Review by Mark Rider
Legacy of the Divine Tarot for Android devices by Ciro Marchetti with Tony Newell
Available through the Amazon App Store
$8.99
Sometimes one of the hardest things to find is a flat surface that will hold a Tarot Spread. Waiting on an appointment, riding the train to and from work, or eating lunch at the office or school are all situations when it would be great to get in a little Tarot Time. But under these circumstances making a spread is impossible and short of going through the cards one at a time, there isn’t a way to really work with your deck. Unless you have a smartphone or a tablet!
Many Tarot apps for your mobile device are designed to allow you to “get a reading” or look at the cards in a simple three-card spread. However, there are only a handful that let you create and save spreads, learn about the cards and save your thoughts and insights in a journal, all within the same app. The newest addition to the Android pantheon of Tarot apps comes from artist/deck creator Ciro Marchetti and producer/developer Tony Newell. Their Legacy of the Divine Tarot program combines all of the best aspects of other Tarot apps and adds its own magical twists.
Legacy of the Divine Tarot has been available for Apple users for a while, and it was recently released for Android devices. The program features the deck of the same name, and the cards are made from the same original digital images. This gives it a clarity and vibrancy that is rarely seen in scanned card images. From the first time you launch the program and look at your Personal Card of the Day, the instantly recognizable artwork of Ciro Marchetti comes to life on your device and hints at the promise of being more than just your run of the mill Tarot app - a promise it keeps.
There are three main differences between Legacy of the Divine Tarot and other mobile apps; creating spreads, card interpretations and videos. The spreads are not pre-loaded layouts from which to choose; in fact there are no spreads in the program except those that you create. The cards are slid from the top of the deck and can be placed in any position desired. Double tapping the card will turn it sideways on the screen. They can be rearranged as necessary to get them exactly where they should be. There is a Lock Spread button that saves the current layout and allows you to start turning the cards over by tapping them. Double tap a card and it comes up, front and center on the screen, giving you a chance to study the imagery and details. A third tap will reveal the notations about the card and a fourth tap returns it to the spread. The spread can be saved to the Journal with whatever notes you choose to add, and revisited whenever you want to. It is possible to email the reading from within the Journal, and the image of the spread and notes come through as if you were in the program itself.
The card notations are the second major difference between Legacy of the Divine Tarot and other apps. Rather than give a set definition of the card from different sources, the card is described in a manner similar to the way Arthur Waite described his deck. But where Waite describes the details of a card in a dry, matter of fact way, Ciro describes his art in a lyrical style that tells more about the intent behind the images than one usually finds. It is almost the book that comes with a deck – the artist’s vision that inspired that particular scene for him. The descriptions complement the art and help highlight the ideas and feelings the card evokes rather than try to pigeonhole it into a strict interpretation.
The Videos are the most wonderful difference and the one that sets Legacy of the Divine Tarot apart from anything else out there. Each card has a video that animates the different elements and adds another layer of meaning. To see the way that the Artist has chosen to highlight the cards helps to bring his vision for the deck into focus. The music he chose to go along with each card helps to relax the mind and really see the card as it comes together. There is no way to replicate this with a physical deck, and this is the prime example of just how innovative and excellent a program this is. At the end of each video the card’s Keywords, Astrological associations and Gifts are displayed. That is the closest to a definition of the card that can be found here.
Legacy of the Divine Tarot is available through the iStore or Amazon (for the Android version). It is $8.99 and worth much more than that. The Amazon purchase went smoothly and except for a bad decision on the part of Amazon, it was fast and easy. Amazon chose to have the program download directly to the device rather than to a computer where it could then be side loaded. The sheer size of the program (341.1MB) makes for a long download even over a good wi-fi connection. But with some patience it finally was installed on my Nexus 7 and I have made good use of it ever since. When Ciro’s new programs are released I will be willing to wait that extra time to download them – this one proves that they are worth the wait!
The next time you find yourself waiting in line at the checkout or sitting in the car while someone runs in ‘for just a minute’, you can spend some quality time with a quality deck. Regardless of where you have to leave off, everything will still be waiting for you the next time you open the program, and you will know that you made a wise investment in Legacy of the Divine Tarot.
Images in article from the Legacy of the Divine Tarot for Android devices by Ciro Marchetti and Tony Newell, and are used with permission.