The Bohemian Animal Tarot Cards – April 1, 2019

This is one of the prettiest & cutest Tarot decks I have ever seen. There's an animal on every card & the symbolic meaning of that animal is discussed in the book along with the interpretation of the card itself. Colors are bright, vibrant and the rendering of the images is quite charming. The deck comes boxed in a sturdy box with a magnetized flap along the right side. Cards are housed within a recessed well & the paperback book rests on top. The box is sturdy and shouldn't show any shelf wear any time soon. My only issue is that due to the golden gilding on the cards they were stuck together in one massive solid CLUMP when I received it. If this happens to your copy, this is what I did & I suggest you do the same to avoid tearing any of the cards: carefully and slowly bend the parts of the deck that are stuck together one way, then another. Also try to carefully bend them along the diagonal as well. Cards will pop loose that way, but be careful not to bend TOO far. You don't want to warp the deck. It took me around 30 minutes to loosen all the cards & they are all fine. None were damaged in the process, but I was careful & I took my time. The book is very well-written with B&W images of the cards along with keywords, the symbolic meaning of the animal depicted on the card (once reading that you can see why that animal was chosen for that particular card) & very lengthy card interpretations, a bit of which is repetitive, but people brand new to Tarot will really appreciate that as it helps them to learn the card meanings quicker, in my opinion. I would recommend this deck to brand new Tarot readers as well as seasoned professionals like myself.

This is a really fantastic tarot deck. The cards are made out of wonderfully solid, glossy stock with bold colors. The artwork on the cards themselves is beautiful and while it seems like a "cheerful" deck to me, it captures a variety of emotions well. There's a lot of diversity to the animals used within the cards as well ranging from coyotes and foxes to turtles and pheasants. It really is a lovely set.Several of the cards have been renamed in the major arcana (and rearranged a bit) and the minor arcana is named according to the elements. For example, Ace of Air instead of Ace of Swords. The book itself gives detailed explanations and ideas for how you can read a given card; I've found it to be pretty helpful without being overbearing. There is still room for your own interpretation regarding the cards. The explanations don't go over reversed cards specifically though. I haven't found this to be a problem for the most part--if you prefer not to work with reversed cards then it really isn't a problem at all.It's clear a lot of effort was put into researching the symbolism of a variety of cultures to get a diverse amount of interpretations. This does lead to my first critique however: I would have liked there to be a list of their references in the back of the book since they do make a lot declarations of what a symbol means and to what religion/culture. For those cultures I was already familiar with it seems quite accurate but this little extra bit would have been great in my opinion. The one other critique I have is of the use of the word "gypsy" throughout some areas of the book, which I know could upset some people.Despite that I think the pros of this set far outweigh the cons. I've found reading this deck to be fairly intuitive and I think it works very well for a beginner in particular although I would hardly say it's limited to those just starting out.

I waited a long time for this deck. I almost canceled it, but hung on. I'm SO glad I did! What a gorgeous deck!The cards have a wonderful solid feel to them, and are beautifully gilded. The art is well done, with soft colors. The back of the cards has a pale cream color with the High Priest and High Priestess in sienna tones. The cards depict people with animal heads. The animals represent various aspects of the tarot. ( I haven't had a chance to look at whether their animal symbolism matches up with this, but I'm guessing it does.)The names of the Major Arcana have been changed to match the creatures. The Fool is "The Innocent" in this deck, and is the Coyote. Love it! The book outlines the "Innocent's Quest" as he/she moves through the Major Arcana.For instance, reading #22 The Universe it says "Now that he has reached a new level of happiness and fulfillment, and has become actively involved in the world, rendering his services by sharing his unique gifts and talents, prospering at whatever he attempts, the Innocent begins a new journey that will take him to an even greater level of understanding."The High Priestess is the FoxHigh Priest-HareThe Goddess--BeeThe God--StagThe Shaman-HeronThe Lovers-PheasantThe Carousel-Horseand so on.The minor arcana are broken into the four elements: Fire, Earth, Air, Water. The book explains these changes and how to interpret. It's actually not unusual to use the elements, and I prefer them. There's an explanation for the numbers too. A nice touch for a reminder! Such as Aces represent beginnings and energy. And the Ace of Air (crow) represents Intellect.Some spreads are offered to get you started. And then there are two pages detailing each card. This detail includes the keywords, animal archtype, a description of the card, and reminder of what the number series in the cards mean, and a divinatory meaning.Today I start reading with them!

The media could not be loaded. These are absolutely gorgeous and exactly what I expected. The animal imagery and golden edges resonate with me. This deck is larger than the ones I'm used to shuffling, but I got used to them pretty quickly. The book was a great guide on getting familiar with them. I would not recommend this for beginners, but to those who are a little more seasoned. Overall this is an amazing deck!