The presentation began when I opened the box and removed the carefully packed hand-painted container from its nest of packing materials. This wasn't just wrapped in any old bubble wrap, foam, or other ordinary material, oh no siree! Besides using some of these items as a cushion, my SRCE container was wrapped in a large piece of softer than silk navy blue velvet. I unwrapped the velvet, which makes a great scarf by the way, and caught my first glimpse of the container. "Magnificent" I thought as I examined it more closely. Maralee hand-painted each container intuitively so it would reflect the face, the soul face that is, of its new owner so no two would ever be the same. It suddenly dawned on me that I had a completely unique and highly valuable piece of artwork in my hands. My mind began to race with thoughts of "is there anything Maralee can't do?" After all, she's been a respected tarot reader for over a quarter of a century, a gifted clairvoyant, clairaudient, empath, teaches tarot classes and classes concerning real live magic (not the sleight-of-hand Houdini type, the real magic like Merlin type), aura reader, hypnotherapist, award-winning artist, painter, seamstress, embroiderer, and now tarot designer! And somehow she finds the time to have a family too! Impressions of Wonder Woman come to mind while I mull this over.
I'm digressing. I turned my hand-painted container over and over being so caught up in its glory that I almost forgot the rest of the treasure lie inside. I carefully removed the top and my first reaction was "Oh My G-D, it's FABULOUS!" The inside was just as equal in radiance, drama, and beauty as the outside. A velvet sky of celestial bodies greeted me on the inside of the lid. I caught my reflection in the starburst mirror in the middle and saw my mouth agape in awe. I breathed in slowly, I was terribly afraid someone would come along and pinch me awake from this decadent dream but it was no dream. I looked down and saw more velvet lining the bottom but there was a different piece of velvet on top and this had beaded fringe. I started unwrapping it and lo and behold there was a beautiful booklet with my name and deck number actually embossed, yes, I said embossed on the front! It contained several enlightening spreads created for the SRCE. I continued unwrapping the gorgeous velvet which turned out to be a spread cloth for my readings! My name was also on this stunning piece along with the deck number and the SRCE name but this was all hand-painted on! Adorning this cloth next to my name was a five pointed star that looked like it was made of the finest crystal. It was sewn on.
I looked at the cards in my lap and felt as giddy as a schoolgirl on her first real date. I gently picked them up and the amazement at how talented Maralee is swept over me all over again. I couldn't believe how gorgeous these were. I was enchanted by them and by the positive emanations streaming from them. I swear, it looked like these cards were glowing. I've held countless decks in my hands before but none had ever felt or looked like this! They're positively magnetic is the best way to describe what I was feeling. I had such a good feeling while holding them but the real magic began when I picked a random card and Secrets was chosen. It's the extra card and when I read its meaning, I realized this was the deck I'd been waiting for all my life. I thought choosing the Secrets card for the deck's maiden voyage random pick was a very good go-ahead green light sign of a really spectacular reading deck and it turned out to be true. The SRCE reads like a dream and that's not something I can say about most of the decks I've encountered.
I can not recommend this deck highly enough. If I had to rate it using the five star system with one being lowest and five being highest, I'd be at a loss because five measely stars doesn't even begin to cover this magnificent creation of creations. The SRCE deserves at least a thousand plus star rating!
-Copyright 2005 Raven
