Table of Contents
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A brilliant new reading deck featuring all the brass clockworks, outfits, and accoutrements that fans of this style have grown to love. Designed as a more detailed view of the traditional Lenormand themes and symbols, the Steampunk Lenormand ups the ante with romance and intrigue spinning around human happenstances and elations. These feelings and insights bursting forth from these cards evoke a sense that you’re on a grand adventure, joining in the human struggle against ordinary challenges as you reach out to achieve your own version of happiness and success.
Product description from the publisher
Steampunk is a science fiction or fantasy subgenre that incorporates technology and aesthetic designs inspired by 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. It often features fictional inventions, such as those found in H.G. Wells’s and Jules Verne’s works. It is known for its interesting blend of Victorian-era fashion and steam-powered technology. The steampunk aesthetic is also characterised by brass and copper gadgets, gears, cogs, and other mechanical elements.
I’m not by any means an active part of the steampunk community, but I love the aesthetic. Those cool-looking tophats and goggles scream adventure to me. Also, the inventions that the steampunk authors came up with are really cool. Steam-powered fishes? Sign me up!
For those of us who enjoy the steampunk aesthetics, there are a couple of deck options from Barbara Moore. The first one is Steampunk Lenormand, and the second is Steampunk Tarot. In this review, I’m going to talk about the former. Let’s put our goggles on, and let’s get started!
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| + Good quality + The guidebook does a good job explaining the basics + Beatiful art + The cards form a cool secret when put together | – No full colour pictures in the guidebook |
About the Creators
Barbara Moore is an accomplished author and tarot expert based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She has been immersed in the study and practice of tarot since the early 1990s. Moore is well-known for her book Tarot for Beginners. She has written over a dozen other books, contributing to popular tarot kits like Mystical Manga Tarot and Shadowscapes Tarot. Beyond writing, she leads retreats and workshops globally, sharing her extensive knowledge of tarot. Moore’s work blends mythology, psychology, art, and history, offering rich, insightful perspectives on tarot reading.
Diana Cammarano, an Italian artist based in Milan, is known for her intricate and imaginative illustrations. Her artistic journey began in Vailate, Italy, and was furthered at the Arte e Messaggio school in Milan, where she honed her skills in illustration. Cammarano’s work, which ranges from graphic design for an Italian confectionery company to freelance illustration for private clients and editorial work, has been widely recognised for its unique style and creative storytelling through visual art. Her collaborations with Barbara Moore on the Steampunk Lenormand Oracle and the CaTTarot deck, which blend traditional tarot themes with steampunk aesthetics and whimsical, detailed artwork, have further solidified her reputation as an artist of great recognition and respect.
Cards and the Artwork
Steampunk Lenormand has 36 cards, as a standard Lenormand deck should. The cards are 88 x 126 mm ( 3.46 x 4.96 inches), which is the standard oracle deck size. This kind of deck could have used a smaller size to improve portability, but the artwork makes its choice the correct one. The bigger the card, the more art.
The back of the cards features some kind of mechanical clock beetle. The colours and gears make the back fit the deck perfectly, even though I have no idea what is happening in the picture. That is the appeal of steampunk for you. There are a lot of earth-tone colours, which I’m there for. They are the perfect choice for achieving old combined with a modern look.
Even though the artworks are steampunk-ish, the original idea of the card is clearly visible, and the connection to Lenormand is easy to find. This is something that I appreciated in a deck. Sometimes, when we get carried away by the theme, we lose the connection to the original idea. This is not the case in this deck.
The artwork is bordered with gears. I’m not sure if I like this decision. Yes, they look nice, but in some cases, they take up about a third of the card. For example, in the fox card, I would have liked to see more of the fox and what it was doing. Perhaps a separately sold art book would have been a perfect solution in this case.
The Guidebook of Steampunk Lenormand
The guidebook is 126 pages long and divided into four languages: English, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. I wasn’t very excited about this guidebook when I first saw it, as my past experiences with Lo Scarabeo guidebooks have been quite negative. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the extensive explanations of the suggested spreads.
Steampunk Lenormand‘s guidebooks start with a short introduction about what Lenormand is. This section is brief but gives you enough background information if you are a beginner. In addition to history, you also have three keys to success. This section tells you three things that will help you along your journey if you want to learn how to use Lenormand cards. At least for me, it was informative since I mostly have experience with Tarot and oracle decks.
The chapter containing information about the cards is intentionally short. The author argues that this is because the cards are meant to be used as a combination of two or three. The keywords provided instead can be used as a springboard. I found it interesting that you also get the card’s flavour (positive, neutral, negative). This is probably old news to Lenormand readers, but I really liked it.
My favourite part of this guidebook is the spreads. Yes, you’ll get the basic explanations of each spread, but the nice thing is that you’ll also get examples. Seeing an example reading using the actual cards can be very helpful for new beginners. This is something I have not seen in any other deck so far. So kudos for that.
The guidebook paper quality is good, and the pages are easy to turn. It is the same size as the cards, so it fits nicely in the box. There are some pictures of the cards, but they are small and in black and white. That is not a big problem, and at least it keeps the price down.
Conclusion
Overall, I’m happy with this deck. If you like steampunk aesthetics and Lenormand, it might be just what you’re looking for. The quality is good, the art is beautiful, and the guidebook does a good job of explaining the basics. Steampunk Lenormand is probably my favourite Lenormand deck, and I honestly recommend it.
