I Am One Tarot, by Maya Britan. U.S. Playing Cards, ISBN 0-943832-33-0.
The I Am One Tarot deck is artist Maya Britan's vision of the Tarot. It is not necessarily mine. Right off, I didn't like the name. It makes no sense to me. Of course I am one. I am also all, so everything is also one? I just don't "get it."
The cards appeared to me to be very "new age" oriented, rather than magickal or pagan, so that was another strike against them in my opinion.
Although the artwork on the cards was interesting, it was not very easy to relate it to the traditional meanings of the Tarot. The deck is illustrated with bright, nontraditional images and fluid swirls. I found the colors of the suits to be a bit jarring and weird, and not at all consistent with pagan associations. The different color borders are: red for fire, green for water, purple for air, and yellow for earth.
This 78-card deck is in English, French and Spanish, with the title and a key concept written on each card in the three languages. The Major Arcana has corresponding Hebrew letters on the upper right corners. The Major Arcana have black borders, and the numbering begins with 1 and ends with 22.
The titles on the cards differ significantly from the titles on most Tarot decks, so only those who are really familiar with the Tarot will be able to relate this deck to the traditional images. The cards do have an "I Am..." meaning statement written below each image. The blank is filled in with a keyword meaning for the card, such as "I Am Master Redeemer" for the Major Arcana card The Hanging Man, which correlates to The Hanged Man in more traditional Tarot, and "I Am Master Light," The Doer, which correlates to the Sun. These are empowering statements, but I still found the differences between them and the traditional meanings of the cards to be limiting.
I am a good Tarot reader. I have been doing psychic readings for more years than I care to mention, so I can read with any cards, or no cards at all. I usually read a very nontraditional deck, Voyager, with no problem. However, the cards in the I Am One deck are vastly different from most recognizable Tarot decks, and therefore much harder for me to read.
In some ways, maybe it's a good thing that they are so unique, as seeing many versions of the same thing just served up in a slightly different package gets stale after a while. But on the other hand, if the imagery is so unclear that you can't decipher the meanings, what's the point of the deck? Maybe that's why she included all that text?
The suits of the Minor Arcana have many of same differences as the Major. Each card, numbered 1 - 10, has an "I Am" statement on it, along with a keyword for the meaning of the card. For example, the statement for the Queen of Pears is "I Am Authority of Reason." The suits are:
Fire - Two-Headed Serpent - spiritual consciousness
Water - Pear of Tears - emotional consciousness
Air - Curved Blade - mental consciousness
Earth - Stone of Age - physical consciousness
The Court Cards are called Authority Cards and are titled like those in the Thoth deck: Knight, Queen, Prince and Princess. The Authority Cards also have the "I Am" statements. For example, the statement for the Knight Stone of Age is "I Am Authority of Production."
This deck is a slightly smaller size than the standard deck, and the glossy card stock is good quality. The cards are coated and shuffle very well, though they were a bit awkward, long and somewhat narrow for my small hands. The back design has nice a black background with a silver six pointed star over a solid white, five-pointed star. The word "one" is printed in the center of the stars, written in black.
The instruction booklet is fairly informative, with keywords and a short descriptive interpretation for each card to give you something to go on. There are three different sections for the three different languages, and the deck comes with a spread map for a 22-card reading, which is helpful. The self-readings that I performed with this deck were fairly accurate.
The "I Am" statement on each card helps in understanding the cards, either for you personally or for those you read for. The colorful images and designs may reach you on some psychological level. Whether you are performing self-readings or reading for others, these cards are challenging.
For a nontraditional Tarot, this deck is well executed and the rendering is good, but I have mixed feelings about it. I can't recommend it for beginners, but I do think it might appeal to those with a greater understanding of Tarot, especially artistic types who shy away from the traditional decks. If you're looking for something bold and unique, this may be your deck, but I was not one with the I Am One Tarot.
You can view this deck at http://www.saint-art.com/