Regarding unboxing videos and other things

[Joan Marie]

There is a real excitement when a deck arrives on your doorstep.
You’ve been living in anticipation of it, often for a very long time, like when you’ve backed a Kickstarter or just waiting for overseas mail.

It’s natural to want to just tear into it as soon as you see it.

But there exist more patient souls, who are no less excited than you at the sight of deck-sized package in their mail box, who have the strength to hold off just long enough to prepare themselves to create an unboxing video for us.

Invariably their excitement comes through as they inspect the unopened parcel and proceed to peel away the layers, carefully inspecting each one until they finally reach the creamy nougat center of the cards themselves.

It’s fun to watch their faces as they see, card-by-card, a new world of possibilities opening up in front of their eyes.

It’s a beautiful thing to share in that experience. There is something so warm and “across-the-kitchen-table” feeling around it.
I especially love the ones with the messy rooms behind them and cats and dogs walking through.

But I wonder if other people share the feeling I get after the excitement of opening a new deck settles.

My relationship to a deck, and it really is a relationship that I have with each one, doesn’t become real or deep in that moment of unboxing. It’s comes later, after holding and shuffling it for a while. It comes after a couple of readings that surprise me with their new perspectives that I had no idea how much I needed. It comes when the artist’s voice and intention slowly starts to come through each card, through the design and detail and choices that are not apparent in the first moments of seeing them.

That’s when the soul of the deck begins to be revealed to me. That’s when it becomes like a living thing. A living thing that communicates.

I’ve started to create short videos where I just cycle through all the cards in a deck, some music in the background, with no comment. I hope to follow these up with some kind of proper review after I’ve had a bit of time with the deck, time to connect with its personality, its vibe, its voice.

I want to say a quick word also about the little guidebooks that come with decks. I think in the past they often (not always) felt like an afterthought, something that needed to be included with a deck but was basically just a slight variation on a million other booklets.

Lately though I’ve come to appreciate the work and thought that deck creators are putting into their LWBs, making them as unique as the decks they accompany.

I think a lot of us have gotten in the habit of not really giving them their due. I would suggest that is a mistake because the writers of the booklets these days (usually the deck creators) seem to really be using them as an actual of extension of the deck. The writing serves to flesh out the character and meaning of each card in truly new and profound ways. Sometimes in just a few words, sometimes in many.

In my reviews I intend to really consider the booklets because I think it’s time we started taking them more seriously. I can see the people writing them do. It only enhances our experience of the decks.

Putting this message out here right now, I just put myself under some pressure here to do something I have been intending to for a long time. I hope I can bring something of at least some new value to deck reviewing/sharing. I hope my voice adds something to all the fun and passionate, knowledgeable and experienced bloggers and vloggers and everyone else out there who so generously and beautifully share their enjoyment of all the brilliant myriad decks out there.

Please feel free to post your reviews too. There are already several really good ones here already. (have a look at the short guidelines at the top of this page.)

Meanwhile I continue to watch unboxing videos because I will always love seeing the faces and hearing the excitement in the voices of people as they meet their new decks for the first time.

[JudyK]

... I’ve started to create short videos where I just cycle through all the cards in a deck, some music in the background, with no comment. I hope to follow these up with some kind of proper review after I’ve had a bit of time with the deck, time to connect with its personality, its vibe, its voice.

I want to say a quick word also about the little guidebooks that come with decks... the writers of the booklets these days (usually the deck creators) seem to really be using them as an actual of extension of the deck. The writing serves to flesh out the character and meaning of each card in truly new and profound ways...

In my reviews I intend to really consider the booklets...

Those are the kinds of videos I'm interested in watching. Flip-throughs where you can see every card and thereby avoid nasty surprises and wasted purchases. And informed reviews, where the person has worked with the deck for a while and learned some things about it.

I also appreciate those booklets that delve into the deck creator's rationale. I hate tripping over a card because I just don't get the imagery. But if the creator explains how that particular image expresses the card's concept for them, then I'm able to reconcile that perspective with my understanding of the card.

[Nemia]

I love those videos, too, especially when they don't talk much but simply let the images flow before our eyes. And the best? Deck comparisons! Watching two decks that I want compared card-by-card is wonderful. It has saved me some money! Mixtress Rae's Unfair Comparison series is an eternal favourite.




(It helps that she seems to have all the decks I crave... )

[Frankly Tarot]

I will look for unboxings and flip throughs if I am thinking about purchasing a deck, especially a more expensive one, so that I can be certain I am going to really love it. So I certainly appreciate that you and others are putting them out there.

Otherwise, I have been avoiding them because too often my interest is piqued only to learn that the deck is out of print or sold out. Before even beginning to look at images of the Bonestone & Earthflesh Tarot, I checked to see if it was available for purchase and of course it was sold out so quickly that I haven't bothered to look at any reviews, or unboxings, or flip throughs.

[TheLoracular]

There is a real excitement when a deck arrives on your doorstep.


My relationship to a deck, and it really is a relationship that I have with each one, doesn’t become real or deep in that moment of unboxing. It’s comes later, after holding and shuffling it for a while. It comes after a couple of readings that surprise me with their new perspectives that I had no idea how much I needed. It comes when the artist’s voice and intention slowly starts to come through each card, through the design and detail and choices that are not apparent in the first moments of seeing them.

That’s when the soul of the deck begins to be revealed to me. That’s when it becomes like a living thing. A living thing that communicates.

That is my experience as well, especially as I begin to work with those cards as part of my private daily journal, which has been going for 105 days strong, the longest I've ever kept a tarot journal (or any journal) consistently up and not losing steam/interest.

But the relationship I'm building with the Pride Tarot from taking one card each week and then writing an extensive article on its symbolism and suggestions on how to interpret them is even more profound. I feel like that and study group work add the most of all, so long as I'm doing personal or querent readings too and the deck is active in my hands vs. just sitting in the box the same day/week.

I’ve started to create short videos where I just cycle through all the cards in a deck, some music in the background, with no comment. I hope to follow these up with some kind of proper review after I’ve had a bit of time with the deck, time to connect with its personality, its vibe, its voice.

What I appreciate most about your videos vs. others is that I find myself just sitting back with my tea/coffee/cocoa and falling into a bit of Mindfulness and letting the music and images just take me outside my other thoughts/activities. I feel that weird combo of more relaxed/more energized that normally only comes for me from a walk in the park with my earbuds in. It also makes me watch your unboxings more than once, which is not what I do with others.

[Joan Marie]

What I appreciate most about your videos vs. others is that I find myself just sitting back with my tea/coffee/cocoa and falling into a bit of Mindfulness and letting the music and images just take me outside my other thoughts/activities. I feel that weird combo of more relaxed/more energized that normally only comes for me from a walk in the park with my earbuds in. It also makes me watch your unboxings more than once, which is not what I do with others.

Thanks so much! I hope to make several more in the next couple of weeks.