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I’ve been using Jim Maynard's Celestial Influences calendars for years and he’s retiring after 46 years of making this amazing calendar. Quicksilver Productions (what he publishes under) says that they are trying to find a publisher to take over the calendar for 2021! I really hope they can find someone who can do as good a job as they have. When I first found out that there wasn't going to be a 2020 release, I went in search of another astro calendar. I thought this would be easy, but as it turns out, it isn't because Maynard's calendar is an extraordinary and reliable resource. After some research, I ended up buying a few astrology-specific planners and a moon calendar to try out for 2020. Here are my thoughts on them so far.
1. Llewellyn's 2020 Daily Planetary Guide- If I had to pick just one of these astro calendar to buy, it would probably be this planner. It isn’t perfect, but this planner is complete with all the planetary aspects and ingress times that a professional astrologer needs. (It has all of the planetary aspects listed in the weekly section in both EST and PST.) I like that it lists the sign with the aspects too. It’s very helpful when I can’t remember which sign a planet is in, particularly the fast moving planets. The ephemerides in the back even includes the asteroid goddesses and Chiron. Love that!
However, the whole planner has such a dull black-and-white design with low quality thin paper and it doesn’t have a month-at-a-glance calendar, which is a big mark against it, but it includes all the information one needs within the weekly pages. It’s pretty inexpensive, and it shows! If they upgraded the paper quality and design, I would pay more for it. It has so much potential to be an amazing astro calendar/planner. There are a few fantastic articles related to the upcoming year regarding the major cosmic events and how to find your opportunity days. There's also an in depth introduction about the building blocks of astrology. It has charts for the retrograde periods and planetary phenomena of 2020 and a page with the list of New and Full Moons and eclipses. It is a great astrology guide for the beginner and professional astrologer alike! Yeah, it's not pretty, and it's missing the month-at-a-glance, but it's very practical and has all the times listed in PST, which is what I wanted. For reference, it’s about the same size as the We’Moon and Celestial Influences planners (5.5" x 8").
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**Update: SOLD OUT.** I am thrilled to be hosting the Nosotras Tarot! I have never hosted someone else's deck on DivineMuses.net, but I felt compelled to invite Elisa Riemer and Paula Mariá's gorgeous indie deck, Nosotras Tarot, to be a tarot guest here. One reason is because I am really struck by the collage artwork and overall energy of the deck. There are so many interesting and magical details throughout. Plus, I love that the titles are in Portuguese! (I'm Portuguese-American.) And, it felt like a good fit to support a fellow collage artist and tarotist from abroad. This is a Brazilian feminine/feminist tarot deck with antique photo collages featuring a diversity of ladies of varying ages and sizes. Hence, the name Nosotras, meaning "we" or "us" women.
It's interesting that they chose to use the feminized Spanish word, nosotras, as opposed to the Portuguese word, nos, which is not feminized. (Though Portuguese does have feminine and masculine words like the other latin-based languages, nos, meaning "we" or "us," considers everyone—masculine and feminine. However, Nossa, is the feminized word for "our," as in Nossa Senhora, or Our Lady.) So it seems that they specifically wanted to feminize the title, as they did with the whole deck. (I'll have to confirm this!) It's of note that each card's title in the deck has also been feminized. In Portuguese, the Sun card would be considered masculine and therefore named "O Sol." In the Nosotras Tarot, they rename it "A Sol." (In Portuguese, O is the masculine word for "the" and A is feminine for "the.") Another example is the Chariot card: In Portuguese it would be called "O Carro," but in Nosotras, they feminize it and rename it "A Carrauagem". "O Diabo" became "A Diaba" (the Devil), "O Louco" became "A Louca" (the Fool), "O Mago" became "A Maga" (the Magician) and "O Imperador" became "A Imperadora" (the Emperor). ABOUT THE LWB The LWB is in Portuguese, but has translations in Spanish and English. There are short descriptions of the artwork, and a bit more than general meanings for the cards in the Major Arcana. The Minor Arcana has general meanings and no descriptions of the artwork. The Major Arcana cards include an affirmation to go along with the interpretation of the card. Sometimes the translation from Portuguese to English is a little off, but it's charming, and you really get the feeling and overall meaning of each of the cards. Pretty good for a LWB! IMPRESSIONS I am enjoying this deck so much right now! It's a great size, it's a little smaller than what we consider standard tarot size around here. It's narrower (2.5" instead of 2.75") and a tick longer. The card stock is matte and feels thick. It almost seems too thick to riffle shuffle, but it does so well enough. Overhand shuffling works well, but prefer to riffle this deck. If I trim the borders, overhand would work better. (UPDATE: about card stock and shuffling this deck. I've been using this deck quite a bit and read with it at a ladies night party. Sadly, there is no core inside the cards, it's just paper stock. Riffle shuffling bent and broke a couple of my cards, so PLEASE be careful riffle shuffling this deck. It's small enough to overhand shuffle so I'm now exclusively overhand shuffling this deck. I do prefer to riffle shuffle at events, as this is the quickest way to mix all of the cards before reading for the next sitter.) I love collage decks. This deck looks like a mix of handmade with digital collaging. Most of the collages work really well in this deck. Even when some of the digital collages aren't seamless, they're still interesting and beautiful...I think because of the coloring used throughout. The skies used in the backdrop are colorful yet muted giving the collages an otherworldly vibe. I will have to be conscious with who I use this deck with, since there are so many nude images in the deck. I've been using it for daily draws and readings for myself, and I love how it's reading so far. It's definitely a Waite-Smith clone, so a breeze for me to use, but there's also extra intriguing symbols to glean from. E.g., Death has a third nipple! BONUS CARD I'm really enjoying the extra card, Anima Mundi, the Soul of the World, which is supposed to represent the creative energy of the deck. It is meant to remind us of our infinite creative potential. From the LWB, "This Arcana is always about essence before form and guides you toward the most creative and lively ways to share with the world." To me, it seems like a merging of the Empress and the World. It's a lovely bonus card and I shuffle it and use it in the deck. SEPARATE EDITIONS It's really interesting that the creators chose to release this deck in three stages between 2017 and 2019. They started creating the Major Arcana in 2014 and released it on its own. They then released the Cups and Swords as a separate edition, and then the Wands and Pentacles as another. The complete set was released earlier this year. I've not seen this before. I imagine they did this for their fans to be able to purchase the later editions separately. This is such a kind thing to do for them! The separate editions are all available on their website. FEMINISM As I work with it, I get the feeling that it is a third wave feminist deck. This could turn into its own topic, but if you're interested, research the difference between first wave, second wave, third wave and the current fourth wave feminism. I'll summarize quickly:
Since the creators are from Brazil, the definitions of the different waves of feminism might not line up with the above model since it's based more on American history. The reason I was thinking about this and comparing it is because of another feminist deck I acquired this year, the Modern Witch Tarot, which seems to align with modern fourth wave feminism. It got me thinking about other feminist decks and how they fit into this feminist model, like the Motherpeace Tarot and the Daughters of the Moon. I'm just pondering here, so don't read into anything more than that. It's just been interesting to consider feminism and the time and place a tarot deck is created. Perhaps this is a subject for another blogpost?! The Nosotras Tarot creators are self-proclaimed feminists, as they indicate in the LWB, and political, openly objecting to the "fascist" Bolsonaro being in power! "We will not let them take down our utopia." "Already whole, already strong, robust and indestructible. You woman". Yes! I only have a limited number in the shop right now, so it might be sold out by the time you read this! UPDATE: It's now sold out. I've contacted the Nosostras Tarot team to restock, as I would love to host their deck for a little while longer. For now, you can get the complete deck from them here and have it shipped from Brazil. The website is in Portuguese, but you can navigate to their email for easier communication.
Lo Scarabeo is celebrating 30 years with this limited numbered edition of 1,987 copies to honor the year they were founded in Italy. The gorgeous, colorful artwork is by Fabio Listrani, artist of the Night Sun Tarot.
LS says this limited edition is printed on the highest quality paper. It is, indeed, a thicker card stock, but it's also glossier than their standard decks. Coffin box: 7" x 4" (178mm x 102mm) Deck: 4.75" x 2.75" (120mm x 70mm) Book: 4.75" x 2.75" (120mm x 70mm) 128 pages on glossy paper with a few of the cards in color. English (pg. 5-54), Italian (55-68), French (69-82), Spanish (83-94), Portuguese (95-106), Russian (107-118) and Chinese (119-128). At first glance, I like how the suit colors are similar to the Albano-Waite Tarot's coloration Hey Ho,
It's Halloween! When all the Witches are to be seen! Some in black and some in green Hey Ho for Halloween! Happy Samhain! Here's something a little different—a leisurely browse through some  Smith-Waite Tarot vs PCS Commemorative Set I recently received the Smith-Waite Tarot Deck, Centennial Edition, in a tin & compared it to the Pamela Coleman Smith (PCS) Commemorative Set (2009) in a video I just made. In the video I go through the whole commemorative set, for those of you interested in seeing that. There is a size & slight card stock difference between the two decks. Other than that, the artwork & color is identical.
I love the deck that comes with the commemorative edition, but I tend to avoid using it since I view it as a collector's edition & want to keep it in the best condition possible. Anyway, I usually just end up using one of my Waite-Smith or Albano-Waite decks. Not A "show and tell" of the recent Lauren Forestell & Le Fanu Lenormand collaboration.
http://gameofhopelenormand.bigcartel.com/ Here's Le Fanu's wonderful blogpost about the cards: http://mycuriouscabinet.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/the-destroyed-dondorf/ I made a video of my latest acquisition of the Buckland Romani Tarot. Call it a review or call it "show and tell" but I go through all the cards and make some comments about the deck.
This deck has been on my wishlist for some time and I didn't realize it was still in print! The original Llewellyn edition has been OOP for a while, however, Galde Press has been printing the 2nd edition of the cards since 2008 and there were still a few left. The Buckland Romani Tarot's suit names have replaced the standard RWS. Koshes (Wands), Koros (Cups), Chives (Swords) & Bolers (Pentacles). The print quality is superb & the colors are beautifully saturated with very clear images. I just received my copy of the Flonz Victorian Lenormand by Katherine Andrews and instead of just opening it on sight, I had to unwrap it on video. :) There's a bit of an impromptu review too.
This is a very special deck. What makes it unique is the stamped Lenormand images. What makes it remarkable is that the stamp images were hand drawn by Katherine herself. Flonz is the stamp-maker and as you will see his work is precise. The Flonz Victorian Lenormand has an extra Lady and Gentlemen card as well as an extra |
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