
P.S. Thanks, mingbop
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but loved the deck as soon as I saw it. I went to the website had a wee look and came out fast!