Rating: Summary: Great Deck Review: I'm new to tarot and this is my first deck and it's a good one to start with. I ordered a book called "Learning the Tarot" by Joan Bunning, to go with this and it's the best book. Very easy for a newcomer to understand. The book describes this deck in particular so it's very helpful for me. The deck is easy to handle and I'm enjoying the colors and artwork. Another great deck that is based on Waite's work is an Illuminated Tarot Deck (...). Beautiful colors of blue. Check it out.
Rating: Summary: Softer colours, not so harsh Review: I've read for nearly 30 years and I've never liked the original Rider Waite deck. To me reading them was like trying to absorb road directions from an incoherent person who was hitting you over the head with a board -- the information got lost in the unpleasantness of the experience. I did not like the way the figures were outlined in black, the colours looked too primary and unrealistic and I found the human figures devoid of personality.I find the Universal Waite deck truly beautiful. The colours are softer and more natural; the outlines are gone or considerably toned down, giving the deck a more human feel. The characters actually have expressions. For the first time I have been able to look at the cards to notice certain details, like the fact that the chained woman in The Devil has a bunch of grapes for a tail, or that the Magician is wearing a snake for a belt. Reading with this deck is a pleasure; the cards really let you in. I've heard a number of people complain that Hanson-Roberts changed details in the original deck and that that ruined it for them. I guess I see it more as, Hanson-Roberts' focus was different and it's a focus I prefer. I think she did a service to a deck that (in my experience) was becoming far less popular with new readers, due to the amazing number and variety of decks that are now available. If the original Rider Waite deck works for you, you will probably have some difficulties with the Universal Waite. If it doesn't, but you would like to add a more traditional deck to your toolkit, the Universal Waite may be the deck you're looking for.
Rating: Summary: An attractive alternative to the Rider-Waite Review: Mary Hanson-Robert's coloring of the famous Waite-Smith images provides a more soothing and eye-pleasing alternative to the often drab colors of the popular Rider-Waite version. Some may find these colors too soft, but I find this deck quite striking, and you don't have to give up the intuitive and easy to read images of the Waite-Smith system. Great for beginners -- skip the Rider-Waite and grab this deck when you want to learn Tarot.
Rating: Summary: Better than the Original Review: Mary Hanson-Roberts has taken the line art from the original Rider-Waite deck and inserted her own tone gradations in more attractive watercolors. If you're interested in tarot history, but want something more visually attractive, this is it. Unfortunately, the line art from the orginal remains. If you take a close look at the pen drawings, you may realize that Colamn Smith simply wasn't a very good artist. The figures' faces all seem to be male, and the proportions are terrible. In short, a historically important deck made aesthetically more appealing by Mary Hanson-Roberts' reworking. Get it simply for the reason that all the books refer to the RW tarot. I myself use the New Palladini for actual readings.
Rating: Summary: A great alternative to the rider-waite deck Review: Mary Hnason-Roberts has given the famous deck a much needed 'lift' by added colour tones and making the deck much more attractive to the eye without altering traditional colours. I do own the Rider-Waite deck also but have very rarely used it since with-holding this deck. I highly recommend it. Well done Mary and Pamela Coleman-Smith.
Rating: Summary: The cards that I started tarot with and use most! Review: My first deck of tarot cards were the Universal Waite cards. I have since purchased several other decks, but the Universal Waite cards are the ones that I use the most. They are great for the beginner as they are the cards used most to illustrate books on tarot. I however like them most for their beautiful color and their detailed pictures. I find it very easy to read and understand the meanings of these cards. Some decks are so different that you need their companion book always by your side to understand the reading, but this is not so with the Universal Waite; even the novice tarot card reader can get a pretty good meaning of these cards. As I bought this deck through Amazon with no prior knowledge of tarot, I became curious about other tarot decks and I went on a search for the "perfect" tarot deck for me. I am finding however, that the more decks that I collect that I started out with the PERFECT deck! I think that you may find this to be true for you too.
Rating: Summary: the tarot cardz Review: since i jacked the tarot cardz... i don't have a clue if it wuz really good or not.. but otherwise... the cardz are ... weird.... really really weird....
Rating: Summary: You get the bad with the good Review: The Rider-Waite was my first deck, and although I have many others, I still appreciate and use it. I was glad that a recoloration of the deck had been undertaken, and I really wanted to like it. I do, but with qualifications. First of all, my feeling is that Hanson-Roberts should have had as her motto "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Some of the original cards were just fine the way they were! The Hermit comes to mind; I found the flat, mysterious blue-gray background color of the original to be just perfect. The same is true of the original Aquarian-blue background of the Queen of Swords, and the striking yellow of The Magician. The Universal Waite versions of these cards have various shadings and nimbuses of light that diminish from the overall impact. I also find that the original Aces have more power and presence than the new versions. Perhaps the most disconcerting for me is the way that Mary Hanson-Roberts changed the details of the faces. Contrary to a previous reviewer, I think Pamela Coleman-Smith was a fine graphic artist and had the ability to communicate volumes with a simple penstroke. The new deck has hazy, washed out features (The High Priestess, in particular, reminids me of a girl I knew in high school who wore white lipstick) that seem to make the figures slightly disembodied, and not really firmly in the settings. The worst example of this is the Queen of Wands, who has quite an attractive visage in the Rider-Waite deck. This new version shows her homely and shell-shocked, with huge nostrils as the dominant feature of her face. I really do enjoy the new quality of the colors, but especially since Hanson-Roberts has her own published deck out, I wish she had contented herself with being more at the service of the original Coleman-Smith drawings, and not tinkered quite so much with them.
Rating: Summary: a great deck Review: The stunning recoloration of the original Ryder-Waite tarot creates a deck perfect for beginners and advanced tarologists alike. Highly reccomended.
Rating: Summary: Caveat Emptor Review: This is a reprinted version of the UW. I'm not sure what happened, but it appears nobody paid much attention to the printing process. Result: The older version of the UW had much clearer colours, this one is muddy, some of the cards are downright pallid, and in some of them you can't make out some of the symbols. I think US Games is coming out with a brighter recoloured RWS in Spring, 2003. Hold off until then, or go with the RWS itself, at least if you want to be able to decipher the cards. Pity, because this used to be a good alternative to the RWS. These days I couldn't recommend it.
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