by Shelley Carter

Imagine the degree of commitment, patience and fortitude necessary to pull an artisan community together to create a tarot deck! Elora, Ontario is famous for being an artsy community. Thousands of visitors flock there every year to hike along the gorge and peruse the luscious galleries and shops lining the streets of this picturesque town. Elora is indeed a magical place and a perfect home for the creation of a creative tarot deck.

If for no other reason than the fact that a whole community of 65 artists were brought together by an extraordinary Tarotist/social worker to create this deck, as a collector, you must have a copy on your shelf. Its soul and magnificence is really about the process of manifestation, not necessarily the manifestation itself.

Each card has been created in the unique artistic style of its creator. Most of the artists used multimedia materials to create their renditions such as the Fool card by Eric Allen Montgomery. He brings “found object assemblages”. He “is fascinated by the memories equally triggered by society’s cast offs and coveted treasures” (Quote taken from the accompanying book). But like all Tarotists of course I have my favourites such as Rick Worthington’s painting in oil of the Empress and Arlene Saunder’s watercolour painting of the Emperor. They look like a Royal couple you would like to have for friends. These two artists have delightfully constellated all of this celestial couple’s aspects of greatness, warmth, kindness and parentage.

This self-published deck is larger than most commercially published decks. It is colourful, made from good card stock and well laminated for long use.  It is packaged in a sturdy box which is held closed by a small circle of Velcro. The book respectfully gives tribute to each artist and describes materials used along with a brief description of each card’s meaning. I have a feeling a larger, more robust book is at least in its visioning stage. I look forward to reading more behind the rationale that spurred each artist to their interpretation of the card. I think the process of bringing a community together to do this project will be valuable to anyone else in the world considering a similar undertaking.

This is going to quickly become a collector’s deck. You’ll be happy you bought one when you still had the opportunity to do so. Someday this deck will only be available from another collector and it’s going to be expensive!