Every once in a while a deck comes along with no smiles in any of its images. None. Zero. Not even on the traditionally cheerful cards shown below, like The Fool, Three of Cups, The Sun, or the Ten of Pentacles.
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| Siamese Tarot |
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| Druidcraft |
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| The Fey Tarot |
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| Chrysalis Tarot |
Mind you, I didn't go through all my decks. Only the 135 or so (!) that I've scanned. And of those, I chose to ignore animal decks: Animal Wisdom and Badgers Forest, and cat decks: Bohemian Cats, Cat's Eye, Pagan Cats, and Mystical Cats.
And decks with few human faces like The Raven's Prophesy and The Voyager.
The Sun and Moon has no facial features, so that was out of the running.
Only three decks came up with nary a hint of a smile.
Does this mean that I don't like them? That they're all frown-ey? Heavens, no!
That they aren't any good as reading decks? That they send off dismal messages? Not at all!
Each is elegant, beautiful, and full of imagery. Just serious.
Byzantine Tarot ~ Ten of Coins
Nicoletta Ceccoli Tarot ~ The Sun
Efflorescent Tarot ~ Three of Cups
Four decks that I assumed would be entirely smile-less were not!
For comparison purposes, I checked out the RWS; it has only 11 cards that have smiles. That surprised me; I was sure there would be more. I counted even those with the barest hint of what might eventually become a smile, using a magnifying glass when in doubt. But I did not include the nasty smirking one on the Seven of Swords.
Only well-intentioned smiles were allowed.
Only well-intentioned smiles were allowed.
