Woooow. Just wooooooooow!
I’ve been waiting for this deck for three years now, but it has been in the making for five. There are hundreds of us this month that are pleased to be getting acquainted with the Alice Tarot by Baba Studio, also known as the Magic-Realist Press. They put their heart and soul into making this deck a huge success, and here it is today!
The card stock is as sturdy as the Victorian Romantic Tarot 2nd edition, but feels thinner. Upon stacking one deck next to the other, I can confirm the Alice Tarot is thinner… which is, I think, much better to handle. The cards feel good in your hands and fan out smoothly. They have a crunchy feel to them when they are being shuffled, which I really like.
Every time I lay out a spread of cards, I get really chatty messages from the individual cards. I love that while there is a Rider-Waite Smith feel, they are also standing as a system of their own in correspondence with the book. They come alive with spunk, and the beauty is really in seeing how they interact with one another. I feel like it is a continuous landscape behind windows that are framing the experience in a serial tableau. Gorgeous work!
The backs of the deck are really nice, but I honestly wish they had used some of the beautiful patterns that are in the deck, such as the bunny wallpaper in the Ace of Coins. Beautiful! Or perhaps the card backs from the Seven of Coins. I think even the table cloth from the Eight of Coins would have been a lovely touch. I hope that in future editions they will give us something different, such as they did in the Bohemian Gothic Tarot. I loved the skull pattern, but the damask was also very appropriate and beautiful.
This is not your average tarot deck by any means. It comes to life when the cards are side by side. The story we have gotten acquainted with over the years is reconstructed to bring forth the story of your life in storybook fashion. It’s a real delight to find how this deck reads so soon after first opening the package.
I’m going to try my best to show you how much I love it, but I also want it to speak for itself, so we will once more be conducting the deck interview.
Would you like to start with the interview, or would you like to do a single card draw?
I held the complete deck in my hands, and had a clairaudient experience with it. It sounded much in the same way I imagine a narrator empathically going through the Alice in Wonderland book.
"I wish to do what you want to do. That is, if you think you want to do what you said you’d do.” Brilliant, right? I love it! Every time I get a clairvoyant, clairsentient or clairaudient experience from a deck, I know that there is a special connection to develop with it.
After careful shuffling, I laid out the cards on the table and this is what I got. Let’s do the interview then.
♡ What is your most important characteristic?
The Lovers. Flamingo, here the deck decided for me which Lovers card will be used as the traditional. The other one will be left in the deck as a wildcard. Problem solved!
True love even in a circumstance that is not the most amicable. Harmonized love, coming together to enjoy one another. This project is a labor of love, and I am simply in love with it. We have a match!
♡ What are your strengths as a tarot deck?
Two of Coins. Taking a playful approach to work, as listed in the little white booklet. I also see it as juggling the traditional views with something fresh and fun. I have found that the Alice meanings work much better with this deck. Here, we have “trying to get hints under control. Attempting to bring order to chaos.” This deck is used for problem solving and complicated journeys, much in the same way as the book.
♡ What are your limits?
Moon. Your intuition. Not all is what it seems. Sometimes you have to go on the journey all by yourself to discover new experiences and insights that you will soon come to realize were locked away in you all along. Try to let go.
The booklet reads, “a potentially frightening experience that is dealt with in a calm curious way. Passing from one mental state to another. A situation that feels surreal and otherworldly. We’re all mad here.”
I noticed that while the deck itself is an illustrated journey, this card in specific has tools that are used for divination in it, floating around Alice as she falls down the rabbit hole.
To me, this speaks of the mysticism in reading tarot as a spiritual practice. It also acknowledges the world of divination, be it through cards, spells, tasseography, and other high magic practices. I love that about it! As my signifier, this is also the first card I pulled from the Alice Tarot in an online generator that Baba Studio offered us before the deck was in print. It is my favorite along with the Ace of Coins and the Eight of Coins.
♡ What are you here to teach me?
Queen of Coins. Being practical in domestic terms, but also supportive to people in their time of need. You can deliver the best possible news with glitz and glam, as shown by the luxurious golden ink overlay.
♡ How can I best learn to collaborate with you?
Nine of Coins. Get comfortable and cozy and spend an afternoon unwinding this deck. With the hidden kitty, it seems to be saying to welcome unexpected surprises when they are finally willing to come out. This deck speaks with such warm humor, I love it!!!
♡ What is the potential outcome of our working relationship?
Temperance. You will give as you get, but you have to be ready to give before you get. This is a balance that is achieved by blending elements from real life with elements of whimsy. What you get in return is magic and divination. Listen to advice.
♡ Which card do you want to show off?
Three of Cups. The advice we’re going to get is topsy-turvy but means well. You have to understand that the energy of the world you are tapping into is topsy-turvy. There may be paradoxes in the message, but this translates very well to the orderly chaos life can present itself in. I think this is a very valid point to make for sure.
♡ How do you see me?
The Devil. Oh, the humor of this deck will be something to learn to get used to. It packs a playful bite that I don’t often get from other decks, but I understand that. Apparently I have jaws that bite, and claws that catch too! I’m sure that once I get to know this deck better, we’ll get along much more amicably.
It made more sense to me when I contemplated it for a little while. I am participating in a Ritual of Triumph with 21 other wonderful people, and the card I chose for this ritual is The Devil. It all makes sense now! Apparently the card chosen for the ritual will embody much more than I had realized it would, and this deck confirmed it for me.
♡ How do you see yourself?
Five of Wands. I looked at the booklet and found this interpretation useful: “Being rebellious and refusing to conform to expectations.” We need not say more.
I feel hypnotized when I read with this deck. The cards come alive, and I can imagine the characters in them moving as well and interacting with one another. It pulls me into the world of Lewis Caroll’s Wonderland for sure, as visually translated by the Magic-Realist Press.
What would I like to see in the future? A borderless mini, gilded edges and perhaps a new card back. However, I’m really in love with this deck. I think that for the next few months, I will clear the other decks on my work desk and focus on bonding with this one. It is very special.
To my delight, the deck uses Coins instead of Pentacles, which is the term I use on this blog. Thank you, Baba Studio!!! There is a delightful Limited Edition deck that is in a larger scale than these cards, has a different card back and has the golden overlay ink in the back as well as the front. It is still available, and will never again be up for sale after it goes out of print. The same goes for the standard edition, but I think there is nothing standard about it. It’s gorgeous! Get your own copies of the standard deck here.
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