El Goliath Tarot Deck - Second Edition

I saved this deck for several days before opening so that I would have plenty of time to enjoy the cards. The cards are very large so you can see every detail of the art work. The cardstock is very good, glossy & laminated which I like. The cards will hold up well. The cards are gilded too & the artwork is amazing. The booklet has very small print but I can read it with my glasses. I have very small hands so I will probably overhand shuffle.If you are on the fence, watch youtube videos of the cards. If they call your name, buy them. They are beautiful & thought provoking. I don't think you will be disappointed.The top of my box was somewhat sunken in due to Amazon shipping. I contacted customer service about this. Hopefully they will start shipping this beautiful set in a box. I know I'm not the only person who has had this problem.

I waited on buying these so that they would be my 100th deck. Not only is every single card stunning, but they also make you stop and think. (in a good way) it is obvious that this deck comes out of nothing but pure love. Goliath also takes time and explains every single card for you on YouTube. I'm not talking about just a 15 minute video for the whole deck, but grab a cup of green tea because he will keep you glued to the TV for about an hour EACH CARD! Some people binge watch Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, I have been binge-watching Goliath! This man has put nothing but Blood Sweat and Tears into these cards and it shows! Grab a deck to ENJOY (thats why we got into this to begin with) and if you can, get one to save because these are sure to be collectors cards! See my pics.. I enclosed a Goliath Deck with some of my other bigger decks to compare.. The goat up top is Goliath devil card, Is that flippin insane or what!! Love it! Blessings!

Really love my deck, not happy about the box arriving damaged though. This was too expensive to have received my box damaged and I really loved the box. I tried to not let it bother me but it does. Hopefully they will carefully package these in the future. No complaint on the cards themselves as they are beautiful.

Let's get the cons out of the way first: cards too large and glossy, slippery. I can't shuffle them easily and this causes me to use the deck less than I would like. Guide book is excellent: clear, thoughtful, in depth, detailed. I can feel the author's wonderful enthusiasm for the deck. BUT ridiculously tiny print. Would have been much better if offered as a regular sized book for separate purchase, not as a set. I paid the original price of $85 and the packaging could have been of higher quality. A moment of insanity--never again will I pay that much for a deck of tarot cards! With these indie decks, what happens when they wear out? You can't replace them--either they would be out of print by then or much too expensive to rebuy. But I am glad I do have the El Goliath. The pencil artwork was the attraction.Now the Pros: No human figures! It's all nature, the natural world, and that includes a very few disturbing cards. The large size does allow the stunning drawings to be seen in detail. The author's names for the cards can be quite charming: the Ten of Cups shows whales frolicking and leaping in the sky, through the clouds, and is called "The Joyous Sky". Lovely.As much as I like and appreciate the guidebook, I prefer to read these cards intuitively. But I still refer to the book after my own interpretations, my own first impressions. These cards are a blend of realities, different levels of being: earthy and mystical, magical and mundane. Free of occult symbolism except for pentagrams sprinkled throughout, which I think maybe the artist used to give it a superficial "magical" feel.I use this for a card-a-day, a one card draw. I don't think I would ever use the cards for reading a spread. Well, maybe no more than a 3 card spread. I believe the court cards are all animals and they are difficult to read because most of the guidebook will give human attributes for the cards, basically the standard Smith-Waite meanings. And that doesn't fit with a portrait of an animal. The author does have a lot of interesting thoughts in his guide book and I just wish I could actually read it without struggling with the tiny print.The set has bonus cards without the standard tarot titles. You can mix these in with the deck or use separately as oracle cards or for additional information with a spread.It follows the Waite-Smith formula, but it's not really a clone because the imagery is the artist's unique vision without the human figure.I suppose I see this more as an oracle deck than a tarot deck.Great job to El Goliath!

Personally, for me, these cards read so clearly. They really resonate for me. The art work is moving and interesting and I like the contents of the accompanying book (though I wouldn't have minded if the cards had been an inch smaller and the book a little bigger).I personally have been using this regularly since receiving it, and I struggled not to give it 5. The reason I didn't has to do with the obvious cost cutting measures taken (the ridiculously tiny print in the book and the cheap plastic in the box). Now...if I had paid 30 dollars for this, or even 40, I probably would not have had a problem with this. But I paid over 80....so I do find that this is a negative. The actual box and cards are beautiful, but it's hard not to notice the cheap plastic inlay every time and I literally don't even try to read the book without a strong light or even a magnifying glass handy.Otherwise, the art on this deck is a dream. I have long hands for a woman and shuffling is a bit challenging because of texture and size but not so difficult that I don't want to use the deck. Personally i use a mud pie method of shuffling for them as often as not. It may be good to keep in mind that the cards are 4" by 5 3/4" though if you prefer smaller cards.Some people don't like the extra cards or the borders and words on the cards, but personally I adore both. The extra cards fit perfectly with the deck (though keep in mind that I regularly use oracle decks as well as tarot so am not someone who needs the cards to be totally traditional) and I like the wording on the borders.Personally this is a definite favorite of mine and will be in use for the foreseeable future. This deck is especially suited to shadow work I find, and I really like the fact that it is capable of holding a conversation about the darker parts of our nature without being grotesque in feeling