Fugdale’s Funhouse

The Housewives Tarot

Theme

From the entire packaging of this deck, you will immediately notice a 50’s-60’s retro style of domestication. The entire deck comes in a nicely sized recipe box, which includes actual recipes and tabs for the Major Arcana, Minor Arcana and the instruction booklet. The card backs have a picnic table cloth pattern and don’t reveal the orientation of the cards. The theme celebrates the housewives of the past. But celebrates them in an empowering way. Just at the time when women were breaking out of society norms and expectations, this kitschy style of artwork was spattered about the pages of Life Magazine and on billboards.

Of course, this is a modern look back at the era and the style of the deck is quite tongue in cheek. The deck was said to be created by a domestic goddess Marlene Louise Wetherbee in the early 50’s. At a bridge party, she revealed to her housewife friends the secret to her success and pulled out the deck. The housewives all gasped in horror at the devilish cards. But Marlene persisted, asking her friends how they thought she managed to keep her house so spotless or make her meat-loaf the perfect texture. She used the tarot to guide her every move.

In actuality, this modern collage-based deck, based on 50’s advertising artwork, is the brain child of designers, Paul Kepple and Jude Buffum at Headcase Design.

Imagery and Symbolism

As you can see from the sample cards below, the artwork is colorful and humorous, adopting themes and products of the times. The color palette is subdued and faded to give it a retro feel. The deck is peppered with various product parodies which kind of remind me of Wacky Pack Bubble Gum Trading Stickers. The Death card, for instance, features a bottle of mayonnaise called Salmonella which has obviously gone bad. Mrs. Butterworth even makes an appearance as the High Priestess. The suits are represented by various tools of the time…Mops and brooms represent Wands, dishes represent Pentacles, cocktail glasses are Cups and knives and scissors are the Swords.

The people and objects found on the cards all have a hand drawn and colored Madison Avenue quality to them. Flipping through old magazines of the 50’s you will see where the designers got their inspirations. The deck includes a lot of people imagery, but most of the Major Arcana cards feature products or objects. The aces each feature a traditional hand holding an object. The deck follows the Rider-Waite format for the most part. Although the subject matter may seem offense to some in this day and age, the intent of the deck seems to be one of nostalgia and enjoying the fun qualities of the 50’s.

The Cards

Booklet Descriptions

The Booklet is nicely bound, sturdy and printed in color. It features 3 keywords and an upright description for each card along with a 2-color image of the card itself.

Additionally, the book provides a fictional background for the deck and its history. Also, you will discover several brand new spreads that fit in with the overall theme, including The Virgin, The Neapolitan, The Dinette, The Clothesline of Life and the Martini Spreads.

The descriptions are often written in the second person, telling you what you might experience with each card. They describe the overall feeling of the energy without giving you a list of simple words. Each description is humorous and light in tone even for the more heavy-themed cards.

Here is an excerpt for the normally oppressive Ten of Wands (pictured above):

TEN OF WANDS Control - Burden - Weariness
At last, you are in complete control of the situation. Unfortunately, it also means all the responsibility is yours, and it may be more than you can handle. The Ten of Wands illustrates the housewife who has it all, but without the energy and zest she had in the Ace. It may be time to put down the wands and rest until next time.

Recommendation

This deck provides a refreshing make-over for the standard tarot deck. Despite its backward-thinking social ideas, it is humorous, pleasurable, colorful and fun to play with. It takes the tarot part seriously, but makes it accessible for anyone to use and provides a great conversation piece.

The descriptions may not help a newbie reader learn the traditional meanings of the cards as well as some other decks, but you could do a lot worse as well. The deck feels very nostalgic and fun and it is reasonably priced as well. I would recommend it to any collector and for readers who want a lighter deck. It’s also perfect for housewives, house husbands, people into retro advertising and 50’s imagery. It may appeal to younger readers as well. And the Bob Dobbs-like imagery fits in with any members of the Church of the Sub-Genius, even though it does not feature Bob Dobbs at all.

Deck Information

• Size of Cards: 2.5″ x 4.25″
• Number of Cards: 78 Major: 22 Minor: 54
• Major Arcana Titles: The Fool, The Magician, The High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant, The Lovers, The Chariot, Strength (8), The Hermit, The Wheel of Fortune, Justice (11), The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgement, The World
• Suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles
• Court Cards: Page, Knight, Queen, King
• Included with Deck: Sturdy color 96-page booklet with descriptive interpretations and keywords; 5 new spreads; 4 recipe card dividers; a sturdy recipe box with lift off top for storing everything
• Appeals to: Housewives, Older people who have a nostalgia for the time, Retro-ad artists, people who like collage-based deck, collectors
• Deck Designers: Paul Kepple and Jude Buffum
• Deck Distributor: Quirk Books

The Phantasmagoric Theater Tarot

Theme

This deck has a very unique theme…the theater. You’ve heard the phrase ‘all of life’s a stage’. This deck takes that theme to heart, putting the reader and the subject onto the stage of life. The deck creator, Graham Cameron, describes the theme of the deck much better:

Imagine yourself as an actor, placed in a theater at birth. You have been invited to join millions of other actors, to take your place on the stage known as Phantasmagoric Theater. Every scene in the script has been carefully crafted, and you’ve learned your cues. If nothing goes wrong you should be able to sail through your performance until the final curtain call.

But things can and do go wrong–perhaps there is interference in the sound system, your costume is uncomfortable, or you’re unhappy with the scenery. So you begin to make adjustments, and in doing so, cause minor changes to the outcome of the play.

Using tarot, you can connect yourself through a psychic process back to the original script and recognize the deviations you may have made to the performance.

Although the idea that all of life is predetermined like a scripted play is debatable to some, the refreshing ‘life as theater’ take on the tarot provides a lot of insight into how the tarot works. Instead of being some immutable fortune telling device, it merely suggests the larger picture of life, the track you are on and the adjustments you can make to change the outcome of your story.

Imagery and Symbolism

The Phantasmagorical Theater deck doesn’t just provide the theater metaphor. Its symbolism includes references to the puzzling nature of life and suggests that life is full of pieces to an overall puzzle. The use of gaming symbolism, such as dice, suggests that many aspects of life are like a game. Throughout the deck you will discover question marks, jigsaw puzzle pieces and all sorts of dice. The deck suggests that a tarot reading is like being given a few pieces of a puzzle and asking you to put them into place in the larger schematic of your situation.

Additionally, this deck has very interesting artwork. The people in the deck all have large heads and look like cartoon rag-dolls, often with stitched up mouths, hollow eyes, large gangly whiskers or clownish make-up. Some of the characters have frightening characteristics adorned with gas masks with large tubes coming out of their mouths.

Color plays a huge role in this deck. Each card has a distinctive mood established by it’s color scheme. Most imagery on the cards immediately brings about very specific ideas and concepts. Most readers won’t have a difficult time creating stories about the characters on the cards. And as you use the deck more, you will continually discover new symbols you missed before and various connections between the different cards. Cards which have similar numbers, symbols or characters on them, tend to relate to each other.

The Cards

The cards are large and sturdy and the back image (see above) looks the same either way the card is flipped, so it’s great for doing reversal readings.

Each suit in the Minor Arcana features a different scenario. Wands all take place in a big top circus environment; Swords lie in the checkerboard labyrinths of the mind; Coins all seem to take place inside and outside doorways and windows; and Cups, interestingly enough, explore the dessert terrain, where you will only find the element of water inside the cups themselves.

The Major Arcana follows the Rider-Waite structure closely. Titles are at the bottom and the number is at the top. The Minor Arcana cards provide the suit at the top and the number at the bottom.

Aces feature a large symbol floating mid-air emerging from their corresponding element (fire, water, earth, clouds).

Booklet Descriptions

The booklet that comes with the deck is pretty basic. It features upright and reversal readings, but the interpretations hardly do justice to the rich imagery of the cards.

Each card features a character or player in the Phantasmagorical Production, particularly the court cards, and the booklet gives you a brief interpretation of each character and what they are doing in the image.

Here is an excerpt for the Seven of Coins (pictured above):

Seven of Coins
Morning arrives and Ryan opens his window, greeted by a new harvest. Ryan is a dedicated and hard worker who cultivates his skills and abilities. He is a productive villager who is beginning to reap the rewards of his hard work.
Meaning: The Seven of Coins represents achievement through effort and perseverance and being rewarded for hard work.
Reversed: Laziness, impatience

The Major cards deal with the larger aspects of the Theater theme. The descriptions are a bit more detailed and each includes an astrological correspondence as you can see in this example:

Wheel of Fortune
The astrological influence is Jupiter.
You are standing upon life’s chessboard. Before you is a great wheel. Life is full of both good and bad times. Observe how the theater is held together, with both comedy and tragedy. Upon the wheel a black arrow points upwards; in front of it stands chess piece inhabitants. To either side are signs indicating win or lose. We are not always in control of life; at times a governing law decides our future. The Wheel is continually on the move, taking us from one situation to another. Life will not always move us the way we would like it to, but it will direct us on a path to progress. We must appreciate our good fortune. The Wheel represents the value of life’s opportunities.
Meaning: Patience, new experiences, changes coming, opportunity in disguise
Reversed: A setback, a positive outcome possible only through great expense

Recommendation

As this is one of my favorite decks and gets a lot of use in readings, I have to whole-heartedly recommend it. New tarot readers will find it full of imagery to explore and because it closely corresponds to traditional Rider-Waite interpretations it is a good starter deck. Those more experienced with Tarot or the collector will find this deck sparkling and refreshing.

Deck Information

• Size of Cards: 3.5″ x 5.5″
• Number of Cards: 78 Major: 22 Minor: 54
• Major Arcana Titles: The Fool, Magician, High Priestess, The Empress, The Emperor, Grand Master, The Lovers, The Chariot, Strength (8), The Hermit, Wheel of Fortune, Justice (11), Hanged Man, Death, Temperance, The Devil, The Tower, The Star, The Moon, The Sun, Judgment, The World
• Suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, Coins
• Court Cards: Page, Knight, Queen, King
• Included with Deck: Booklet with descriptive interpretations, upright and reversal interpretations, Title cards
• Appeals to: Performers, Cartoon enthusiasts, Younger Readers, People who like vivid color schemes, People with twisted sensibilities, Gamers, Puzzle Solvers
• Deck Distributor: U.S. Games
• Designer: Graham Cameron

Navigators Tarot of the Mystic Sea

Theme

Based on traditions of the Golden Dawn and the Rider-Waite deck, the Navigators deck utilizes some familiar imagery and symbolism, but provides many new aspects uncommon to similar decks. It bases its structure on the Tree of Life (illustrated on the back of the deck). Using the 10 spheres and 22 connecting paths, the deck utilizes 32 Paths of Wisdom by which a person can come to understand themselves.

The deck places the pip cards in reverse order, meaning the tens are considered the lowest cards, rising up the sequence to the powerful Aces. Although you won’t really be able to tell a difference in how the cards are numbered.

The deck is designed to help teach a meditative path to self-knowledge. The suits represent the four different aspects of the psyche: Pentacles represent the five senses and their material environment; Swords represent the intellect and the ability of the rational mind to analyze situations; Cups, as usual, represent emotions which flow beneath rationalization and the Wands represent intuition and visionary power.

Imagery and Symbolism

The imagery used throughout the deck is bright and colorful, utilizing human figures on every card. Each card has numerous symbols and rich detail. The artwork has the feel of contruction paper cut-outs layered on top of each other, although the deck was actually created through painting. The human figures are tall, slender and simplified, looking very much like Egyptian hieroglyphics. Most of them have neutral expressions on their faces, and project their emotions and situations through their surroundings and their body positions.

The backgrounds on the cards consist of solid colors without gradients and use of rich, saturated rainbow colors. Much of the symbolism used throughout the deck appears very tiny. You may have to examine the cards closely to discover objects and symbols which are easy to overlook at first glance. The minor arcana cards all include appropriate depictions of pentacles, wands, swords and cups in the artwork.

Most of the imagery seems to come from a timeless era, ancient in feeling, but you will find some modern imagery, such as the computer used in the three of pentacles (see image below). This combination of influences throughout history make for a very unique and interesting design.

The Cards

The back design (see above) is a depiction of the Cabalistic Tree of Life. The ten cards of the minor arcana represent the 10 circles on the tree and the 22 cards of the major arcana represent the 22 paths connecting the circles.

The cards measure 2.5″ x 4.25″. They are printed on very durable semi-glossy card stock and each card has rounded corners. The titles of each card lie in the white area below each image, with a relevant key word centered at the top of each card. The Major Arcana cards do not have any numbering on them. This is because the designers believe the traditional order of the Major Arcana doesn’t fit the orders indicated by the paths of the tree of life. Therefore, they removed the numbers so that the deck could be interpreted using both the traditional order and the new order.

Many of the Major Arcana cards have new names (see complete list below).

Booklet Descriptions

The 40-page booklet that accompanies the deck provides useful interpretations of each card. It doesn’t provide the usual list of short words and phrases. Instead it tells you (in the second person) what you might experience, feel or understand about the individual cards.

Here is an excerpt for the Three of Pentacles (pictured above):

Three of Pentacles Foundation
Old wisdom is being transformed and modernized. Look ahead to see what is happening in the world around you and focus your own vision on new endeavors and on updating your backlog of infomation. Your disposition will change if you discard old habits.

As you can see, the description doesn’t necessarily correlate to the imagery in the card and the bookelt doesn’t provide any descriptions of the artwork. So I recommend that users utilize the booklet only for getting acquainted with the cards and develop their own interpretations using the actual symbolism.

The booklet also includes a new spread called the 12-card Past-Present-Future Spread called the Web Spread.

Recommendation

I recommend this deck for people who like bright colors and rich symbolism. If you enjoy interpretations based on Cabala and the Tree of Life, this deck will certainly appeal to you. It may also appeal to those who want an alternative to a Crowley Thoth Deck. It may be a little too non-tranditional for some beginners to learn from. I found doing readings with this deck to be a little hit and miss. I tend to get decent readings, but the interpretations and artwork may not always provide enough information to tie all the cards in to a cohesive understanding.

Deck Information

• Size of Cards: 2.5″ x 4.25″
• Number of Cards: 78 Major: 22 Minor: 54
• Major Arcana Titles: Fool, Magian, Arch Priestess, Empress, Emperor, Hierophant, Lovers, Chariot, Strength, Hermit, Fortune, Destiny, Suspension, Death, Art, Devil, Tower, Star, Moon, Sun, Aeon, Universe
• Suits: Wands, Cups, Swords, Pentacles
• Court Cards: Page, Knight, Queen, King
• Included with Deck: Booklet with descriptive interpretations
• Appeals to: Readers who enjoy exploring the Tree of Life, Cabala or who like vivid colors and rich symbolism
• Deck Distributor: U.S. Games