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The Celtic Wisdom Tarot
This is an extremely off-beat deck, drawn in a smudgy, "primitive" style using soft but jewel-like colours. Although the drawing of the figures is (intentionally) a bit crude it was hard to pick cards to use in the sample-set as they were nearly all so attractive, and so different from each other.
The images and interpretations follow genuine ancient Celtic beliefs, as far as we understand them from what little literature has survived from the Romano-British period. Although this deck is a real 78-card Tarot, not just an oracle, the parts of the deck have been re-named and re-arranged.
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Traditional |
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Celtic Wisdom |
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Major Arcana |
Wisdom Cards |
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Minor Arcana |
Story Cards |
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Swords |
Battle |
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Cups |
Art |
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Wands |
Skill |
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Pentacles |
Knowledge |
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0 |
The Fool |
The Soul |
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I |
The Magician |
The Decider |
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II |
The High Priestess |
The Guardian |
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III |
The Empress |
The Shaper |
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IV |
The Emperor |
The Keeper |
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V |
The Heirophant |
The Rememberer |
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VI |
The Lovers |
The Lover |
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VII |
The Chariot |
The Mover |
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VIII |
Strength |
The Empowerer |
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IX |
The Hermit |
The Counselor |
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X |
The Wheel of Fortune |
The Spinner |
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XI |
Justice |
The Balancer |
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XII |
The Hanged Man |
The Dedicator |
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XIII |
Death |
The Liberator |
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XIV |
Temperance |
The Mingler |
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XV |
The Devil |
The Challenger |
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XVI |
The Tower |
The Changer |
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XVII |
The Star |
The Dreamer |
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XVIII |
The Moon |
The Imaginer |
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XIX |
The Sun |
The Protector |
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XX |
Judgement |
The Renewer |
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XXI |
The World |
The Perfecter |
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1 |
Ace |
Augury |
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2 |
Dialogue |
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3 |
Courtship |
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4 |
Judgment |
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5 |
Combat |
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6 |
Foundation |
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7 |
Adventure |
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8 |
Elopement |
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9 |
Revelation |
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10 |
Quest |
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Page |
Woman |
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Knight |
Warrior |
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Queen |
Queen |
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King |
King |
My only quibble with this deck is that the book includes a list of precepts for the diviner which, while mostly very sensible, includes a pledge to acknowledge that the source of the divination is external spirits and not one's own psychic power - which is highly debatable, unproven and probably unproveable - and a pledge not to manipulate the workings of the universe by performing any spells/magic.
This last seems to me to be a) religiously bigoted; b) preachy and c) silly. Yes, one shouldn't mess about with things unneccessarily - but taking any action whatsoever is manipulating the course of fate away from where it would have been if one hadn't taken the action, and I personally can't see any huge philosophical or moral difference between performing a healing spell and performing surgery.