I just picked up this bad boy after checking out a favourite discount book website I like to use. This is a Canadian website that sells discounted books, often acquired from other retailers who have failed to sell all their copies. It’s kind of like a second hand store or Winners, in that they have the stock they have at that moment and when it’s gone, it’s gone. They often don’t refill or restock items, so it’s limited quantities at very low prices. There is also usually some damage to the book or item you purchase, but it’s usually nothing too extreme. I’ll show you what I mean. The website is called bookoutlet.ca and I believe there’s one for the US too.

This deck drew me in with its pretty colours and Hallowe’en/Day of the Dead theme- I don’t really have a seasonal deck for Hallowe’en, though I do have a Kickstarter with one that I’ve backed- it’s nowhere near shipping and production yet, so when I saw this at the low low price of 15 bucks, I grabbed it.

This deck is pretty big (bigger than your standard tarot cards, but not too big for my little hands), and the corners are sharp. The paper quality is ok- pretty standard for mass-market decks. It’s not great, but it should hold up. The cards aren’t very flexible but they’re also not too thick and rigid that you can’t shuffle it well. I did find the cards seem to stick together a bit but the more I use it, I think the easier this will become.

In terms of imagery, it sticks pretty closely to the standard RWS, with the addition of more saturated candy colours and sugar skulls everywhere (I mean it is called the sugar skull tarot so..). There are a few cards that I would say are different enough to make note of.

There is a lot of cowboy/wild west type cards throughout, which I find quite interesting because they help me to mentally make connections to the meanings of the cards that I haven’t seen before. I find this particularly true of the court cards. Compare these two Kings of Cups.

We have much more for me to draw on at first glance- a distinguished gentleman and also a doctor, surrounded by tonics and tinctures to help him in his craft. Emotionally strong and independent, he is able to care for his community in many different ways. I can read much more into this King of Cups than I can in the more traditional Morgan Greer version.

Overall, it’s a nice deck, and at this price point I’m very happy I picked it up. If you’re into brightly coloured decks with a kind of settlers, Mexican theme, then I would go for it. I don’t know how culturally appropriate it is, or if it’s just shilling out Latin imagery to make a quick buck. The illustrator is from Mexico City, so that’s something in its favour 🙂

If you have this deck, how do you like it? If you don’t have this deck, would you want to purchase it?

Happy Readings! 💛💛💛

-Madame Starbeam