Freo's Gift - Fyrn Sidu For Modern Times

I have oft admired the lovely artwork of Caroline Smith in her Elemental Tarot, and also her rendering of the Elder Futhark runes in the Runic Tarot which she created with Astrologer John Astrop. However, rather irritatingly, they chose to use Celtic names for the festival cards in the minor arcana of this latter deck, which, whilst I'm not really a cultural purist or anything, sort of put me off them for a long time (don't ask me why, I just didn't connect with the idea at all). I caved in and bought some though just last week from Ebay (a bargain at £5 including postage!), and have performed a careful borderectomy on each of the 76 cards this morning. Here are the results:

I think they look much better now, even though I notice that the pics show up the odd bit of unsteady trimming around the edges of the cards (these often get worn away eventually with use though I've found...) As I was hallowing them, which I do with all my new decks, I got a hint that these cards are to be used to help myself and others, but I mustn't "cling" to them. I intuited this to mean that these cards will be so helpful and clarifying that I'll be tempted to maybe overuse them!:-) Will have to watch for that!