Here is my personal review of “The Tarot of Enchanted Dreams” released in 2019.
It is a beautiful deck with fantastical images, got very similar impression to “Good Tarot” deck. The card edges are gilded with gold.
Its Designs
This deck features the design of full moon for some reasons.
Major Arcana
Some cards have different names from that of the Rider Waite version. “The Hierophant” is “The Guide”, “The Wheel of Fortune” is “The Wheel of Destiny”, and “The Hanged Man is “Perspective”.
Minor Arcana
The colour of each suit is slightly changed, so help us distinguish each one easily. The swords has vignette effect.
The court cards are the same as the Rider Waite: Page, Knight, Queen, and king.
Few men or children appear in this deck. Only the back of a man appears on the cards of “The Lover” and “10 of Cups”. “The Emperor” is away, all the “Kings” are also away, and the “Knights” only show their shining eyes through their masks.
Overview/Features
The author of this deck is Ms. Yasmeen Westwood. The actual size is 90mm × 140mm. It is much larger than the regular size of the Sider Waite version, more like an Oracle card deck.
There are no Arabic numerals written on minor arcana cards.
I noticed one interesting thing. The human figure drawn on “the Hanged Man” in this deck “Tarot of Enchanted Dreams” and another deck called “Tarot de la Nuit” match perfectly. See the photo below.
But don’t worry. I checked with the designer of the Tarot de la Nuit about this, which was released on market earlier than this “Enchanted Dreams” deck. The designer answered me this human figure was drawn based on free photo material, and the designers of both decks happened to use the same material, and there is no problem. I was also taught the name of the photographer who submitted that free photo material. I found it interesting to know how a tarot deck artwork is made.
Personal Impressions
What I like
The artwork is beautiful. The attached manual is full colour, easy for beginners to understand. On the other hand, if you are used to the meaning of tarot, you may feel that there is no unique interpretation peculiar to this deck and it is unsatisfactory. It has become a very common interpretation.
What I don’t like
The deck size. The box is also large because of the size of the attached book. Men are almost absent on this deck. Arabic numerals are not written, so in some cases numerologists might feel unsatisfied.
I personally feel that some objects such as moon, coins, human face on some cards looks strange, especially their aspect ratio seems not right. Some people may not be bothered because this is an art expression, though.
Where to buy
As of November 2020, it will be available from online shops, but there are fewer dealers. Rather expensive deck.
Wrap Up
There exists old versions of this deck. The current version has a border-free design, but the old versions have black frames. There was “in-a tin” version, too. If a newer version is released in the future, there could be a possibility that the gilded gold edge is omitted as part of cost reduction.
【for the whole flip-through, see this video below on YouTube!】
[Purchase at Yahoo!]
* As of November 2020, there was no handling at Yahoo Shop.