Friday, July 18, 2025

Deck Review: Heaven and Earth Tarot

Jaymi Elford (text) and Jack Sephiroth (art), Heaven and Earth Tarot. Torino, Italy: Lo Scarabeo, 2020.  ISBN: 9780738767314.  (link to publisher)

Genre: Tarot
Subgenre: Christian, esoterica, Rider Waite Smith
Format: paperback companion book and deck
Source: I own this one.  

This kit comes in a hard box with a companion paperback book and the 78-card deck. I first used the deck in June 2025.  

The book is arranged as follows: 

  •  Part One-- The Heaven and Earth. This part starts with a page provides an introduction to the deck's concept. This deck, the author writes, "follows sometimes a Christian symbolism" (7). I'd say that is a serious understatement. The deck, though a Rider Waite Smith (RWS) clone, leans heavily into the Christian symbolism. Granted that Christian symbolism is present in the original RWS, but this deck runs with it and embraces it fully. If Christianity is an issue for you, other decks may be a better option. Otherwise, let's keep going. This part also includes instructions on using the card descriptions and a symbols chart for the Major Arcana. We then get the card entries.
    • Major Arcana entries include a full page card image in color, image description, Heavenly interpretations (reading the cards in a broad sense), Earthly interpretations (practical meanings including upright and reversed), Questions (these can help you develop your interpretations and can be good for journal writing), and Transformations (an advanced meaning). 
    • Minor Arcana. Entries are as the Major Arcana but do not include a card image. 
  • Part Two-- The Nature of Tarot. This includes a brief introduction of Tarot (history), brief description of a Tarot deck's structure, table of elemental associations for suits and court cards, brief instructions on using the cards, three card spreads, a 6-step guide to your first reading, and a short conclusion. 

Two of Swords
The core of the book is in the card entries. The rest of the material on how to do a reading, etc. is relatively minimal. You get barely enough to guide a beginner. Then again, the best way to learn is to jump in and start practicing, and the book does encourage that. 

The card entries give plenty of material for card readers. Beginners as well as advanced readers will find something in the entries to learn and use. If you share cards online, say on social media, the image descriptions can be useful for alt text descriptions. I wish more authors would include good card descriptions in their companion books. In addition, I found the questions very useful for reflection and later writing in my journal. 

All in all the book is an accessible and easy read. It does keep the esoterica to a minimum. It provides just enough on symbols, correspondences, etc. to work with the deck, Still, if you want more, you can supplement with other works, but that is optional. The companion book supplements the deck well. 

Jack Sephirot does the art.  It has a strong classical. These are the kind of images you could find in museums, cathedrals, so on. The author writes that the "artwork reminds us of the Pre-Raphaelite movement which looked to Nature for their art" (7). The art brings together the divine and spiritual with the earthly and material. The art is colorful in a realistic way. The art has an ethereal quality that reinforces the heaven and earth theme as well as the Christian elements. .

As I stated, the art does lean strongly to Christian elements, but you can use the deck just fine if you read in RWS. The art is expressive and detailed, so it could work for intuitive readers too. These are cards that invite you to gaze, meditate, and take your time with them. Heathen as I am I enjoyed using these cards, and I hope to use the deck again down the road. 

Justice-XI 

Cards measure about 4 3/4 inches by 2 3/4 inches. The cards have a soft glossy finish, and they shuffle with ease. The card back is simple and reversible. The Minor Arcana cards 1-10 are not labeled other than a Roman numeral and keyword, so do pay attention to the RWS details in the art. The Major Arcana and court cards are labeled. The cards also include elemental and other symbols which can help enhance your readings. 

Overall, I am glad to have this deck in my collection. I highly recommend it, with the caveat mentioned already. 

5 out of 5 stars. 

 

 

 

 

 

This kit qualifies for the following 2025 Reading Challenge: 


 

Friday, July 11, 2025

10 recent reads that I rated 5 stars

I am again going through my feed reader, and looking over some older posts I had saved in a folder for later. Today I am getting around to looking at 10 recent books I've read that I rated 5 out of stars. I first saw the prompt at That Artsy Reader Girl

As of July 7, 2025, here are ten recent books I've read I rated 5 stars. If I have posted a review at this time, I am including a link so you can check it out and learn more about a book. 

 

Tarot in Other Words

 

 

Be More Vader 

 

  

Love and Rage

 

 

Eerie Archives, Volume 3

 

 

Tarot Spreads 

 

 

 Radical Tarot

 

 

 

 

White Poverty

 

 

Horror for Weenies

 

 

 

Necronomicon

 

 

Eerie Archives, Volume 2 

 

 

  

 

 

Friday, July 04, 2025

Deck Review: Golden Art Nouveau Tarot (mini edition)

Lunaea Weatherstone (text) and Giulia F. Massaglia (art), Golden Art Nouveau Tarot (mini edition). Torino, Italy: Lo Scarabeo, 2021. ISBN: 9780738769752. (Link to publisher)

Genre: Tarot decks
Subgenre: Rider Waite Smith, Art Nouveau
Format: Small 78-card deck with little white book in small hard box
Source: I own this one.  
 

Justice-XI card 
I first used this deck in April 2025. This small kit includes the 78-card deck and a little white book (LWB). The LWB is a typical Lo Scarabeo text in multiple languages. Languages featured are English, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Russian. The LWB has 32 pages. We get 7 pages of English content. 

The LWB is very basic. You get a long paragraph describing what Art Nouveau is and how it works applied to Tarot. It then offers a suggested 3-card spread as a way to use the cards. Finally, we get the card meanings, which are just a few keywords per card. It is as minimalist as it can get. Can you do without the LWB? Yea, pretty much, but I always read through it anyhow. 

The cards are a straightforward Rider Waite Smith (RWS) clone. This is a reason you can do without the LWB if you wish. If you know RWS, you can use this deck just fine. If you are an intuitive and can do RWS, you can use this deck. 

The art is colorful and bright. Gold color is predominant, but it is not the bright gold you get in the standard size edition. That aside, the Art Nouveau style is beautiful, expressive, and elegant. The deck is basic in the sense it is an RWS deck, but it feels a bit fancy due to the Art Nouveau style. 

I find the cards very easy to read. They work well for individual readings as well as public readings. The small size and hard box make this deck a good choice for travel. Put it in a bag, toss it in your book bag, and you're good to go. 

The cards measure about 3 1/4 inches by 2 inches. The art has a white border. The art back design is not reversible. The cards have a soft glossy finish, and they shuffle easily. If you want a very traditional deck, this is a good option. It can also be a good option for beginners, but get them also a good Tarot learning book. I'd recommend the deck. I may even consider getting the standard size edition, but overall I am happy with this one. I really like it. 

4 out of 5 stars.  

 

Wednesday, July 02, 2025

Media Notes: Roundup for June 2025

 

  

 



Welcome to my somewhat random selection of the movies and series on DVD and/or online I watched during June 2025.


Movies and films (links to IMDB.com for basic information unless noted otherwise). Some of these I watched via TubiTv.com or other online source. The DVDs come from the public library (unless noted otherwise). In addition, I will try to add other trivia notes, such as when a film is based on a book adding the information about the book (at least the WorldCat record if available).

  • Goebbels and the Fuhrer (2024. Drama. Biography. History. War. German film, a.k.a. Führer und Verführer)Plot description: "Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels is in charge of building public support for the Holocaust and for the war that Hitler is about to start." The film takes us from "from the "'Anschluss' of Austria in March 1938 to the murder and suicide in the Führerbunker in May 1945." The film offers an opening statement text about how it will show the orchestrations Goebbels did to shape the image of Hitler and the Nazis, from the perspective of the perpetrators. It goes on to state: "For only if we take an up-close look at the biggest villains of history can we strip the masks from their faces and thus disarm the demagogues of the present." Lest we forget, and we can only hope that in time we can disarm those demagogues and evil figures of today. Film opening also notes the dialogues are based on research and uses a good number of direct quotes. Film is in German, with English subtitles. The film then opens with scenes from 1945 and the last days leading to Goebbels and family joining Hitler in the bunker. From there, we get opening credits and start properly in 1938 to get the story from the beginning. Overall, it is a compelling film with some powerful moments. Don't go in expecting a big war action film. This is more a behind the scenes look at the Nazi war machine and its propaganda minister and how he was able to shape the narrative for the regime until it eventually falls apart. The film does look very good, good cinematography. Some critics argue the portrayal of Hitler may be a bit too nice, but I see that as it is from the view of Goebbels, who did idolize the Fuhrer. So it makes sense for the film. Not always an easy watch but a necessary one. If the history is of interest this is a film to watch. I am willing to give it the full 5 out of 5 stars. Via TubiTv. Watched 6/7. 
    • An interesting detail to me is that the film blends in historical footage with the plot of the film. It adds authenticity, but they also did a good job editing it to seem pretty seamless (other than the historical footage is black and white). 
    • Often, the Goebbels family is seen and portrayed as the very loyal, ideal Nazi family from their Aryan image to beautiful children. In this film, it does a good job of showing how things really were inside the family from tensions between the spouses, to cheating on each other, to Hitler having to intervene to keep them together for the sake of keeping their image as "the poster" Nazi family. Franziska Weisz, the actress who portrays Magda, his wife, does a very good performance here. 
    • Meanwhile, we also see some of the various schemes and machinations that Hitler's subordinates had against each other all to jockey for position with Hitler.  
    • The film, naturally, shows Goebbels talent for propaganda, even showing some of the tricks of the trade that enabled the rise of the Nazis and convinced so many Germans to go along with the regime. To be honest, some of those techniques resonate even in some of the Western press today. 
    • A small detail I did not know is Goebbels kept a diary, which they show him writing in the film. There are some published editions in English.  
    • Needless to say, the movie does have some strong content, including some very graphic descriptions and depictions of how the Nazis exterminated Jews and other peoples. As the filmmaker stated in the opening, this is necessary to see in order to learn and never forget. 
  • Death Wish 3 (1985. Action. Crime. Drama). Plot description: "Architect/vigilante Paul Kersey arrives back in New York City and is forcibly recruited by a crooked police chief to fight street crime caused by a large gang terrorizing the neighborhoods."  Charles Bronson returns for the third installment of the series doing what he does so well: killing and blowing punks who are abusing the neighborhood. It's a Cannon Group film, so that gives you an idea what we are getting. For starters, as usual, the cop are not just corrupt but mostly incompetent. The film does start a bit slow as Kersey (Bronson) gets to the neighborhood, settles into his old friend's apartment, and starts learning the situation. Meanwhile, the gang keeps terrorizing the area. The pace really gets moving about halfway through the movie. Also, like in previous films, once the bad guys kill his love interest, a young woman lawyer, you know the bad guys will not be around for much longer. Once Kersey starts to really clean house, the action and violence we are there to see picks up and keeps going to the end. Also, the ending leaves an opening for another sequel. It has some cheesy moments, and some one liners that entertain. By now Kersey's character is transforming from a man out for revenge to a full vigilante. I'd say a 3 out of 5 stars, in part for the slow pacing in the first act of the film. By the way, this is a film you watch without thinking too much about certain details, such as certain package deliveries Kersey gets by mail that you could definitely not get today. If you don't worry about such details, you will be good to enjoy the over the top action and violence. By the way, this film was released in the 80s, but it maintains very much a 70s exploitation vibe and aesthetic. Watched 6/8. Via TubiTv. 
    • Film is also listed in the Grindhouse Cinema Database.  
    • In actors you've seen elsewhere, Alex Winter, known for the Bill and Ted films, has a small role as one of the punks.  
    • I watched and reviewed the original Death Wish back in April 2020 and Death Wish 2 in May 2020
  • Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987. Drama. Action. Crime). Plot description: "Architect/vigilante Paul Kersey takes on the members of a vicious Los Angeles drug cartel to stop the flow of drugs after his girlfriend's daughter dies from an overdose." It's the 80s, a time when illegal drugs were rampant and in pop culture, so it is natural Paul Kersey is back to clean up the town again and crack down on those evil drug dealers (and they are evil).  The man cannot catch a break. He wants to settle down, he is in Los Angeles again, new girlfriend, who has a daughter, but soon crime hurts him and his family making him once more become the vigilante doing what the cops consistently fail to do. It is a Cannon Group film, so again, you have an idea what is coming. This time, Kersey has a little help, from a wealthy newspaper owner who also lost a daughter to cocaine, and he is eager to hire Kersey to help him extract his revenge and take out the dealers by giving Kersey information on the criminal organizations, which he then uses to an advantage. Unlike previous films, where the crime was random and somewhat vague, the cocaine scourge is the key evil in this film. The movie overall is better than the previous one with a bit more intrigue and suspense, plus Kersey finds some creative ways to kill off the bad guys. And just when you think the movie will be over, we get a sudden twist revealing Kersey's benefactor is not who he appears to be. Kersey will need some guile and guts to get out of the jam and take down all the bad guys. Kersey is not messing around now. Anyhow, the film is entertaining; it does move along at a good pace, and it adds a bit of suspense and tension along with the violence you already expect. I'd say 3.5 out of 5 stars. Watched 6/8. Via TubiTv.  
    • In actors you've seen elsewhere. Danny Trejo has a small role as one of the evil henchmen.  Also in a small role that if you blink you miss it initially, Tim Russ, who played Tuvok in Star Trek: Voyager, plays a small time drug dealer in the arcade scene and later in other small parts of the film. In addition, Mitch Pileggi, from The X-Files where he was one of the FBI bosses to Mulder and Scully, has a small role as cannery lab foreman. 
  • Death Wish 5: the Face of Death (1994. Action. Drama. Crime). Plot description: "Paul Kersey is back at working vigilante justice when his fiancée, Olivia, has her business threatened by mobsters." Once more Paul Kersey, portrayed by Charles Bronson, tries to just settle down with a nice woman, and crime messes things up. This is pretty much the established formula of the series. Bronson now goes one more round to take out the bad guys in the final installment of the original film series, which is now entering the 1990s. The pace starts picking up around 40 minutes in as we get to see the mobsters doing mobster things while the law pretty much has nothing on them. Once the Mob really hurts Kersey, you know the mobsters are on limited time on this Earth. Once Kersey gets started, we get a creative kill or two along the way. You'd think by now criminals would learn not to mess with the vigilante. If anything, Kersey has had plenty of time to hone his craft. Still, the overall pace in this one is a bit on the slow side. There are some moments the plot drags a little. Not that Kersey is slowing down in his old age, but apparently the writers are. The main action pretty much comes in the last 15 minutes or so as the inevitable confrontation comes. Overall, not a terrible way to close out the series, but not that good either. By now, it feels like they are toning down the violence that was a trademark of the series. In the end, we still root for Bronson to take out the bad guys. 2.5 out of 5 stars. Via TubiTv. Watched 6/14.  
  • House on Haunted Hill (1999. Horror. Thriller). This is a rewatch. I first reviewed this back in April 2021 Watched on TubiTv on 6/14. 



Television and other series (basic show information links via Wikipedia unless noted otherwise). Some of these come in DVD from the public library. Others may be via YouTube, which, as noted before, I keep finding all sorts of other old shows in it, often full episodes:

  • In the Heat of the Night (1988-1995. Police procedural. Crime. Drama). Plot description: "television series loosely based on the 1965 novel and the 1967 film. The TV series starred Carroll O'Connor as police chief Bill Gillespie and Howard Rollins as police detective Virgil Tibbs." Tubi got the series in last month, all 7 seasons, I figured I'd take a chance and watch it a bit at a time starting this month. Turns out I just kept binging along as I am in the middle of Season 6 as I wrap up the month. I will likely finish it in July. 
    • In Season 1, Episode 3, in actors you may have seen elsewhere. A younger Gail O'Grady plays, wait for it, a mistress. Some folks may remember her better from her time in NYPD Blue where she was the administrative assistant in the detectives' room as well as, for a time, Det. Medavoy's mistress. She looked good then, but I think once she filled up a little she looks better in the later series. 
    • In Season 1, Episode 7, again, actors seen elsewhere. Ted Lange, who played Isaac the bartender on The Love Boat portrays a charming polygamist. It is all amusing chaos until he is found poisoned in his jail cell. The six wives all brought him food at various points. 
    • In  Season 1, Episode 8, Mariska Hargitay, known these days for Law and Order: SVU, plays the criminal girlfriend of an escaped convict. 
    • In Season 2, Episode 1, Iman, model and actress, plays bar owner and mysterious woman Marie Babineaux. 
    • Season 2, Episode 11, "A Trip Upstate," Gillespie has to confront his feelings about the death penalty when a man he helped to put away who committed murder and a bank robbery is about to finally be put to death, but before the execution, he asks to see the chief one last time. It is a simple yet moving episode. By the way, in actors you've seen elsewhere, Paul Benjamin, who among other roles played Whispers in Hoodlum, portrays the condemned man George Brownlow. 
    • Once more, actors you've seen elsewhere. In Season 2, Episode 17, "Walkout," we get O.J. Simpson as City Councilman Stiles, who gets murdered. 
    • Season 2, Episode 19, "Fifteen Forever," has to be one of the most moving and powerful in the series. After the local school wins a basketball tournament, everyone is festive, until a drunk driver kills a group of school kids and leaves the town suffering. One detail that amazed me was at the time of the episode there was no open container law, so Sgt. Bubba could not stop the one kid drinking beers in his car because having an open container was not against the law (at the time). By the way, the actress portraying the grieving mother with the daughter who ended up in a coma puts in one hell of a performance, very powerful. Also the revelation of who the drunk driver turned out to be was quite the twist, for me at least. 
    • In Season 3, Episode 13, "Hello in there," a bank customer makes a reference to their sister having access to one of the new (at the time) ATM machines and warns the teller she is talking to, half serious, he may be out of a job soon. Prophetic words. 
    • In actors you've seen before, Season 5, Episode 4, "Liar's Poker," John Saxon guest stars as Dalton Sykes, one of a group of high stakes poker players when the host gets murdered. 
    • In actors you've seen before, in Season 5, Episode 10, "An Eye for An Eye," Claude Akins portrays kidnapper Benjamin Sloan. You may remember Akins from various films; I tend to remember him as Sheriff Lobo from BJ and the Bear and later The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo.
    • In Season 6, Episode 3, "Brother's Keeper," in actors from elsewhere, Meschach Taylor, often known for Designing Women, plays Officer Luann's ne'er do well brother. Also in the episode we see a fortune teller doing a reading for a man; she is using playing cards to do the reading. 
    • In Season 6, Episode 9, "When the music stopped," actors from elsewhere,  Robert Goulet guest stars as an aging country singer that Bubba idolizes.  

 


Monday, June 30, 2025

Short Book Review: Prospero Burns

Dan Abnett, Prospero Burns: the wolves unleashed. Nottingham, UK: Black Library, 2014. 

Genre: science fiction
Series: Horus Heresy, Vol. 15
Format: e-book
Source: I own this one 

 

This is a short note to remember that I read this book, and it was not very good. To be honest, this is not the author's best work, and I have read some of his other books. This novel is the other point of view in the events presented in the previous novel in the series A Thousand Sons (link to my review).

In a nutshell, the Thousand Sons, the 14th Space Marines Legion, are deemed heretical by the Emperor of Mankind for their use of psykers and sorcery. They decide to retreat to their home world of Prospero and keep doing what they are doing. When Magnus the Red, their primarch, has a vision of Horus' treachery, the Emperor ignores it and declares them heretical, sending the Space Wolves Space Marines to bring them to account. The previous novel offers the perspective of events from the view of Magnus and the Thousand Sons. It is basically the tragedy of their fall to chaos. The later novel looks at those events from the view of the Space Wolves, or so we readers are led to believe. 

A big part of Prospero Burns deals with one of the Space Wolves skjalds, or storyteller, Hawser. The novel starts with some flashbacks, but it is not quite clear what exactly is happening right away, so we spend a bit of time just deciphering what is going on, and how is it significant to the larger plot. It is not until the second part of the novel we get to the main events, which is why most of us picked up the book. As if that was not enough, Hawser is not all he seems to be, there is some mental manipulation going on, and some other machinations. Usually elements of intrigue can be interesting in these novels, but here a lot of it is somewhat convoluted, a bit too complex, and not always clear. Plus the novels focuses excessively on Hawser. 

At the end of the day, it also may help readers if you read A Thousand Sons before reading this one. In theory, the two books for a duology. In practical terms, you can pretty much skip Prospero Burns and keep reading the rest of the series. I do note in my review that A Thousand Sons is not that good either, but it is at least coherent. The big fault in that novel is that nothing really happens in it. A big part of is it a few Space Marines complaining they are bored waiting for their Primarch. But that is still better than Prospero Burns. If you have to pick one novel to get this part of the larger Horus Heresy story, pick A Thousand Sons if you must. I wish I had known that before I picked Prospero Burns up, but at least I can say I got through it. As for Abnett, he has much better books in the Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000, go find those instead. 

1 out of 5 stars (barely).  

 

This book qualifies for the following 2025 Reading Challenge: