78 Whispers In My Ear: Deck Review- The Sirian Starseed Tarot

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Deck Review- The Sirian Starseed Tarot

It has been a very interesting week, well two weeks, for me with The Sirian Starseed Tarot by Patricia Cori and Alysa Bartha, published by North Atlantic Books. It ended up being two weeks because I hit some Resistance, with a capital "R" (a concept I believe I have to credit to Steven Pressfield, whose books I read to pump me up every now and then) and the recovery from surgery gave me a nice, neat excuse to "take it easy" though if I am really honest with myself I wasn't that unwell, but I was being challenged by this deck.

The first thing I will say about the Sirian Starseed Tarot is that it is fully usable as a tarot deck regardless of your beliefs, but if you are going to partake of the accompanying book by Patricia Cori you will be expected to accept, or at least be open to, the notion that some of us on Earth are "Starseeds", sent from something called "The Sirian High Council" to live a life here, learn lessons, have experiences, and gather information to return with. I have to be honest and say this is a pretty "far out" idea for me, or at least it was as I began using this deck, but its' beauty and gentleness, along with it closely following tarot structure, drew me in, and I am always open to new ideas.

Sirian Starseed Tarot Back

The Sirian Starseed Tarot is a deck that always reads at the highest possible vibration of the cards, and the suits are in fact named to reflect the highest vibration of each Element; fiery Wands become Flames, watery Cups become Chalices, airy Swords are Orbs, and earthy Pentacles are expressed as Crystals. Each suit contains Ace-Ten, and four court cards who are Seeker, Adept, Sage, and Master, replacing Page, Knight, Queen and King. The entire deck is beautifully illustrated by Alysa Barth, who was at times surprised to see faces and orb-like abstractions in her work which she did not place there. The creators believe that they were placed there by Guides and The Sirian High Council, so that the deck would best reflect the messages they wished to convey to the users of the deck. The backs are non reversible, but they are not meant to be reversed, with The Sirian High Council's symbol, according to Patricia Cori, who has written several books on this subject.

The suit of Flames, in the middle cards, could have been a little more exciting, as a few of them resemble pip cards, with the corresponding number of Flames and little else that drew my eye, but your experience may vary, or maybe my eye was not meant to be draw to anything, and I did not pull any of these cards in my work with the deck. If I had, my experience may have been different.

The Major Arcana contain 22 Trumps, which basically follow traditional tarot structure, but many have been renamed. It is actually easier to tell you that the Majors that stay unnamed are The Lovers, The Chariot, Strength, and The Tower. You will find Strength at Trump VIII and what has been renamed Divine Justice at Trump XI.

Particular favorite twists on imagery for me were The Shadow, which is Trump XV, The Devil, and Solar Deity, Trump XX, The Sun. While Reflection, Trump IX, closely follows Wait Smith tradition for The Hermit, I did find it beautifully wrought.

The cards are quite large, 4 inches by 6 inches, and glossy, with small white borders. All the cards are fully illustrated in a photo collage, digital style that will appeal to some, not as much to others. I happen to think they are beautiful! They come in a sturdy lift off box which holds the cards and book perfectly, and will keep them safe and well protected. I do not riffle shuffle, but I do not imagine these cards will do so easily. I hand over hand shuffle, and at times used a fanning methods to pick cards that seemed energetic to me.

I believe this is a good deck for anyone who believes in this system of The Sirian High Council, or who is at least curious about it. There is no violence and very little nudity, which I believe is limited to a nipple peeking out in the Two of Orbs (Swords), so the images are appropriate for most audiences. I used it for both deep, spiritual questions, and every day mundane things, and it answered both with equal aplomb. While it did read at a very positive level, it also tackled shadow issues for me, and made me think deeply. I do not recommend it as a first tarot deck, unless ones' only interest in tarot is relating it to Sirian Revelations, or if the student intends to use it in conjunction with a Waite Smith deck to learn. The symbolism is there, if you know what to look for, and purely intuitive readers should find many things to read with ease. I do not think people who are married to any kind of tradition will love this deck, but those people will know what they like and where to find it.

I attended a webinar hosted by North Atlantic Books and Patrica Cori on the deck, and she said (I paraphrase) that anyone who is drawn to the deck is a Starseed and should explore that as part of their spiritual practice. Well, I am drawn to the deck, but whether or not I am a Starseed I do not yet know. This deck, while always reading at a gentle yet insistent level for me, raised many questions for me that I am now on a quest to have answered, and that in itself is a lot to ask of any deck, so I think it has been a worthy investment of time and resources to use this deck. I have ordered The Cosmos of the Soul: A Wake Up Call For Humanity by Patricia Cori, the first in a trilogy entitled Sirian Revelations, proof my curiosity has been peaked.

My friend Pip Miller, an extraordinary healer at As You Wish Hands of Light, hooked me up with this video, and several other resources for figuring it out, so if you wonder about your Starseed-edness, I suggest you start with the video.

You can see all my work with The Sirian Starseed Tarot here, and I leave you with several images to decide if the artwork appeals, draws you in, or in any way suggests you may be a Starseed, too. A favorite blogger of mine, Lisa at Seer Pathways (and a few other great blogs) has no doubt she is a Starseed and she expouds upon the idea in greater depth than I am currently able to embrace. I have no doubt there is possibility, but I am still seeking, and that is just all right with me.

As always, I chose both favorite and less favored images to share, hopefully presenting a balanced idea of what you will see in The Sirian Starseed Tarot.