Pocket full of Peers-Tarot Deck by Jamie
Sawyer
Commentary-Not
really a review.
I’m
not usually known for Tarot Deck reviews or commentary.
Something about the emergence of this deck has
nudged me toward my blog.
As I
move forward, I am aware that some people (reading this) will think that I am
jealous because I am not one of the pictured. I am not , really, jealous.
I am disappointed at some of the content,
however.
I
have seen a “flip-through” of the deck on Arwen’s youtube channel. I had seen
flashes of cards as they were used by Mitchell Osborn on Facebook and a couple
of them produced some time ago, of Rachel Pollack and Mary Greer.
Like
the other works that I’ve seen (and purchased) by Jamie Sawyer, the cards are beautiful…stunning,
really. Lovely pict-o-graphs of practitioners (and some cards with no real
people depicted) casting readings…dancing, playing singing bowls etc Really amazing
Illustrations
as only Jamie Sawyer can capture them. If I was one of the peers depicted, I
would be flattered and honored.
There
are several of the people represented that I recognize: Arwen, Mitchell Osborn,
Ethony, “V”, Mary K. Greer, Rachel Pollack, Benebell Wen. There is a host of
other mystical/Tarot luminaries whom I do not recognize, or know.
I
like that Mary K. Greer and Rachel Pollack have “stand out cards” (out of the
usual Tarot canon) as Teachers.
Now,
I’m about to say something that might make me unpopular. Are these people my
peers? I think, by their inclusion in this radiant Tarot deck., they are set
aside, maybe set above the rest of us who didn’t make the cut.
I haven’t (yet) published a Tarot deck, or
written a book. So my 39 years in Tarot and mystical practice are unhearalded—at
least in this deck. But I find myself feeling that makes this deck more “clique”
than “peers”.
If
this is a deck meant to embrace the more modern sensibilities, then where is
Enrique Enriquez (of the documentary “Tarology”)
I
also find myself missing some of the unsung harbingers of Tarot. Maybe they
should be in their own deck titled Visionaries. Where is Janet Berres? (Creator
of the International Tarot Associattion)? Where is Robert V. O’Neill (author of
Tarot Symbolism, one of the first exhaustive texts on the topic). In seeing the
flip through, I found myself waiting to see Amy Zerner & Monte Farber as
The Lovers, (Creators of The Enchanted Tarot) but they were not pictured. Wald
and Ruth Ann Amberstone (creator of The Tarot School and The Reader’s Studio) are
not among those pictured.
I found myself looking for Stuart Kaplan (President
and creator of U.S Games Inc. who was the first company to print and distribute
Tarot in the United States). I found myself missing Eden Gray-who created one
of the earliest Tarot texts in modern times. There is a deck that features A. E. Waite
and Pamela Coleman Smith, so I guess I have no complaint on that score. But
where is Robert M. Place (creator of several Tarot decks, among them The
Alchemical Tarot)
I realize that this illustrates (on my part)
my belief that I thought we were all (kind of ) in the same Tarot Boat..However,
I’m now feeling that we don’t even occupy the same firmament. There
(apparently) are the Stars, which glimmer so brightly. Then there are the
people in the Mid-heaven, who have notice and prominence.
Then
there are we, who collect Tarot decks, buy Tarot books , read Tarot Cards and
teach Tarot classes. I’m thinking we’re the ground forces…appreciated, but not
really acknowledged.
Am I
so socially unaware that (at my age) I don’t realize that there is a kind of
caste system in the Tarot world? No, I am not. I have found myself star struck
at a Tarot convention.
Do I
like pictorial evidence in a medium to which I have devoted much of my
professional career that I am not ‘one
of the chosen”?
No.
Will
I support a deck that would remind me of this
(every
time I break open the oracle) how low down the Tarot Totum pole I actually am?
No.
