Review by Terri Clement
Twilight Realm, A Tarot of Faery by Beth Wilder with companion book by Russell J. Moon
Published by Schiffer Publishing, LTD., www.schifferbooks.com
ISBN: 978-0-7643-3393-4
The Fairies were asking me to create a tarot deck about them!
-- Beth Wilder
Together Beth Wilder and Schiffer Books bring us a new and unique take on the Tarot and the realm of the Fae with Twilight Realm, A Tarot of Faery. This is a “faery inspired” 78-card deck accompanied by a 224-page companion book, written by the artist. It is packaged neatly in a heavy box, with a magnetic closure.
The colorful and luminous imagery is painted on a black background, which makes art work seem to pop off the background. While you will find some traditional (RWS) style symbology, you will also notice that many of the cards deviate away from that style as well.
The suits are comprised of Cups, Rings, Swords and Wands, but the elemental associations of Wands and Swords are reversed, Swords = Fire and Wands = Air. There are no borders on the Majors and the Minors have a very fine colored line border (Cups = Aquamarine, Rings = Green, Swords = Red, and Wands = Silver/Lavender). Strength is number 8, Justice is number 11. The court cards are named Page, Prince/Princess, Queen and King. The suits of Rings and Cups have Princesses and the Swords and Wands have Princes.
The back of the deck is reversible friendly, with a lattice style edging with a ring of white and purple primroses set against a starry sky.
The cards are 3 ½ inches wide by 5 inches tall. The cardstock is quite thick, making the deck an 1 ¼ inches thick. The larger size makes them a bit of a challenge to handle, especially for those with small hands. The cardstock is quite flexible with a glossy finish. The deck fans across a table with grace and ease.
The glowing image of the 3 of Wands features a blue winged fae sitting with her back towards us as she looks back over her shoulder. Her hands are down at her sides, but each is holding sparkling blue tipped wand, with the third laying behind her.
The Fool is an adorable frog-like, red-capped ethereal creature who has jumped from the grass and is landing on a rock, next to a stream. You can literally feel the motion in this card.
The companion book contains a short introduction, in which Beth talks about how she came about creating Twilight Realm: A Tarot of Faery. It also contains 3 spreads. There are 2 full pages dedicated to each card featuring a black and white picture of the card, meanings for both upright and reversed, and artist notes and thoughts.
Twilight Realm, A Tarot of Faery could easily be used by the new reader (with some study) through to the professional reader and this deck would make a fine addition to any faerie lover's tarot collection.