Review by Lalia Wilson
The creator of the Encore deck, Ciro Marchetti, has created several previous tarot decks and at least one Lenormand deck. His art is beautiful. When choosing cards to illustrate this review article, I plucked ten, in addition to the six in the Tarot Scopes article. But I managed to just use four cards here, one for each suit. But let’s start from the beginning.
The Encore Tarot deck is 82 cards. There are 22 majors and 14 in each suit. The extra cards for the suits are Palace cards. Thus there is a Palace of Air, a Palace of Water, and so on. Strength is number eight and Justice is number 11. The card backs are reversible-friendly. The deck is edged with a lovely metallic red. Each card is bordered to distinguish the suits from each other and from the majors. The cards are approximately 3” by 5.” The cards come in a sturdy 3 ½” by 5 ½” by 1 ¾” magnetic closing box.
You will see six cards from this deck on the Tarot Scopes page. Here are four more. The Six of Cups shows an ideal childhood, probably more romanticized than what any of us have known. The girl-child is clearly happy as she swings, surrounded by the Cups of the suit, yet they also seem like trees in her play yard. Note the Sunflowers, symbols of the Sun, but also the innocence of youth.
The Six of Swords shows the usual woman being ferried in a small boat. Here we see what she is leaving behind, a complex city or castle. Our protagonist is leaving behind some measure of abundance in order to fulfill her duty or take on a new life.
The Eight of Coins or Pentacles shows a man studying a book. More usually we see him depicted as completing an artistic task or a smith’s task. Here he is consulting a book presumably as part of his job as a journeyman. He is at the top of his guild, an expert in his field.
The Queen of Wands looks like she is going up in flames. Every one of you who likes costumes and sewing will want to copy this dress! Her full skirts touch the floor. The Queen stands straight and tall. She holds a large flaming wand. It looks like she is consumed by passion and fire.
This deck is reader-friendly. The cards are mostly similar to the Rider-Waite-Smith convention. Those cards which differ are easily self-explanatory. The only thing missing is an accompanying LWB, or any book. Card readers always want to know the artist’s thoughts about his creations.
This deck is quite lovely. It is for collectors as well as for tarot readers. I recommend this deck.
The Encore deck by Ciro Marchetti is available from www.ciromarchetti.com.