Guest Author - Karen Artino
This is truly a unique tarot deck full of fantasy and whimsical images. Created by Poppy Palin, this deck can bring a new dimension to your tarot reading sessions. Poppy Palin is the author and illustrator of four books on her experiences as a natural psychic. Her work has appeared in many publications. She is a trained artist and professional tattooist, and is also an experienced teacher and lecturer.
The kit comes with the richly colored and illustrated tarot deck, coupled with a 336 page illustrated guidebook. As the publisher describes in the companion book, Stories of the Wild Spirit, the characters portrayed in the cards tell their own stories, using first person dialogue to immerse you in their tales and call forth the power of their energies. This unique approach provides a new way of working with the Tarot for those who learn more easily through strong visual cues and evocative prose, rather than elaborate lists of correspondences.
The Wild Spirit tarot has the same basic structure as more traditional tarot - 72 cards in total with 21 key Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana cards, sorted into four suits. Ms. Palin has renamed the traditional suits to mirror the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. It is obvious that Poppy has spent hours contemplating the essence of each tarot card in order to deduce and express this nuance in a fairy-tale/folklore sort of way. For instance, the traditional King of Wands is presented as "The Chiefian" - a handsome fair, bearded Celtic looking man of medieval times, motioning to his regal falcon. In the book, we find out that this card means,...."Come, sit and have some mead with me; let me tell you how I facilitated this project (his thriving community). Well, I have a tremendous amount of energy. I am physically vital, healthy and at my prime, and I wanted to create something that could be fed by this natural flow that courses through me. I have enthusiasm, and I want to inspire others to feel that same drive and ambition. I am not a greedy man. I did not wish to create a fortress for myself and bar others. No, what I saw was a living, breathing circle of friends and families, pooling their resources, sharing skills and creativity. Is that unusual? Well, as a leader I have to be an outstanding man. I don't mean this in a vain way, oh no, but I must have a strong will, a trustworthy and open disposition, and boundless energy to oversee a whole group of people." In essence, the Wild Spirit deck provides an inspiring storyteller interpretation that guides the reader to become enchanted with the spell like magic of each of the cards. Even if someone only drew one card from the deck, a great deal of meaning would be available to them.
This deck invites the tarot enthusiast to linger long and ponder well. To truly "feel" the energy in each of the cards. The bright colors and pleasant illustrations also facilitate this. It is easy to become enchanted by the wonderful images - to be led to a land of wonderful nature creatures and the whispers of times gone by.
Karen Artino - Tarot Editor
