The Circle of Life Tarot is nothing less than seventy-eight windows into different worlds. The round cards and fantasy-style art create a sense of being slightly off balance, signaling the mind that something extraordinary is about to happen. These portals to inner revelation are not meant to provide fortune-teller-like readings but journeys into the vast and fascinating worlds that live within each of us.
This is a round deck. As the accompanying booklet points out, circles are powerful symbols in and of themselves. Placing the arcana in a round form should, according to the booklet, “emphasize the concept of cyclicity [sic] that then evokes the concept of life” and “force the eye to focus on the centre of the figures, and here better understand the symbols and meanings to which they allude.” Okay, so the aim of this deck, I think, is to highlight the interconnectedness of things and put the core meaning at the center of the card. Hearing this as a concept, I would expect images that have a clear representation of the card at the center and then, as the image spirals out toward the edges, an exploration of this core concept as it interplays with other facets or energies or maybe hints of how it might interact with surrounding cards.
Deck Attributes
Name of deck: Circle of Life Tarot
Publisher: Lo Scarabeo, 2007
ISBN: 978073871298
Creator and Artist: Maria Distefano
Name of accompanying booklet: Circle of Life Tarot
Number of pages of booklet: 31 (5 in English)
Author of booklet: Bepi Vigna
Available in a boxed kit?: Yes. The kit includes the deck and a light blue satin bag.
Reading Uses: General readings
Artistic Style: Fantasy
Original Medium: Watercolor
Theme: The interconnectedness of all things
Tarot, Divination Deck, Other: Tarot
