Summary:

The Shaman Tarot recreates the shamanic experience introducing you to dancing, journeying, and healing. By inviting you into the other-realms, the <i>Shaman Tarot</i> opens your mind and spirit to all that is and all that can be. You will meet beings of greater wisdom than you can ever imagine. They are all here, in these cards and in your soul.

In-Depth Review:

The Shaman Tarot really is a rare piece of work. Many Tarot decks are created by marrying a theme with the structure of a Tarot deck, and those decks achieve varying degrees of success. With the Shaman Tarot it feels as we have indeed entered the shaman’s experience. For most of us the different plane exist separately. For the shaman, they are all part of a whole. And so it is with this deck.

Many Tarot reviews discuss whether a deck follows the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition. Usually it is pretty easy to tell. And generally speaking, a deck either does or doesn’t follow that tradition. This deck is a bit different. For those who know the RWS images and have a good portion of intelligence and imagination, The Major Arcana cards (renamed and reimagined) will resonate with the RWS tradition.  

The cards themselves elegantly omit image-detracting words of any sort. The Major Arcana have only Roman numerals. The numbered pips have a suit designator and number. The court cards also have a suit designator as well as a rank designator.

In the booklet, the Majors are all renamed to reflect the shamanic experience of the world: The Ancestral Shaman, The Seeker of Souls, Initiation, Healing, The Dance of the Sun.

The suits of the Shaman Tarot are not Pentacles, Cups, Swords, and Wands. The booklet explains that, in this deck, Drums are Earth/Pentacles, Bows are Air/Swords, Bones are Fire/Wands, and Stones are Water/Cups. T

Each card in Drums represents the steps that are necessary for a shaman to take part in the Dance—the dance of life, the ecstatic movements that let the shaman connect with the spirit world. This is not necessarily a traditionally “earthy” or pentacle-type experience.

The cards in the suit of Bows tell the story of the Voyage, the detachment of the shaman’s spirit from his or her body in order to travel to and in the spirit world. Bones illustrate the idea of shamanic combat. A shaman’s life is filled with danger. He or she combats him or herself. Dangerous or inappropriate spirits sometimes must be fought in the quest for wisdom. The suit of Stones represents the results of a shaman’s endeavors: the healing of the middle world and the re-establishing of its harmony with the spirit world.

This deck can be easily readable by anyone who takes the time to read through the booklet while referencing the cards. While different in many ways from the RWS, it is not very difficult to learn. There is much wisdom in these cards and they can help you see more aspects of levels of your journey than you ever imagined.

 Deck Attributes

Name of deck: Shaman Tarot

ISBN: 9780738720739

Creator’s name: Massimiliano Filadoro

Brief biography of creator: Creator of the Yoga Tarot, the Tarot of Metamorphosis, and the Universal Tarot.

Artists’ names: Sabrina Ariganello and Alessia Pastorello

Name of accompanying booklet: Shaman Tarot

Number of pages of booklet: 63 (14 in English)

Authors of booklet: Massimiliano Filadoro

Magical Uses: Pathworking

Reading Uses: General, karma, spiritual

Artistic Style: Illustration

Theme: Shamanic practices

Does it follow Rider-Waite-Smith Standard?: Basically (see review)

Does it have extra cards?: No

Does it have alternate names for Major Arcana cards?: Yes. Each of the Majors has been changed to show the RWS archetype through a shamanic lens.

Does it have alternate names for Minor Arcana suits?: Yes:

Drums = Earth/Pentacles

Bows = Air/Swords

Bones = Fire/Wands

Stones = Water/Cups

Does it have alternate names for the Court Cards?: No, but they each have a shamanic name in addition to their regular court name.

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