Artwork: 9 Research: 9 LWB: 7 Ease of shuffling: 10
Use in face-to-face: 10 Use for self: 10 Meditation potential: 9 Background: 10
Overall: 9

I have been dreading writing a review for this as anyone who knows me will vouch for me being a absolute Connolly devotee. I love this deck - it was my first and I am very grateful for it.

The deck is a Rider-Waite clone and for me has far more appeal than the Rider-Waite will ever have. It is more colourful, the artwork is beautiful and reader-friendly and the whole thing has the air of pulling the traditonal R-W theme into the here and now, even though the cards were designed in the late Eighties and the settings are definitely not 21st century.

Needless to say that the Minor suits are Swords, Wands, Cups and Pentacles. The Major Arcana remains untouched apart from the two most publicly misinterpreted cards, Death and The Devil, which here are Transition and Materalism. In this sense the deck is excellent for face-to-face readings, as all the potential negativity is removed. In fact, it is excellent for any type of public reading as it eliminates all the risk of the client's thoughts of "Oh my God, I've drawn the Death card" (as I'm sure many of you will have experienced over time!).

The artwork is easy on the eye and spreads are not under threat of being swamped by one colour (as with the Gendron) or losing the theme. I usually find cherubs and the like horribly sickly, but this deck manages to pull it off with style. It is both traditional and modern, clean and detailed, 'pretty' and practical. I am very surprised that it has not overtaken the Rider-Waite and 1JJ decks as the first choice for beginners.

The book is admittedly not the best starting point, particularly in Minor country, but the Celtic Cross spread makes more sense in my eyes than others I've seen. Eileen Connolly has written two volumes called Tarot for the Apprentice which I have on order and will review when they finally arrive. Strangely enough, the slightly odd definitions for the Minor Arcana helped me in the most bizarre way when I started learning, but then it's probably fate - the Queen of Swords and Queen of Pentacles actually look like people I know personally who I think fit the personality (the latter is blonde, which makes a nice change). Perhaps this deck was just produced for me!

These cards have depth, sense, simplicity and are suitable for any level. I love them dearly and this shows in the sad fact that this is the only deck I possess where the edges have gone rather dirty. Just go out and buy it. Oh, and the backs look like grey marble, by the way.

Good Points: Queen of Pentacles, Queen of Swords, The Hermit, The Magician (who I think looks how he should look in this deck), 8 of Cups, The Hierophant, 5 of Wands, 2 of Cups, The High Priestess, The Tower, Justice, hell all of it.

Bad Points: What exactly is going on in Judgement?