The Fountain Tarot - Deck Review
The Fountain Tarot Deck is a beautiful addition to the Tarot scene, consisting of 79 (56 minor and 23 major arcana) cards, self-published by writer Jason Gruhl, visual artist Jonathan Saiz and graphic designer Andi Todaro. They've selected Wands, Cups, Coins and Swords as their suits, and have expressed them in recognisable but distinct ways; Wands being presented as elongated crystals, Swords shown made of glass or beams of captured light, delicate Cups expressing fluidity and flow, and the Coins giving a shimmering hint of solidity.
The Aces beautifully capture the potential of each suit, and the deck makes a respectful nod to RWS-sympathetic images for some cards, but in others deviates partially or fully from that core, and manages to cut its own path, with clarity and focus, to arrive at it's own rather sumptuous destination.
The Majors all have something particularly striking about them, whether it's the use of colour, unique design, or just little details, like the crystal in the Temperance card, the Empress' gown, the veils in the Judgement card, or simply the facial expressions, such as those seen on Strength and the High Priestess, the latter of which deserves special mention...her veiled countenance and posture, perched on her moon throne are absolutely exquisite and gave me chills, reminding me of a rather modern taken on the Veiled Vestal Virgin at Chatsworth House (below), ready to act as interlocutrix between this side of the veil and the intuitive beyond.
I'm particularly enamoured of the Court cards in the Fountain Tarot deck...usually these are a source of contention for me, with vacant eyes, odd expressions, bizarre levels of realism (or lack thereof)...and yet in the Fountain versions there's *just enough* detail, interspersed with that flow of light and energy within the cards to make them solid at the core, and yet nebulous, like a dream half-remembered, or a poolside figure seen from beneath the water, allowing the intuition to step in and fill in those details around the curve and drift of the colour and light in the images.
I'm usually averse to additions to a Tarot deck, but the extra Major Arcana card - The Fountain - is a lovely extra, giving a real sense of universal connection, expression and a potential mobius-loop link, connecting the fool's journey from the World card and back around to the start of new experiences and exposure to 'the Universe'...it's a beautiful card, and I really think it contributes a solid new role to the Major Arcana set. (Now pardon me while I go for a lie-down in a darkened room with a damp cloth on my forehead for having muttered those words, for they are anathema to the Tarot purist!!)
When it comes to gilding the edge of decks, I'm reminded of the saying "you can't polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter"... There's an alarming trend for publishers to think that they can spray a bit of gold paint onto the edge of a deck, and it will, somehow, miraculously, turn an otherwise bland, unappealing, poor quality deck into an uncompromising winner, celebrating mediocrity with a spot of bling. For the majority of decks, gilding can be like slipping them into a pair of oversized knock-off gold bangle earrings, and complementing it with leopardskin-print kitten heels - it adds nothing to the experience, and certainly doesn't improve either the aesthetic, or the sense of quality for the whole package.
Then in comes the Fountain Tarot, with it's unusual silver gilding, and it adds a little je ne sais quoi to an otherwise beautiful, beguiling and functional deck. The silver edging is another nod to the light that the deck captures, seemingly effortlessly, and it's a joy to shuffle the deck and watch the light and colour from the room play on the edges. The expected bugbear with gilding, of course, is that it can sometimes make the deck tricky to split into individual cards and handle at first, until the edges smooth down a little - certainly my deck resisted a casino shuffle, feeling 'clumpy' until I'd split and handled the cards, giving them a healthy amount of hand-over-hand shuffling, but have now cheerfully succumbed to that regular handling, and can be shuffled like any other deck.
The deck is packaged in a magnetic wrap-around box, with a ribbon insert to assist with removing the cards from their snug cocoon without damage. It's well designed, matches the styling of the deck, with it's reflective moonstone-effect shimmer, and is robust enough to have survived unscathed both an unexpected wet bag experience where I was soaked by rain, and also being dropped in a cafe where the other patrons of the establishment were startled by me first dropping the deck in its box, and then dropping the F-bomb in frustrated response, only to find that the expletive wasn't necessary, as nothing was damaged thanks to the sturdy box! A definite win!
The included guidebook is a lightly bound black-and-white affair, with 112 rather perky pages, with everything from a few example spreads to get you started, along with some basic information about Tarot, right through to a concise yet detailed approach to the cards and the images that were chosen for each, including keywords for upright and reversed card positioning. It certainly exceeds the offering of most LWBs in both quality and content, and it sits nestled safely inside the box atop the deck itself.
As decks go, the Fountain Tarot has made the not-inconsiderable leap into my top 5 decks, knocking a long-standing favourite down my Tarot ranks! If you are a fan of light, colour, that hazy dream-like quality, or you just like contemporary twists on decks, then I can't recommend the Fountain Tarot highly enough! For everyone else...well, check out the deck anyway - it was a wonderfully pleasant surprise to me, and I'm sure it will appeal to you on some level!
The Fountain Tarot deck is self-published by Jason Gruhl, Jonathan Saiz, and Andi Todaro, the images are used with kind permission, and are ©, and the deck is available from their website, or, if you're very lucky, your local Tarot stockist!
