I don’t usually take to Marseille-style decks, but I really fell in love with this little deck. Tarot de Maria Celia is a reinterpretation of the Marseille deck by Filipino artist Lynyrd-Jym Narciso, who previously created the Vanessa Tarot. Like the Vanessa Tarot, this deck is small (close to playing card size) and comes in a tin. That’s where the similarity ends, though.
Maria Celia is a redrawing of classic tarot in a modern color palette. I realized, looking through it, that part of the reason I never took to Marseille decks in the past was the primary red, blue, yellow palette. Amazing what a difference color can make. The images themselves are redrawn but in a classic style. They don’t look modern, and in fact they have some ivory and cream distressing to look aged.
At first glance, I thought the backs didn’t show reversals, but as I playing with the cards a bit I realized that, although the design itself doesn’t show reversals, the distressing gives it away if you look closely.
The titles of the cards are in French, so the Magician is Le Bateleur. Suits are baton (wands), coupe (cups), epee (swords) and denier (coins). Court ranks are Valet, Cavalier, Reyne, Roy. Justice is eight, Strength is eleven. The Roman numerals are old school — nine is VIIII instead of IX, fourteen is XIIII instead of XIV.
There is a tiny stapled pamphlet (the LWB, or little white book) that explains briefly how to read pips if you’re intimidated by decks without scenes on the Minor Arcana. I think this deck will appeal even to people who think they don’t like this style of deck. It got me so excited I wanted to try again with traditional decks, which I sort of gave up on years ago.
I basically think this cute little deck is the most Tarot of all Tarot decks that I own. I absolutely love it.
Five out of five stars
Tarot de Maria Celia
Lynyrd-Jym Narciso
US Games
2018
