Nosotras Tarot: The Journey of the Heroine

*Update: Sold Out in my shop.* I am thrilled to be hosting the Nosotras Tarot! I have not sold another's deck creation before, but I felt compelled to invite Elisa Riemer and Paula Mariá to sell their gorgeous tarot deck in my USA-based shop.

One reason I wanted to host this was 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 finding decks with titles in Portuguese! I'm Luso-American and it's lovely to support fellow Lusitanic collage artists and tarotists. Read on for my review of the deck.

Nosotras Tarot Review 

This is a Brazilian feminine/feminist tarot deck with antique photo collages featuring 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!)

Each card's title in the deck has 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.")

Other examples:

"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 well enough. Overhand shuffling works well, but prefer to riffle this deck. If I trim the borders, overhand would work better.

(UPDATE: I've been using this deck a lot and sadly riffle shuffling bent and broke a couple of my cards, so PLEASE be careful shuffling this deck. It's small enough to overhand shuffle so I'm exclusively overhand shuffling this deck.)

I love collage decks. This deck is 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 use of color throughout. The skies used in the backdrop are colorful yet muted giving the collages an otherworldly vibe.   

I will have to be conscious about 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 feels like a merging of the Empress and the World. It's a lovely bonus card that I include in readings with 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 it handled this way before. They did this for their fans to be able to purchase the later editions separately. This is such a kind thing to do! The separate editions are all available on their website.  



UPDATE: Nosotras Tarot is now sold out in my shop and will not be restocked. You can get the complete deck from them here shipped from Brazil. The website is in Portuguese, but you can navigate to their email for easier communication.