pagan2


My attention was drawn by an ad for the new circular edition of the Pagan deck. During my visit to the Uusi website to buy the deck I noticed that the designs were quite different from those in the first Pagan deck and that a regular sized with shiny red edges was available too with renewed designs. I ordered both, but somehow only the regular, rectangular deck was send.		However, from the provided images of the circular deck on their site I suspect that they were based on the Pagan Tarot deck. I don't collect Tarot decks, so I can't be sure. The influence of the Tarot deck is found in this regular sized deck too. The suits are French, but the courts show the Spanish suits that are used in Tarot decks.
So in the spades suit all courts carry swords, in the hearts suit they hold cups, in the diamonds suit coins and in the clubs suit... clubs (aka wants).

The seal mentions that the deck was published in 2021 in a limited edition, although a number isn't mentioned. It also mentions "PAGAN BY UUSI", the URL of their website and "CREATED IN THE USA". The latter is not completely true. Of course the creative process was done by Linnea and Peter and the preprint work by the Expert Playing Card Co. in New York, but the actual printing was done in China. Maybe that's because in China using foils and embossing boxes is cheaper than in the US or maybe it lacks the know-how in the US, although I find the latter hard to believe. Anyway, it seems that they didn't want to advertise it very clearly, as that info on the bottom of the box in very small black print on a dark red-brown background. Even with a magnifying glass hard to read!
About 2 decades ago I learned that the machinery of Chinese manufacturers was set to create 54 cards. I had thought that by now that would have changed, but was disappointed to see that this Pagan deck came with 2 jokers only. I guess that the price of the gold and red foil had to be paid by loosing the diptych on the extra cards. I used to consider this as Uusi's signature in their decks, as they were, to my knowledge, the first to use the extra cards in that way.

The spades suit replaces the clubs suit from the 1st Pagan deck. Overall a warm brown colour is used now. It brings the suit more in line with the idea of a dedicated colour per suit, which was already used in their first Pagan deck. The furs and warm clothing were kept, so now winter is represented by this suit.


The design of the KS was redrawn, but is based on the KC from the first Pagan deck, in a mirrored version.				The JS has lost his hoody, but the wolf element was kept.


The hearts suit apparently still represents the spring. The men longing to fill their cup.... with love? The large cup of the queen is closed with a lid, as if not ready to poor or be filled. No, it's not a potato. I think she's holding a peach as symbol of sensuality.

The aces show the suit signs from both systems.

I was happy to see that Linnea and Peter had signed the AS for me, but I was really touched by the added postcard with personal condolences about Miriam.


Is this suit still my favorite? I'm afraid not. Sometimes less is more..... or better. The king's headwear and the jack's mask are kept, but less fur tree in the first deck leaves room for more details, like the acorns. In my opinion here the fur tree is too abundantly present, too dense now. However, the queen has been completely redrawn too and I like her better. She shows her delicate face and holds some asters, typically seasonal flowers for the fall. The "foxy" element is kept.


	A completely redrawn court, but it didn't affect the nature of this suit.
New elements are the ram and goat as headwear and the introduction of the coins in the designs. Their structure fits that of the courts very well.
SUMMERTIME IN THE PAGAN WORLD!


The first joker is based on the Death card from the Tarot deck. I don't have the Pagan Tarot deck to compare all the designs, so there's a chance that the second joker is also based on a card from the Tarot deck.

The back design was used in all the Pagan decks, be it in different colours, on the cards and also the boxes of the Pagan decks. A good reason to use it as background on this page.