Deviant Moon Review

The Deviant Moon
By Patrick Valenza
Published by U.S. Games Systems, Inc
78-2.75” x 5.25” glossy cards

The Deviant Moon Tarot arrived today from U.S. Games for my review. The new deck is due out in stores on June 30th. The Deviant Moon is one of USG’s new Premier Edition 78-card decks, which means it comes in a sliding box with a little white book and a poster with a spread on it. At first glance I thought oooow! U.S. Games is making decks bigger and shinier! I was fooled by the packaging. The Deviant Moon is the usual slim and easily shuffled deck the publisher is known for.
For me the first impression of the artwork was startling. The images seemed somewhat mechanical and not very organic. But as I began to flip through the cards the little characters began to grow on me. They are sort of gothic and whimsical at the same time and as I looked even closer I saw some interesting symbolism coming through as well. I loved how the characters on the cards had lunar faces- the bright half of the face, which I took as being the conscious self, has an open eye while the dark half, the possible subconscious of the face, has the eye closed. All the cards have titles except Death and the numbered cards. I found this interesting and mysterious it made me want to find out why.

Then my almost 16 year old daughter came in the door and she fell in love with the images; they were just her style. She loves the whole Corpse Bride/Goth scene and this deck was made for her. She is also a budding photographer and loved the idea that the pictures in this deck are made from manipulated photographs.

Then as I continued to flip through the cards I laughed out loud at the 10 of Swords.
It’s the typical 10 of Swords image but the little creature is biting on his own hand while a little demon is biting on his shoulder. Somehow this scene just cracked me up. The cat made me laugh too just because it didn’t look very healthy (not that an unhealthy cat is humorous but you have to see this card to get my meaning.) I was starting to really like this little deck with its endearing dark little characters. Then I saw Patrick’s 6 of Cups and knew the Deviant Moon Tarot creator and I had found common ground. There was a puppet show the same idea I had for my MAAT Tarot 6 of Cups.

In my opinion I think other people will come to find Deviant Moon to be a sweet little deck. Congratulations Patrick. I’m looking forward to shaking your hand at some Tarot event soon.