Connolly Tarot Deck

I read Tarot professionally and have studied it for 32 years. I also collect decks and have over 200 different ones...so far. While I do not use this deck, it is one that stands out in my mind and I like it quite a lot. The bright sunset colors the artist used and the subtle black outlines of the pictures lend a stained glass look to the cards. There is a lot of turquoise, purple, magenta, and bright pink in these cards that one doesn't often see in the more common or popular decks. I go back and forth in my mind trying to decide if it is cloying or a fantasy touch of innovation. Some of the characters have a Botticelli look to them. Most of the men have long hair and a medieval look, but inexplicably the Emperor seems to have just come from the barber. There are far too many cherubs on these cards to suit my taste and they don't seem to have much rhyme or reason to them, just popping in there where you don't expect them, like leaning over the scaffold on the Hanged Man card, sticking up out of the goblet on the Ace of Cups, or four of the chubby little rascals flying around the solar disk on The Sun card, but I'm sure others will enjoy them. The illustrations are for the most part quite striking and always positive. The pips are all illustrated as well as the major arcana. There is a Judeo-Christian thread of symbolism but it is not overwhelming. The more traditional Death and Devil cards have been changed into Transition and Materialism, respectively. The Fool, dressed in magenta and pink stands at a purple crossroad with a tuquoise sea and white chalk cliffs in the distance with a Spuds MacKenzie look-alike at his feet, the symbol being changed it seems from the more traditional carefree naivte to cautious contemplation of the road not taken, but still the artwork is GOOD and all of the cards are engaging. I really love the suit of Wands which features oak staves complete with green oak leaves and sometimes acorns. The artist and the designer have given refreshingly new viewpoints while also maintaining imagery that will be familiar to those experienced with Tarot. The very fact of the different imagery encourages study and meditation. All in all this is a most worthy deck.

My husband studied with Ms. Connolly and introduced me to this deck, which I now use professionally and personally. The images are lovely and I find the symbolism clear and accessible to my clients.

Clients especially appreciate Ms. Connolly's view of a couple of problematic cards:the "Devil" represents "Materialism", and "Death" is "Transformation", a much more logical, and less scary, way of interpreting the Major Arcana. The entire aspect of this deck is informed by love and the ever-present opportunity towards bettering our circumstances through knowledge and understanding.

For anyone who learned on the popular Rider-Waite deck, the transition is pretty seamless. The symbolism is especially accessible to those venturing into the Tarot from a Christian background. The cherubs and Jesus-like figure in Materialism might make one think this Tarot was carried too far from its roots, but that would be misleading. This Tarot has abundant evidence of the designer's Kabbalah knowledge, which after all was the earth in which Christianity is rooted.

I also can't recommend Ms. Connolly's Tarot books highly enough. She is a clear, accessible writer with an encyclopedic knowledge of her subject.

My favorite deck!

I love this deck! It was the first one I ever purchased...the beauty of it's colors and illustrations make it irresistable (it's a little like stained glass). She does change the "Death" card to "Transition" and the "Devil" card to "Materialism"--changes that I personally find appropriate, and I would recommend the deck to someone who gives tarot readings frequently (so many find the original card references a little scary). The Connollys have a definite Christan slant to this tarot approach, which you can see from Eileen's writing and some card illustrations that include cherubs; but the deck is worth buying for any lover of beautiful tarot, whatever your religious orientation.

This deck is very lovely and naturally works with your intuition to reveal the meaning of the cards. The colors are rich, and the deck has a very positive feel to it. Even the traditionally more off-putting cards are toned down while still retaining their inherent meanings. I think this is my new favorite deck! A very thoughtful addition to the world of tarot.

I really wanted to like this deck because the artwork is so beautiful. The departures from a few traditional “scary” images don’t bother me overmuch—in other words, I can deal with them. A few of the re-imagined minor cards are inspired. However, there are cards where the eccentric vision of the mother-son collaboration go where I can’t follow. Case in point is The Star.

A teenage boy with a perm to his long hair is standing with the elemental symbol of Wands as a staff. A glowing sword is nearby. The kid is wearing a bizarre off-the-shoulder sarong or something with big stars printed on it. What the heck is going on here? I don’t have a clue. It looks dated, confused and just weird. Also, many cards feature faces that seem like portraits of real people. I find this distracting if not unsettling.

Judgment. I sort of get that here a knight, inspired by a barefoot woman, a cute little cherub (there are a lot of those), and a glowing book, is reassessing his life. Maybe he’ll jump out of the window. What does this have to do with Judgment? I dunno.

Many deck designers see the Tarot as a vehicle for expressing their personal visions, unhinged from tradition. But Tarot is not mere “tradition.” It’s a book. You can translate it many ways within the scope of an artistic vision and that’s fine. But at some point you’re just doodling for your own amusement. If your readers can’t understand EVERY card, the whole project is a failure.

I can’t give this less than three stars because of the mostly wonderful art. However, some of the off-the-wall design choices consign this deck to the Drawer of Doom—my collection of cards with which I’ll never read and seldom look at. What a shame.

I love this deck and have used it for years--so much so that my cards are old and worn enough that I wanted a new deck. However, the colors in the new deck are darker. Although this is nice for the purples and the pinks, it ends up being terrible for the blues. All the turquoise blue skies in the old deck--what you see in all the online pictures of the cards--are now dark, even gray at times; the scenes with sky therefore look like a nighttime sky instead of a daytime sky! The Nine of Swords is now all depressing shades of gray instead of blue! That's why I've given the new deck four stars instead of five.

I really like these cards because they are less threatening than the other Tarot cards out there.

As I was going through each card to write little notes on them, as I do for any new deck I get, the last card...the ace of penticals was MISSING! Ugh...how frustrating! I do this as soon as I sit down and open the package. I love the vibrant colors of the cards and feel they will be great for career and money matter readings but what good is it with out the ace of penticals???

This is a good but traditional deck. The art and colors are vibrant and very intense.

An absolutely beautiful deck. The Connolly does take a few liberties like Key XIII being labeled Transition, and XV being labeled Materialism and the 10 of Swords is not so blatantly interpretive. As a conservative deck, if you are sensitive to certain 'intensities' of other decks, this one is definitely a buy!