Dinah Roseberry      The First Light Tarot      Schifferbooks      $24.99

The First Light Tarot consists of 66 cards and a 96-page paperback guidebook. The cards are housed in a recessed well inside of a 6 x 9” hinged box with a magnetic closure that allows the box to be stored standing on its end as if it were a book. The First Light Tarot also includes a 6 x 18” fold-out laminated Reference Card that provides card names and major keywords, concepts, astrological correspondences and basic interpretations for quick and easy reference.

Entitled The First Light Tarot, this deck is more of an oracle deck. The First Light Tarot consists of a 22-card major arcana with the traditional card titles, along with an additional 22 Insight Cards for a total of 44 cards with interpretations. There are an additional 22 Spread Cards meant to be used by readers in order to create their own spreads. A single card position is noted on each of the Spread Cards that include two Wild Cards so readers can come up with their own names for a card position within a spread.

The 22 Insight Cards lend a more oracular feel to The First Light Tarot. The 22 Insight Cards and the 22 Major Arcana cards can be used in isolation for readings or combined. Only one spread is included, entitled the Universal Spread, which is a 10-card spread that is laid out just like the Celtic Cross, but card positions have different associations than in the traditional Celtic Cross tarot spread.

The artwork for the card images consists solely of gorgeous photographs of outer space taken by the Hubble Telescope that have been cropped to focus on a particular area within the larger original photos. The title of The First Light Tarot refers to the very first time light hits the mirrors contained within a telescope that enables the telescope to take its very first photograph. It is a moment of tremendous excitement for the telescope developers and the staff of NASA.

Dinah Roseberry’s goal for The First Light Tarot was to create a deck that could easily be used straight out of the box and not require any great study, thus being user friendly. The card interpretations for The First Light Tarot are traditional tarot major arcana interpretations for the 22 Major Arcana cards while interpretations for the 22 Insight Cards have a more oracular feel to them that are based upon Numerology. The two types of cards create two 22-card decks that can also be used in combination with one another. The First Light Tarot works well as a stand-alone 22-Majors only deck, a 22-card oracle deck, and in combination. The cards also work well with both traditional tarot spreads and spreads commonly found in guidebooks that accompany oracle decks, most of which are strongly based upon traditional tarot spreads. Card imagery of The First Light Tarot lacks the symbolism of tarot cards so readers do not feel bogged down with symbolic associations due to the simple imagery found in outer space photographs.

The 22 cards of the Major Arcana of The First Light Tarot have astrological associations that are factored into their card interpretations. The 22 Insight Cards have numerological associations as part of their interpretations giving The First Light Tarot a heavy dose of Numerology if one also takes into account the numerological associations typically associated to cards of the Tarot major arcana.

The card images of The First Light Tarot are beautiful, but unlike other Schiffer decks, the card stock is flimsy with a semi-gloss finish. The Major Arcana, Insight, and Spread cards all have different card backs so they can be easily sorted by looking at the reverse side of each card. The cards are very flexible and are therefore easy to shuffle despite their size. The First Light Tarot lend themselves well to both tarot and oracle spreads making this a well-rounded deck with numerous applications.

Blessings!

~ Nefer Khepri, PhD., R. M-T.

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Full Disclosure: I received a copy to consider for review by the publisher. I only review decks that I find useful to myself & that I feel my followers will also enjoy.