I thought I'd be using the Halloween Tarot this week and this one next week, but this works, too. The Tarot of the Dead is themed around the Mexican Dia de los Muertos, observed Nov. 1-2 (All Saints and All Souls Days). It is a day to remember one's ancestors, with families sharing picnic feasts at graveyards while they tend the graves. Special "Bread of the Dead" is baked and sugar skulls are brightly decorated to eat and storekeepers display a large variety of comical skeleton figures dressed in various personalities and situations. The holiday is the very opposite of morbid... in celebrating and having fun with the idea of Death, life is affirmed along with the inevitability of death and the manner in which it links us all.
This deck uses that concept - in the Major Arcana, each card depicts skeletons in situations relevent to the card and the Minor court cards show reversals (like regular playing cards) with a variation in stance between the upright and reversed figure. The minors are Pens/Wands, Pistols/Swords, Coffins/Cups, and Reels/Pentacles (like movie reels) and are mostly nonillustrated.
The result is a deck that is lighthearted and fun with a dark twist, much like the holiday it pays homage to.
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