Phantasma Tarot Cards – July 19, 2021

Charming, fae, sweet... These are all words that have been used to describe the Paulina Tarot, drawn by Paulina Cassidy and published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc. and they are all true, but there is more to this deck than just that.My account at Amazon tells me I have had this deck since March of 2009, and I instantly bought one for my aunt, a budding collector and reader in her own right, because I found it so adorable and the colors so lively, which should speak highly of the deck, but it had never made its' way into my regular reading rotation until recently.Before I took the deck and and actually began to read with it I believed that the images, while charming and gorgeous, were too similar, too samey-samey to offer good readings. I purchased some prints for my daughter's room, leafed through the cards occasionally, but that was it. I now know better. This surprising little deck is not just fairies and pretty things. It's sweet exterior hides a tough core and some sharp little teeth.This charming reading, including the Magician, the Ten of Swords, and the Tower, heralded the onset of one of my worst anxiety attacks to date, and then my husband went in for an emergency surgery.But I can't hate a deck that was just telling me like it is, nor one that has my all time favorite Hierophant card, which is an oft maligned card that should be about our connection to God and where we all find divinity, whether that looks the same or not, and it should be a card that offers wise and good counsel, and encourages to follow our own traditions. Unfortunately, it often becomes a card that becomes about our disappointments and discomfort with organized religion and authority figures. I feel this image goes far towards salving those wounds.The Paulina Tarot is a 78 card deck that features standard Major Arcana, with Strength at 8 and Justice at 11. The Court Cards are Page, Knight, Queen, and King, and the suits are the standard Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles, so no surprises there. It is based on the Colman Smith deck, but not enslaved to it. There are lots of quirks to this deck that make its' voice unique, and the colors are gorgeous. For intuitive readers, there are plenty of symbols to grab a hold of to read, and lots of play between the colors. The cards interact and have a great storytelling ability to them. The packaging includes a tuck box and Little White Book, and the cards have been printed in China on lovely stock without a hint of shine to it, and the cards themselves are a good size at 2.75" x 4.75". I am a huge fan of the U.S. Games decks that have been printed in China, as the card stock is divine and the colors are lovely, as well as being less pixelated. (If anyone from U.S. Games is reading this, can we get a Hermetic from China, pretty pretty please?)My experience with the deck has been that the readings are straight forward and really hold no punches. If you are going to ask the Paulina a question, you had better be sure you want to hear the answer! I also found my biggest concern, that the images may not be distinct enough to offer good readings, was entirely unfounded. This deck positively sang in my hands, and I had no head scratching moments with it at all.I feel people to new to tarot would enjoy this deck, and the images are not scary at all, with no nudity or violence. I feel experienced readers with a leaning toward whimsy or fanciful, somewhat fussy fae will enjoy the imagery, and intuitive readers that like to have many things to work with on the card should enjoy the expressive pictures as well.

This deck is full of stunning detail with black outlines and dreamy water coloured pallet. Even though the art is done this way it is not at all washed out and it is full of vibrant colour. The back features two birds on a cream background, which is classic and feminine.It showcases many little creatures of the night, quiet gothic looking people and central figures, fae, fairy tale characters and pretty much anything else from a gifted imagination. This deck has a gothic like theme, which will definitely find an audience with young adults, as it is still quiet romantic and not too dark. It has some splashes of Tim Burton and Dr Susses hidden within her artwork, but it does not take away from her creation at all.The artist and author of the booklet actually set out to create a Tarot Deck allowing the symbolism to draw her in, this incredibly detailed piece of work took her over a year and a half to complete.There is a completely different feel to a deck that has been created this way, unlike some decks that are just thrown together from artwork done by well known fantasy artists, those decks feel messy and are terrible to read with.The booklet has a small description of the card, the upright meaning and the reversal meaning; there is also a Celtic cross spread description in the back.The Paulina Tarot is elegant, detailed and full of stunning imaginative artwork and I highly recommend it.

i love this deck! very whimsy and the artwork is both beautiful and straightforward for interpretation

This is going to be a short review. I have passed this tarot deck up many times thinking it would be hard for me to read or something I wouldn't gravitate to. But someone I knew bought this deck and when she allowed me to look through and touch and play with it, I fell in love.I'm a Victorian Edwardian lover by heart and this deck touches on those themes of dress... also a little bit of the French Napoleon dress in this deck. I checked out the Queen of Wands card (cause that's usually who I show up as in readings) and she was just the epitome of how I think I would look like in Eduardian times... a spunky, attractive brunette with red hues in her hair and wearing a stylish red/orange dress. SO ME!!!!I like this deck just because... and because of this I can't put into words why I like it and why others should like it. I think its individual preference.Even though the characters are whimsical, cartoonish, etc., they seem to have a life of their own. Very expressionate cards with tons of details that seem to pop off subconsciously but makes a ton of sense intuitively. For example, the Queen of Wands is elegantly and stylishly dressed but there is an eye at her stomach as what moves her tends to be her intuition. Her headdress is high about her head, looking like a small tree... she tends to have tons of inspiring ideas and the energy to put them into reality. Her pet looks like a rat/cat but is about the same size or bigger than her. So what I think is femininity that is larger than life... independence and courage. All of this from just looking at the card and gleaning a few insights from the LWB, but mostly from intuitive knowledge it tends to ignite in my mind.So that's why I love this deck. .. it works!