Medicine Woman

Medicine Woman Tarot
Carol Bridges (U.S. Games, Inc, 1989)

Review
It's an original take on the tarot, but despite the big friendly keywords and the circular friendly art this may not be the best deck for beginners.

The court cards take a little getting used to- instead of familiar King, Queen, Knight and Page we have Exemplar, Power Lodge, Totem and Apprentice. Equally, we have Stones, Pipes, Arrows and Bowls instead of Pentacles, Wands, Swords and Cups.

At first glance, this looks as though it's supposed to be a Native American deck, but upon further inspection there are Aztec, Hawaiian, and European influences as well. The Minors bring a much-needed cohesiveness to balance this out, sine they each have one woman that follows through the first ten cards, making it possible to construct a narrative about the lessons she learns on the journey.

One thing is clear though- it's an clearly gynocentric deck, filling in the traditionally male roles with women from all over the world. But this isn't an agressive agenda of man-replacement. It's more of a genuine attempt to do something innovative with the structure of the tarot deck, and collectors might find it interesting as a result of that.