I loved this, it was like seeing an old friend! There are a couple of cards (The Underworld and The Gem) that feature worms that I recognize from The Wild Unknown Tarot (5 & 9 of Swords). The deck is a delightful feast for the eyes, for sure! Some other favorites are The Orphan (both the card's imagery and the archetype), The Poet, The Venom, The Siren and The Maiden. I also love The Bardo, with the skulls circling the artwork. The colors are just so striking, it pulls me in every time. I just flipped through the cards really quickly and counted 30 cards with collaged hands. Something that really stood out to me in the deck was the plethora of hand images. While there are some bright cards in the deck, on the whole it has a dark shadowy vibe to me, which I like. Many of the cards' colors are breathtaking. I really like the combination of collage work with line drawing and watercolor. There are some collage images that I can't quite make out, but it doesn't really bother me. They address such different aspects of life while remaining artistically cohesive. I have only used the three together once so far, but I could tell from that one reading that using the three decks together would make for really in-depth readings since they each bring something different to the table. Since most of the cards include collage cut-outs, the deck differs from the artist's previous two decks but they still flow together very well. There are only a few cards (five, I think?) that are artwork alone, featuring no collage work. Many of the collage images are crudely cut out, which I find an interesting choice. The cards feature a mixture of artwork and collage. Once you get to know the deck, it becomes pretty self-explanatory which suit each card belongs to. I'm glad they didn't add a suit indication to each card because it would add unnecessary clutter to the cards. There is no indication on the cards themselves as to which suit they belong to. There are four "suits" in the deck: The Selves (30 cards), The Places (20 cards), The Tools (20 cards), and The Initiations (8 cards). I can't even imagine how hard that must have been, but she did an amazing job with her selections! She talks in the book about how hard it was to select 78 archetypes and the process she went through to cull them down (from about 250!). The deck is based on archetypes chosen by the artist. The Roman numerals do give the deck a more artistic feel I suppose. It would make it so much easier to look up the card in the book if they were numbered normally. The cards are numbered with Roman numerals which kinda sucks when you have 78 cards. Her previous two decks have the same pattern on the backs, with different colors, and I would have loved to see that carry over to this deck, making them feel like more of a set. They are not easy to shuffle, being so large and round. The cardstock is nice and thick, slightly flexible with a smooth matte finish. The cards are really large, measuring 4.5" in diameter. There are 78 cards in this gorgeous deck, which feels like a nod to the tarot, though the deck is an oracle. But otherwise, the deck, book, and housing are all top quality. Unfortunately, both the front and back book covers are creased already, with very minimal use and great care. I love that the inner box is round like the deck, and it fits the deck perfectly. In fact, the main box's ribbon wraps under the deck box and then again under the book, so both of them are easily removed. Each of the boxes have a ribbon for easy removal of the contents. You have a book and deck that fit snugly in a sturdy box together, and then you have a sturdy inner box, should you wish to separate the deck and take it with you. A lot of deck/book sets fail in this area, but kudos to Harper One for attention to detail here. There is a title sleeve that slides off to reveal the main box with a magnetic closure which houses the book and deck (which is itself housed in another circular box). I was very happy to hear that this one was also being published by HarperOne because they do such a beautiful job on these sets. The Wild Unknown Archetypes Deck and Guidebook is the newest deck and book set from Kim Krans, creator of popular decks The Wild Unknown Tarot and The Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Deck (my review of that deck here).
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