The Muse Tarot by Chris-Anne Donnelly is a contemporary tarot deck reimagined into the four suits of Inspiration (Wands), Emotions (Cups), Voices (Swords), and Materials (Pentacles or Coins) rendered in vibrant digital art collage.

It is the fraternal twin of the Light Seer’s Tarot and I’m here for it.

Dynamic and full of energy, The Muse Tarot comes to us when such a vivid deck is most needed, helping us to navigate the challenging times our world currently finds itself in. Uplifting and bright, this is the deck that will help you to overcome creative blocks and jump-start your inner drive.

Let’s start with a simple reading. Choose a card: left, center, or right. Remember your selection. We’ll be revisiting these three cards at the end of this review and through the card you’ve drawn, get a little message from Spirit at your place and time, and also see how you connect with the Muse Tarot.

The Muse Tarot is very now. While it has that modern lightworker and starseed vibe to it, the deck is in no way overly saccharine. You can call it optimistic. Call it ethereal. But if you actually work with the cards in readings alongside the guidebook Chris-Anne wrote, it’s not love and light at the expense of reality. If anything, there’s an energy here with the capacity to uplift you from darkness.

If you’ve been on Instagram or YouTube and tend to check out the lifestyle influencers who are integrating New Age spirituality into their everyday lives, this is the deck they show. That or Light Seers Tarot. And there is a reason for that. Something about how this deck vibrates is resonating with a swath of the spiritual community.

Some of these cards are just jaw-dropping in beauty, in the scope of meaning it encompasses, and the evocation of emotion they achieve. That Seven of Inspiration (Wands)– wow!

There’s also a companion website with all card meanings and an in-depth exploration of each card here. Let’s see what it has to say about that Seven of Inspiration.

The Seven of Inspiration is about defending and protecting your own Light. The spark for this deck came to Donnelly clairaudiently, and when it did, she heard poetry.

The poetry then in turn inspired the design of each card. Taking the Seven of Inspiration card as an example. You can hear an audio clip of that poem and read the affirmative power words channeled for this card here.

The Muse card in each suit has a landscape layout. Here, the Muse from the suit of Inspiration commands fire, is a leader. How did She come to Be?

“Sweet divine weaver please send me a muse inspired by fire with wind in her shoes…” Donnelly’s poems are captivating, heartwarming, and majestic. Ah, that’s the descriptive I was searching for to express this deck– The Muse Tarot is majestic.

There are also free (and really well produced) guided meditation audio clips on the website for you to you work with; here‘s the one for the Suit of Emotions (Cups).

The potency of this deck is invigorating. It’s got this stimulating, activated qi to it. The cards feels to be full of verve.

And as a result, it makes me happy. As you work with these cards, you’ll instinctively reach into yourself beyond and past your own shadow and find joy. That’s what this deck does– it reveals your innocence and joy. Like that Six of Emotions card pictured off to the side above– that adventurous and idealistic inner child speaking to you again. Many of Donnelly’s pictorial interpretations of the traditional tarot are clever, like that Four of Emotions.

You’ll see a repeating theme of mirroring in the imagery on these cards, which calls to a deeper layer of Chris-Anne’s intent. At present, studies in particle physics and quantum wavefunctions are based largely on observation of symmetries. There are fundamental symmetries to the construct of our world, physical and metaphysical. That’s what these mirroring patterns in The Muse Tarot allude to.

There’s a harmony of the spheres played by the orchestra of surrealist imagery here. Scan the imagery of the cards for your first impression and you see the charisma of  the colors. Close your eyes, then open them to scan again, and now you see the  science of the mathematical constructs. When I see through the face of these cards, I see its science. I see sacred engineering.

The art is in an Eclectic Visionary style rooted in New Age themes. You know what came to my mind? A modernized, feminized, techno-forward William Blake, the way Donnelly is exploring similar themes as Blake’s integration between visual art and prophetic poetry. Both convey a distinct sense that their works have been divinely inspired.

Back to the three cards. Remember which card you chose, left, right, or center? By the way I love the card backs, how the geometric forms connect it to its fraternal twin, the Light Seer’s.

LEFT | 8 of Materials (8 of Pentacles/Coins)

Once, I felt initiated,
Once, I felt alive—
Once, I felt inspired,
And twice, I’ve felt this drive…

You can click on the hyperlinked “8 of Materials” above to go straight to Donnelly’s Muse Tarot website and read the card entry online.

You find a sense of calm in the craft of your Work. You have a gift for seeing beauty in this world where others cannot, and your Work is to reveal and to share that beauty. You are currently in a stage of development, but stay diligent and persistent, because you are on the right track to attaining the prosperity you seek.

You’re on to something big. Now is the time to perfect your material works. Lean in to that inner drive of yours.

CENTER | 4 of Inspiration (4 of Wands)

A gathering of epic trust
Of faith and love and kin
A gathering of epic must
The rite as we begin— begin…

Click on the hyperlinked “4 of Inspiration” above to read the card’s companion text, poem, and guided meditation.

Soon you’ll be returning to a happy interval of life. There will be gatherings and celebrations. This is an initiatory stage of your story arc–a new milestone. Love is what will support your journey ahead. Love is the beacon of light to look for, and to follow. This is the launching point of your ascension.

Seek out like minds and kindred spirits. Surround yourself with those who support your goals and who share your vision.

RIGHT | The Priestess (Key 2: The High Priestess)

You are the desert and the sea
And everything in you is free
As you are I, and I are we
The veil that thins in you is me…

Listen to your intuition. Yes, fully awaken that which has been stirring deep inside, because what you’re feeling is the divine calling. Heed that call. You are where you are so that you might cultivate wisdom. One of the Purposes you were born with is to be a carrier of specialized knowledge. Stay true on the path for deepening that knowledge– it is how you become a pillar of wisdom that will inspire others.

The above hyperlinked “The Priestess” caption will take you to the card’s companion poetry and meditation audio clips, along with field notes on how to interpret this card.

Although birthed at the same time, The Muse Tarot is distinctly different in tone, style, and personality from The Light Seer’s Tarot, which felt more scenic and visually descriptive, while The Muse is more abstract and figurative, evocative through its more seemingly spontaneous juxtaposition of symbolism.

If you love The Starchild Tarot and the art style of Danielle Noel, or The Voyager Tarot by James Wanless, and you’re looking for tarot art illustrations that are going to be tender, comforting, and sympathetic, then you’re going to love Chris-Anne Donnelly’s The Muse Tarot.