The “Rock Art Tarot”, by Jerry Roelen is published by U.S. Games and is based on the Rider Waite Tarot.  The designer and author of this tarot deck states in the LWB (Little White Book):  “The term “Rock Art” describes the different styles of markings left by historic and prehistoric people.  These markings, called petroglyphs, pictographs and intaglios, can be found inside caves, on canyon walls and on desert floors.  The images here have been adapted from rock art around the world, across times and cultures.”

Even though this tarot deck has been out since 1996, I had little interest in rock art until a friend of mine who is an artist and also a Tarot master brought her personal sketch book of available online petroglyph/rock art to class on a weekly basis for several months and showed us what she had researched.  The images clearly show us that the same figures appear in disparate parts of the world.  Some of these images also include –amazingly- multiple styles of what could be nothing but alien space craft.  After weeks of pencil drawing her figures, the art class became very interested in the phenomena of “Petrogplyhs” or rock art.

I have a whole new perspective on Jerry Roelen’s Tarot deck and appreciate the work that must have gone into its water color depictions of the various forms.  For instance, the major trump “IV” is called “Logic”.  We usually know this card as the “Emperor”.  Roelen’s interpretation of “Logic” is about truth and justice, structured power, ambitious wisdom, having control of material world, etc. which is consistent in my mind with the Rider Wait Tarot.  He just calls it Logic instead of the Emperor.

To describe this card pictorially would be difficult.  Except that it is a soft water color using pastels and red for the sun above, cool colors in the back ground where there would be no greenery, an orange lizard and an “other-wordly” creature drawing that might be a King with several chakra circles down the middle of it with a horn coming out of the head, two arms and two bird legs.  Sound strange?  Not really.  The picture is painted in a very appealing and charming way.

Major Arcana

The major arcana is artfully drawn and painted in wonderful earth tones and pastels.  Depictions would be a challenge if I were performing a written e-mail reading…in fact, I doubt I would even try it.  But a reference could be made to various websites that show the cards.

Minor Arcana

The minor arcana consists of four suits that are called:  Intellect, Intuition, emotions and Sensations.  The court representations each has four Guardian Spirit cards which are Mankind,  Womankind, Peacemaker and Defender and as well as the ten numerical cards.

Knowing now what I know from learning about all that is out there on the net for this subject matter, I would say that Jerry Roelen has come up with something of great value.  I would not disagree with his names for the various major arcana cards, they fit.  I would have to study them a bit more before using them at a spirit fair.  The names for the four minor arcana suits are also in tune with what is supposed to be going on in the Fire, Air, Water, and Earth domains.  Using the  “guardians” for the court cards is very interesting and since I’m not a big fan of court cards, I enjoy his use of this new concept.

The “Rock Art Tarot” by Jerry Roelen offers us a new view of an old, ancient messaging system through Tarot.

Kristin Lee-Gray, CTI

Kristin reads under the name of Windstar on www.spiritualguidedpsychics.com

The Cosmic Deck of Initiation by Barbara M. DeLong is a deck of fifty-two circular mandala cards that “…go straight to the energy world and depict the energies in geometrical patterns and a variety of colors”.  Ms. DeLong has created a deck that is not a Tarot deck in any way shape or form, but is certainly a fascinating oracle deck that can help a person towards greater understanding of self, if able to take the time to do the work.

The cards come with a LWB (Little White Book), as do most Tarot decks and other oracle decks.  And she gives a very good explanation on how to work with these cards, which are focused on Astrological signs, Laws of the Universe and patterns that can represent various energies going on in one’s life.

DeLong states, “To cast opinion from a limited perspective…..that which initially seems bad is later understood to have been a fortunate, unexpected step in life.”

Some of the cards’ titles give insight to their divinatory meanings in this deck, such as:  Sower of Seeds, Giver of Light, Healer Within, Evolution, Law of Life, Law of Continuity, Law of Compensation, Law of Attraction, Law of Frequency, Law of Limitation, Law of Free will…to  name a few.

What I like about this tarot deck is its utility in engaging us towards working on our personal life issues.  The individual cards are easy to understand, just a lot to work with at first.  I suspect that this would be a deck therapists could use in talk therapy.  But I can also see as a Tarot reader how these cards might be a companion oracle to delve further into issues with a querent.

Each round card has a soft pastel-oriented circular mandala design on them with the name of the card written several times around the outside.  The designs on the cards are not earth shaking in their beauty but pleasant enough.  However, this is not the point of this deck.  The heart of the Cosmic Deck of Initiation seems to be that it offers a set of combinable tools to work with that include Astrology, metaphysics and cosmic laws.  DeLong includes several different types of spreads that can be used with her deck and having tried a couple of them I can tell a lot of thought and experience was used in their design, not just an off the cuff type of spread to fill up a LWB.

Barbara M. DeLong has created a powerful divination oracle with a lot of depth and fascinating possibilities that gives us something to think about.  I have found them to be truly mind opening.

Kristin Lee-Gray, CTI

Kristin offers online tarot reading under the name of Windstar on www.spiritualguidedpsychics.com