Loved it!
As a practicing Heathen of a modernist persuasion, i loved this book and deck, even though some may view aspects of it as rather too "new age". Much of the Heathen scene is currently, however, trying to distance itself as far as possible from what it views as a Wiccan/New Age/theosophist world view, and in light of this is perhaps guilty of interpreting the available historical evidence to suit such an agenda. I am however a firm believer in making ancient wisdom relevant to the modern day and its people, despite how one might interpret the evidence of the written historical or archeological record.
In light of the above sentiment, i quite like the author's style and approach here in attempting to make the wisdom of our Viking/Norse forebears relevant to modern life - she does well in mixing authentic old sources and art with modern innovation which, for me anyhow, works! Just reading the book can teach one quite a bit about the life and beliefs of the Vikings, even if she might stray too far into the realms of Unsubstantiated Personal Gnosis for some readers (and she doesn't differentiate this from solid evidence in the text!). The cards themselves have been beautifully illustrated and include quite a few portrayals of genuine Nordic art and religious practice eg i loved the card which despite perhaps unfortunately being titled "The Totem Polls" ("The God Pillars" would have worked better for me!) depicts a genuine practice of allowing the carved pillars of a temple thrown overboard to guide a ship to shore at the right point to set up a new settlement. Other cards which i particularly liked were the one depicting an old Icelandic statue of Thor from the Heathen period, the "messages" card showing Odin's ravens Huggin and Munnin, and the one depicting an Old Norse Seeress, or Volva (no sniggers please!) The card i feel the author has described and titled least well, straying too far perhaps into the realms of the new-agey "mixing up of cultures" is the one titled "The Sweat Lodge". Now i know that the concept of the sauna is not unknown in Scandinavia, and that this likely did have a religio-magical meaning attached to it, but why on EARTH didn't she call it such - "Sweat Lodge" belongs properly to the Native Americans really (Lakota Souix if i'm not mistaken), and may well differ quite a lot from the versions found amongst the Norsemen and Finns. In this case i felt that the author's use of an inappropriate term was rather TOO inappropriate and would likely make the majority of Asatruar baulk (even if she is referring to a genuine Nordic practice) . The author herself is a native Icelander, the home of the Norse Sagas, so maybe she can afford to "bend the rules a little" by virtue of her national heritage, i'm not sure. Anyway, all in all i'd only recommend this deck and book to modernist Asatruar who can see past a bit of "fluff" and new-ageiness. Those types, like me, would maybe gain the most from them. I actually feel closer to the Gods when i look at this deck, so it HAS served a good spiritual purpose for me. I should point out, however, that this isn't actually a Tarot deck, but a 32 card "oracle" deck depicting Viking/Norse religious and cultural themes.
