Too Many Cats?
I can hear the cat lovers out there saying, “There can never be too many cats!” But I have heard some of my fellow tarot lovers remark on the number of any sort of themed decks. “How many fairy-themed decks do we need?” Or “How many cat decks are possible?” What do you think?
As a deck creator and as a tarot lover, I don’t think that any one deck can be the end-all-be-all exploration of any theme. Every artist and creator will present different ideas, both in images and in deck structure. In addition, people are drawn to tarot not just by themes but by art. If there are several decks exploring a theme, all with different artistic styles, then a person can use whichever appeals most to them.
Many themes appeal to deck creators: dragons, cats, fairies, magic, witchcraft, paganism, legends and myths and pantheons of all sorts, vampires, steampunk. These themes appeal to people for lots of reasons, but the common reason is that they resonate with us for some reason, be it religion, preference, or aesthetics. Creators are drawn to different themes because they are popular…and they are popular for a reason. They are striking a chord in the collective psyche. If they are striking a chord, then using the structure of tarot to explore them is a wonderful way to explore why a certain theme resonates.
And apparently cats are very popular among the general tarot loving audience. Here are three High Priestess cards from three different cat-themed decks. They are all different styles and they all share some similarities and some differences. They are all unique, in the same way that 50 artists painting images of the same cat would be unique. They are all the same in that the archetype of the High Priestess is at their core.
My favorite cat Tarot is by Tarot of the Cat People by Karen Kuykendall, 1991, US GamesSystems Inc.