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This review is primarily for the deck of cards. The book is fine, but if you're buying this, you should be buying it for the cards. I LOVE this deck. It is, as so many are, modeled after the standard Rider-Waite deck. This deck provides a nice change of pace without going to far astray and is both more positive and less occult-y without coming off as a gimmick deck. The imagery is often a little bit more direct than in the RW. For example, you can see the ambition and power in the King of Pentacles. In the RW, frankly, he looks like a bit of a fop.

This is a great deck for doing fun, simple readings for friends who might not be deeply involved in tarot.
This is a great deck for beginners.
This is a great deck for those seeking something different without changing up their interpretive frame too much.
This is a great deck.

One of my favorite tarot authors, as her interpretations ring often for me in my readings. Her other book that I like even more than this one comes with her "Tarot Box" and I believe is entitled "Tarot. Learn How to Read the Cards." (I bought that one separately from the box in the kindle version. And it has more to offer in the realm of spreads and a more general information on Tarot and on interpretations.) But this one would be fine for beginners.

Some say her spin is a bit to positive, but I don't believe so. I like that it has a SLIGHTLY positive slant to it. This book also has very few spreads to choose from.

The only author I like as much as Juliet is Benebel Wen. Benebel is author of "The Holistic Tarot," or some name like that. It's chock-full of information, and it definitely satisfies the side of my brain that wants to learn more and more about tarot. I call it my tarot Bible. ;-)

Amazon sellers I have purchased this from (and found product to be authentic & consistent): AmazonLLC

"The tarot images work on an unconscious level; they are like mirrors reflecting knowledge buried in the deepest realms of the mind. That dark, unconscious part of the mind contains knowledge that the conscious mind is unaware of, and the tarot acts as a bridge between the two, using the archetypal nature of the imagery to feed information from unconscious to conscious mind." - From the book

My first introduction to the Sharman-Caselli Tarot deck was through the innovative Tarot Workbook by Juliet Sharman-Burke. Using large, uncolored imagery from the Sharman-Caselli deck, readers are invited to color in the images according to their own associations, as well as record relevant symbols that seem to stand out and journal spontaneous associations.

I then moved on to My Tarot, which is an actual uncolored version of the Sharman-Caselli deck. Because I have carpal tunnel syndrome, I chose not to keep that deck, but I was hooked enough on the imagery to look for a bona fide version of this particular Tarot deck.

I stumbled onto The Tarot Box published by Barnes and Noble, which happily included the Sharman-Caselli deck--but it was only a mini-version, with cards measuring approximately 3 ¼ x 2 inches. Surely, I thought, there must be a full-size version of this deck!

So as I searched Amazon.com, I found the Beginner's Guide to Tarot--which contains a full-size version of the Sharman-Caselli deck. YAY! Mission accomplished!

While I was thrilled to (finally) get my hands on these 4 ¾ x 2 ¾ inch cards, I was surprised to find a first-rate 192-page companion book accompanying the Sharman-Caselli deck!

I often get emails requesting recommendations for book and deck sets geared towards absolute beginners. Unfortunately, there's not many out there. Now, I can confidently recommend the Beginner's Guide to Tarot deck and book set.

For those unfamiliar with this particular deck, the Sharman-Caselli Tarot is a full-color deck based on the Rider-Waite tradition. Besides the lovely coloring, what I like most about this deck is the incredible amount of movement and expression among the figures.

For example, The Chariot careens right towards the viewer (look out!), and the guy in the Lovers card scratches his chin in what appears to be indecision (or maybe he's afraid to say the wrong thing and tick off one of the ladies beside him!).

If you like no-frills card backings, these are absent of any symbols or artwork--but plain it is not with a vibrant magenta hue with a thin silver inner border!

One unusual aspect of the glossy soft cover Beginner's Guide to Tarot is the "packaging": the companion book covers are stiff, and the end part extends beyond the book itself, loosely wrapping itself around toward the front. What I ended up doing was cut the back cover right along the crease, making it a (now) perfect book for reading and storing on the shelf (it would have been difficult to do either with the unusual packaging.)

The companion book features an abundance of useful information, including a solid introduction to Tarot and bi-color reproduction of each card with diagrams pointing out relevant symbols and their meanings. Also provided are each card's theme, elemental association, explanation of the imagery and a thorough treatment of the divinatory meaning.

In my estimation, the Beginner's Guide to Tarot is not only a fantastic set for those new to Tarot, but also contains a great reading deck based on RWS imagery. The Sharman-Caselli deck imagery teems with life and an array of possibilities, while the companion book is both engaging and instructive. Highly recommended!

(To see 12 images from the Sharman-Caselli deck, visit the Reviews--Decks section at [...])

Janet Boyer, author of The Back in Time Tarot Book: Picture the Past, Experience the Cards, Understand the Present (coming Fall 2008 from Hampton Roads Publishing)

I was looking forward to this deck/book set, because I have a mini edition of the Caselli deck which I love because of the illustrations.

And it is, indeed, a very visually pleasing deck. However it has one big drawback, in my opinion: it is made of that kind of card stock that doesn't seem to like being shuffled.

People moan about US Games Systems for various reasons, but y'know what? They've been in the playing card business for many decades, and they know how to make a card deck that is more easily shufflable. Tarot card makers should take into account the *purpose* for a deck is to be shuffled and used, not to sit on the shelf and look pretty. Unless you're using it for a meditation deck, but even then, there may be some shuffling going on.

I can kind of tell that this is going to be the kind of deck that shows wear and tear fairly easily.

The book is what you'd expect from a package of this type, an illustration of the card and two pages of meaning per card, with three spreads thrown in, very little else.

And the packaging is the kind where the book is *part* of the box that holds the cards. Once you cut this off to make the book easier to hold open, you have no place permanent to store the cards, so get a bag or make your own box. Sometimes this isn't a deal breaker, but for some of us it can be irritating.

Not the *worst* deck/book package in the world, but you can tell not a whole lot went into the production of this. It actually might be more of a disappointment to beginners.

A better Tarot Christmas gift might be a copy of Rachael Pollack's Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot and a The Rider-Waite Tarot Deck. A little more expensive, but a good value for beginners.

Love how simple it is yet insightful when explaining the symbols on the cards.

I am currently in the process of processing this guide. I find it very resourceful, and pleasantly written and organized. I find it not unpleasant to refer to it repeatedly.

Easy to understand