The Sharman-Caselli Tarot - CARDS

By Brian Stevenson View Profile
The Major Arcana of this deck are based not only on the 20th century Rider-Waite deck, but also on the 15th century Visconti-Sforza Tarot and the 18th century Tarot of Marseilles. Despite this, all the cards have a light and modern feel to them and great skill has been used to blend several centuries of images into one homogenous whole.

All of the Minor Arcana are heavily influenced by the Rider-Waite deck. However, the Minor Arcana’s colour schemes have been chosen to reflect the four elements. Wands feature red, yellow and orange; Cups utilise pale blue and pink; Swords feature mauve and gray and Pentacles use brown and green. This interesting idea is especially helpful in a complex spread where the colour-coding immediately gives a quick overview of the Minor Arcana cards present in the spread.

Some of the complex esoteric imagery present in the Rider-Waite has deliberately been omitted from the deck. This simplifies the pictures and means that a detailed knowledge of esoteric subjects is not required to use the deck successfully. All the cards are full of life, action and interest and most of the characters’ faces are expressively drawn. I would recommend this deck to both beginners and experienced readers who are looking for an interesting alternative to the traditional Rider-Waite cards.

Finally, I must praise the skill used in drawing The Knight of Swords. The effect of charging headlong into the wind is remarkable!