Deck Report RHYTHM and SOUL TAROT
There are so many cool things about this tarot deck. Some of them apply universally and some of them are just fun things for me personally. First, it’s a really good oracle. Based on the classic Rider-Waite-Smith style of tarot with a theme of music and southern mystique, this deck somehow manages to pull you onto the front porch, give you a glass of lemonade that’s just the right amount of sweet and tart, and tell you the truth you need to hear. “A tarot deck soaked in the rhythms of American music”, the four suits are each represented by a different style of music or emblems of southern life (Jazz=Wands, Blues=Cups, Roots=Pentacles, and Rock/Axes=Swords).
The majors represent the same archetypes of living that we all experience, only the motif is inclined toward the way that an aspiring musician from the south would experience them. I love Mamaw and Papaw for the Empress and the Emperor! And who can resist the Pink Cadillac for the Chariot?
What I like personally – other than the fact that this deck speaks to me so clearly when I read with it – is that I know some of the people who served as models for the cards, including my friend and tarot mentor, Christiana Gaudet! Deck creator and mystical, magical maven of the south Stacey Williams-Ng tapped some of our most beloved individuals in the tarot community to pose for cards and it’s so much fun to run across someone I actually know in a reading because there’s kind a bonus in how I read the meaning.
Speaking of beloved community members, by virtue of the fact that I’m an ardent attendee of STAARCON I have had the pleasure of meeting Stacey several times, and friends, she is an entity unto herself. She is the proprietor of La Panthère Studio, a “mystical indie publishing house specializing in oracle, tarot and playing cards based in Memphis, Tennessee” who specializes in publishing works based on Southern magic, ancestor work, tarot, oracle and shadow work. Check out the website (link below). I’m guessing you’ll find something you love there.
