Formerly known as Mystic Meg Tarot...

I bought a tarot last weekend. First one in a while. It was at The Works. Yeah, you know I bought a house. I thought the down payment was going to be the big investment. Well, okay, it was the 'BIG' investment, but I have to be honest and say I've done nothing but spend money since we moved here. Literally. I mean, that and eat my weight in mini marzipan stollen. I like the house and I don't miss the old flat at all. I like the new neighbourhood. Not so much the spending money every time I turn around. So my splurge on a £5 tarot deck felt kinda ritzy. No plumbing or estimates or tradesmen involved or anything!

I can't remember what this set is called because I threw the giant box away at once. I think it was called 'The Tarot Pack.' The book inside is called 'The Tarot Book' and is written by someone called Mystic Meg. I gather she was rather famous a while ago as a pyschic. Anyway, the artwork for this deck is by Caroline Smith. It was previously published as The Mystic Meg Tarot.  It's just a harmless bit of frippery, really.

As you'd expect it's on thin card stock and the pips are the emblem from the ace cards presented in multiples. The four suits are called by their elemental correspondence, so we have Fire, Water, Earth, Air rather than Wands, Cups, Coins and Swords. The courts are Princess, Prince, Queen, and King. Majors don't vary wildly from traditional, though four of them are softened through a name change: Fool becomes 'Beginning', Hanged Man is 'Self-Sacrifice', Death is 'Changing' and the Devil is 'Temptation'. The art work is pleasant enough. Majors have a sort of 'tribal' feel, and the court cards echo one another in posture. (All the princesses are in the same pose, all the princes are in the same pose, etc).

Source

You may also have noticed that courts and majors have elemental and astrological symbols included on the cards.


As to the book, it's 112 pages long and follows the traditional pattern of two pages per major and one page per court and pip card. There full colour illustrations of the cards. The introduction has the usual silliness about tarot coming from ancient Egypt and 'even older civilizations right across the world.' Selection of significator is based on age and star sign of the querent. For each card, we are given four bits of information: Love Reading, Life Reading, Luck Reading and Cosmic Counsel (aka, affirmation). The interpretations are highly idiosyncratic. The book is pretty much useless, though could make for amusing reading.

It's no TdM, but it's kinda cute. :) I will be drawing from it this week.