Criteria and Scores for the Tarot deck Review
| overall quality | high |
| availability | high |
| good for beginners? | no |
| style | Thoth |
| theme | everyday people in the modern world |
First Impressions of the New Era Elements Tarot
This deck could be considered a black and white deck, even though the pencil drawings are sepia toned.
The drawings are highly detailed and qualify as beautiful art on their own. The deck is captivating and extremely well thought out.
The deck is produced by U.S. Games and is printed on high quality cardstock and has a glossy finish.
Is This Deck Good For Beginners?
Although this deck has several qualities that I think are good for beginners, I don’t think this deck is a beginner-friendly deck.
The qualities that lend the deck to new Tarot readers:
- interesting people doing interesting things
- modern settings and environments
- pip cards are titled (Toth tradition)
The qualities that might hinder new Tarot readers:
- the suits (wands, cups, swords, pentacles) are elements (earth, air, fire and water)
- the elements are portrayed on each pip card as alchemical symbols which requires a 2 level deep translation in the brain ????
- the Golden Dawn decan associations are on each card (planet and zodiac symbol)
- the court cards are beautiful but static. Given that the rest of the cards are quite dynamic, this is a minor point
- court cards are daughter, son, mother and father
A beginning Tarot reader could ignore the decan associations, but the translation of wands to a symbol might be burdensome.
Also, while many of the pip cards are very dynamic, the court cards are quite static. The Court cards show absolutely gorgeous close ups of faces, but these people aren’t doing anything.
For beginning readers, I think the more action the better.
And lastly, the deck uses daughter, son, mother and father in place of page, knight, queen and king creating the need for a Tarot newbie to do more translation.
The Best Qualities of the Deck
Overall, my Tarot deck review for The New Era Elements Tarot is high, and the deck is worth buying.
The strongest suit, so to speak, of this deck is that it is highly focused. The deck’s author, Eleonore F. Pieper, PhD, takes a laser-focused viewpoint for each of the cards.
This focused viewpoint can be quite hard-hitting, and if you aren’t super familiar with Tarot, may back you into a corner. Nevertheless I absolutely love many of the interpretations of the cards .
The author’s interpretations are highly modern on the one hand, and refer back to nature on the other. What an interesting tight-rope to walk for a Tarot deck!
More Images from the New Era Elements Tarot
A Word of Warning About the Images
As I mentioned, the images of The New Era Elements Tarot are laser focused, and not all of the images are awe-inspiring.
Be prepared for gritty, real-life downside images.
Where Can I Buy New Era Elements Tarot?
The New Era Elements Tarot is published by U.S. Games, and is available on Amazon.
Don’t want to shop Amazon?
If you are in the U.S. try Tarot Arts (not an affiliate link). They include a free Tarot bag with every purchase.
I’ve been buying from Tarot Arts ever since my experience of buying a counterfeit deck on Amazon. I find Tarot Arts selection to be excellent, and their prices competitive.