My Gift to Cincinnati
Because I'm a nice guy I decided to do some divination for the town I call home nowadays. Although it's not exactly a rosy outlook for 2013 - to be forewarned is to be forearmed.
I used a standard pentacle spread applying 5 elements to the points.
In the spirit position I got the 8 of Pentacles, 'Prudence', in Hod, the Sun is in Virgo.
In the Fire position I pulled up the Knight of Pentacles
In the Air position, I drew 10 - the Wheel of Fortune which is generally attributed to Saturn.
In the water position, I turned up 4 - the Emperor, associated with everybody's fave, Ares.
Finally, in the Earth position, I was presented with the 9 of Swords, 'Despair & Cruelty', in Yesod with Mars in Gemini ~yikes~
So, I think it's pretty clear financial matters and some strong emotions & personalities are going to be the way of '13 here in Porkopolis.
Did I really have to shuffle up some cards to know this???
LUX

The Zombie Tarot

Paul Kepple & Stacey Graham have released The Zombie Tarot: An Oracle of the Undead. It's pretty, well crafted & produced with clever packaging. It follows a retro 50s/60s motif and is pretty fun. The cards are slightly oversize but not like the Thoth deck. Given the detail, larger cards would have been nice. maybe a display of the original illustrations would be in order?
But it's still just a novelty deck.
When it comes to tarot, I'm squarely a Golden Dawn man. My favorite deck isn't the prettiest but the clear & concise Golden Dawn Magical Tarot by Chic & Tabitha Cicero. The Golden Dawn specifies some imagery, card names & color schemes. This makes interpretation at a glance pretty easy. Suit colors in the Zombie Tarot are relegated to small logos in the corner printed in muted colors that don't pertain to elements at all. The suits are typical with "Hazards" taking the place of Disks/Pentacles. Dunno why. Simple things like having 2,3,4,5 elements on the corresponding cards, like 5 skulls on the 5 of cups are ignored.
The booklet has amusing descriptions that mostly get it right. There are some zombie inspired layouts included as well as some ads for zombie apocalypse era merchandise.
I realize it's a novelty deck, but with a little more discipline, it could have been a more usable deck.