Don’t forget to get your ticket to “The Morrigan: Myths and Misconceptions”: A live, virtual conversation with me and Lora O’Brien, Native Irish author and co-founder of the Irish Pagan School happening on Saturday, March 30. You can reserve your space at this link.
I miss Rachel Pollack.
Writer, artist, and visionary—Rachel graced so many parts of the world with her wisdom, insight, and creations. One of the great Tarot minds of all time, her book Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom remains my go-to resource when doing my own Tarot work. I consult it nearly daily. Now, I have a new resource—and deck—to reference!
The Shining Tribe Tarot by Rachel Pollack was originally released in 2001, but Weiser Books has recently re-released a deluxe edition with color corrections to the card art (as directed by Rachel), and five new cards not available in the previous edition. Its full-color accompaniment book has also been revised and expanded. This deck, and its book, is an absolutely glorious experience of the Tarot.
Opening The Box: My First Reactions:
This is a TOME of a deck. This thing is MEATY. Strong cardstock, beautiful images, and with the additional cards, it’s definitely a hefty deck with a lot of things to share.
The artwork is gentle and warm. Soft images, warm colors. The images make space for the reader’s imagination and interpretation but as the book reveals, even the most subtle-seeming images have a depth of symbolism behind them.
I love the whole suit of Birds. In fact, all of the Minor Arcana has shifted from the commonly-used Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles to Trees, Rivers, Birds, and Stones. They leave so much more room for introspection and exploration. It’s WONDERFUL.
The Vision cards struck me in particular. I’ve been working with my Cauldron Callers on their North Star cards, and these Vision cards are perfect for this focused work. In the Vision cards, Pollack replaced the traditional court cards (which can be problematic in their binary genders and rather sexist meanings) with experiences: Place, Knower, Gift, and Speaker. This is a wonderful way to incorporate focus points and best courses of action into readings.
A few surprises throughout the deck include “Extra Cards,” such as the St. Theresa (whose meaning in the book says, “Allowing ourselves to be touched by something overwhelming”) and the Tiamat (“A powerful sense of the connectedness in our lives). I loved these. Very welcome surprises!
This deck, while not new by any means, is a refreshing approach to the standard Tarot which can be full of cold, harsh symbols.
While Pollack’s work has never been one to coddle any practitioner, this deck feels supportive and directive, as though you’re sitting down with a calm, seasoned spiritual advisor or coach, looking for tools to better shape the direction.
My card of the day:
The Gift of Rivers
The card for each section begins with a poem. This is the poem for the Gift of Rivers:
“Dance dance,
in the coolness of the night.
Drink deeply from the holy splendor.
This is the gift more precious than any,
the fountain of love.”
It’s a card about relationships. Rachel takes us deep into the symbolism encoded onto each card, and then follows with clear, direct divinatory meanings. In this case, the divination was “Happiness, abundance, love. Different aspects of life flowing together.” I CLAIM!!!
Pollack’s writings are their own gift. Even if you never pick up a Tarot deck, reading her work is incredibly powerful, blending psychology, symbolism, mysticism, and exploration of the psyche. Each card has a deep lesson within it.
What does this deck want us to know about it?
5 of Birds:
From the book: “This is a difficult card, but it can be useful. It may call on us to take extreme action in order to liberate ourselves from a bad situation.”
One of the great things about Rachel’s work is that it doesn’t sugar-coat anything, but doesn’t leave you feeling desolate, either. Even the cards that suggest that things are difficult and won’t have the easiest outcome, it does provide tools for focus on navigating difficult situations and making the absolute best of them. This deck may not be the easiest one to work with. But it seems like it will be very useful when reading on difficult situations.
Most of my work involves NOT relying on a book during a Tarot reading, and letting intuition and image guide. However, when a deck has unique imagery, it’s important to refer to the creator’s insight. No where is this more true than with Rachel Pollack’s work. I strongly encourage anyone using this deck to refer to the writings Rachel provided alongside each card. And truth be told, each card provides its own chapter of information and insight, worth a read even if you don’t use the deck.
Who is this deck for:
- Tarot readers looking for personal direction and spiritual insight (great deck for self-reading)
- Readers looking for a deck that breaks out of gender binary and traditionally sexist roles.
- Readers who appreciate an approach both rooted in anthropology and psychology, who appreciate a focus on archetypes.
