The Cosmic Tribe Tarot Deck & Book Set

Measurements: 3 x 5 inches; 77 x 127 mm

Back of card: An old fashioned four-pane window with an oval in the center. In each of the four sections, a version of an ace card. In the center oval, an eye. Not for inversion.

Book included: Yes, 199 pages, 5.9 x 8.9 inches; 15 x 22.7 cm. Black & white illustrations of all cards.

Publisher: Destiny Books. Printed in Hong Kong.

Comments: Did you ever think that life is passing you by? That you were getting old, perhaps? This is said to be a sexy deck, but what we saw was a lot of naked bodies & naked doesn't automatically mean sexy to us.

All court cards (in order: Queen, Knight, Princess & Prince) are frontally nude, as are most of the figures on the Major Arkana cards. Limp penises abound in this deck. We've no problem with nudity (even though it looks pointless to us), the problem we have is the cover art misrepresents the nudity inside. The box is PG. The deck inside is not.

As is now typical of trendy decks, this deck has three Lovers cards: One male/female, one male/male, one female/female. Traditionally, the Lovers card represents the clash of opposites and a forced decision. This deck gives you a choice of what you want to sleep with tonight.

A note about the Ten of Swords. In the much-copied Rider deck, a figure lies face down, with ten swords piercing his back. Someone pointed out that the swords, far from killing the person, are actually piercing ten spinal chakras, or ten vertebra, each of which has specific meaning. Another hint to the meaning of the Ten of Swords can be found on the Gendron Tarot, where ten swords are ranked on a stair.

In this deck, ten swords pierce a male body in ten random places. The choice of a male body is itself interesting, since ten relates to females, not males. Anyway, the swords draw no blood, nor does the body have weight, as it floats above a blood red cloth below it. Lacking both weight & blood, we may presume the body to have no physical reality. However much reality the body has, the swords have less. The body casts a shadow. The swords do not. Below the body is the red vitality of blood & life itself, which both body & swords have left behind.

Make of this what you will. My guess is this card represents that classic magic act, where a pretty girl is packed into a tiny straw basket & then run through with swords. She's not really hurt, it's all an illusion, like this card. Reality is elsewhere, as the magician proves at the end of the trick, and as the red cloth on this card also indicates.

Packaging note: We did not find the cards packed in perfect order, and 4 & 5 of Wands were creased.

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