The Intuitive Tarot
by Cilla Conway
Published by Connections Publishing (UK) and St Martin's Press (US)
Description
This original tarot deck will inspire any reader. Use your intuition to interpret and expand the meanings of the cards. The highly creative card illustrations and the accompanying book with space to record your own feelings and ideas will encourage users to really empathise with the power of The Intuitive Tarot.
Review
I first came across this new deck of tarot cards through my membership
of the Tarot Association of the British Isles, where it was causing some
considerable attention and some rather fulsome praise. My interest was
further amplified when I discovered that the author was a member of OBOD,
and had been encouraged to pursue the publication of this deck by Philip
Carr-Gomm himself! So it was that I just had to get hold of this deck
to add to my already burgeoning collection.
Now, I will be the first to admit that so often having purchased a new deck that other readers have gone into raptures about I have found myself deeply disappointed, for all sorts of reasons. But that is not so for this deck.
The author of this new deck, Cilla Conway, tells a wonderful tale in that these cards grew in the search for her own spiritual path. Her first tentative steps along the design of this deck began some 30 years ago with a sketch she made without conscious thought or design, which captured her attention and her imagination as if it were a gateway to another world and reality. That card is one that you will fin in this deck – The Fool – and I too could feel that hypnotic gaze, challenging me, daring me. The eyes of the figure depicted in that card have a deep soulful quality that leads you on your own journey of exploration.
The cards are supplied with a very thorough and thoughtful book written by Cilla – not of the usual ‘little-white-book’ standard - explaining some background to each card, and with space for your own notes and experiences as you explore the energies of the cards.
Each image on the cards is shown through an oval border, as if looking into the world of the characters, creatures and scenes depicted. The border colours change from card to card, and offer the viewer an opportunity to explore their own reactions and connections to each of the cards. And whilst the images themselves sometimes seem simplistic and almost childlike, they have a power to evoke intense feelings and understandings – at least for this reviewer. I did find some strong influences of the Thoth pack in some cards, though I didn’t find the harshness or uncomfortable intensity that I experience with that deck. The naming of the cards follows traditional Rider Waite thinking, though the assigning of the elements of Fire to Swords and Air to Wands felt at first a little counter-intuitive (!) for this reader. Whilst acknowledging that many traditions assign these elements in this way, it is not a relationship I have ever felt attuned to, or comfortable with. However, in use, this is not a genuine difficulty and I have found myself able to reach the meanings and subtleties of the cards, particularly the Court Cards, with relative ease. And of course, it is often good practice to start to ‘rethink’ things, to see things from a different perspective and to connect to something outside our usual sphere of experience.
It cannot be said that this tarot deck has any major influences from modern Druidry, though there are clear goddess and other pagan inspirations at work, yet Cilla Conway has allowed her creativity to blossom and flow to create a stunningly beautiful and insightful new deck. I would highly recommend it.