Deck Spotlight – Mage: The Awakening Tarot
One of my long time favorites, Mage: The Awakening Tarot, is a fantastic working deck. Although it is designed to accompany the Mage tabletop RPG, the deck follows popular conventions and no knowledge of the RPG is necessary to work with the cards. The Mage Tarot relies more on modern Tarot themes and imagery than occult symbolism, but it is not vapid or superficial.
Now I have to admit that I’m not typically a fan of decks with a collaboration of several artists or depictions of modern technology, but the Mage deck gets away with these things. Having a different artist for each suit makes it easy to differentiate the suits from one another and allows for the varied artistic styles without a loss of cohesion.
Fans of the Shadowscapes Tarot are sure to enjoy the artwork of Stephanie Pui-Mun Law in the suit of Cups. Her art meshes with the watery Cups, and the other artists’ personal styles match their suits as well, granting the deck an extra touch of thoughtfulness and strong visual cues.
This deck also features one of my favorite illustrations for the 3 of Swords of all time. You can almost feel the tugging on the heartstrings! And how about that awesome Queen of Swords?
The modern elements of the deck are prominent in the Wands, but I think that the 9 makes especially good symbolic use of them. I also enjoy the dramatic angle on the 5.
The Coins are luscious and dramatic with a variety of colors and varied poses. I appreciate the depiction of the Knight as a middle aged gentleman.
The illustrations for the Trumps boast numerous intricate details and creative representations of Tarot archetypes. The ethereal, symbolic approach sets them apart from the pips without divorcing them entirely from the rest of the deck.
Which suit is your favorite? My personal favorite is the Coins. I think the Wands are probably the least appealing to me visually, though I enjoy some of the symbolism and fresh interpretations of popular themes. I would struggle to rank the Trumps, Cups, and Swords. The level of detail in the Trumps and their esoteric style is marvelous, the Swords are full of movement, unique portrayals, and drama, and the Cups have an evocative whimsy.
The Mage Tarot appeals to me because of its engaging artwork and its ease of use. It is a refreshing deviation from a Rider Waite deck or clone, but it stays close enough to convention to be immediately readable via the illustrations and/or popular systems of correspondences. Another reason I love this deck is because it manages to incorporate several things that typically repel me without repelling me (various artists, modern technology). This is a deck that is exciting to work with because it is so dramatic, vibrant, and full of movement and variety.
Like what you see? This deck can be a bit challenging to find, but it pops up on Amazon and eBay from time to time, and it isn’t always pricey. Make sure that the listing includes the cards, not just companion materials! Also, the “Mage: The Ascension Tarot” is a different deck associated with the same RPG. It is not the deck highlighted in this post. All of this being said, with a bit of patience, I’m sure you can acquire a copy of this unique, little known gem of a Tarot!
Happy shuffling!