Tarot of the Guiding Muse is one of those decks that immediately tugs at my heartstrings. The deck follows the personal journey of Emi, and reading about her journey through the archetypal narrative of the tarot, you remember to acknowledge your own personal story amidst the daily chaos.

The deck comes in a magnetic keepsake box with a companion guidebook that reads like a storybook. The guidebook is my favorite feature of the deck set, in fact. It helps you to see the cohesion in the deck art, and fully grasp how holistic the deck concept is.

Every card, Major and Minor, is featured on a full page, illustrated by the deck art. A simple sentence summarizes the card’s meaning.

• “Emi begins her journey…” for Key 0: The Fool. “She conjures new power…” for Key 1: The Magician.
• “She reaches across realms…” for Key 2: The High Priestess.
• Above you see in Card 18: The Moon, “She is uncertain…” and then, once she has overcome her fears,
• “She has fun…” in Card 19: The Sun.

You get immediately anchoring keywords for both the upright and reversed positioning of the cards, and how you might see the implications of the cards in your reading is told through the plot point the card covers in Emi’s story. Emi is inspired by the artist’s wife, Emily Hsu (née Nakamo), who herself is a tarot reader (and criminologist with the CA DOJ).

Let’s walk through an example. When you pull the Two of Wands for a daily card draw, open the guidebook for reference. Here, Emi has the luxury of choosing her new journey, as do you. Her inspired ideas are being put into action, which is the message that now motivates you to put your ideas into action. If the card appeared upright, key themes for the day are planning, decision-making, and discovery. If the card appeared in reverse for the day, then key themes are to face the unknown, and to navigate wishful thinking. The question to ask yourself: “Which path shall I take?”

Ted Hsu is the artist and creator of the deck. The art is hand-drawn, digitally colored with a stylus and tablet, inspired by a fusion of influences. The vibrant color palette draws from Japanese animation’s emotional expressiveness, while composition elements echo the delicate lines of woodblock print techniques.

I love how the order of cards implies that the Queen outranks the King in this deck, though Hsu has preserved the traditional card meanings for the cards.

The scenic illustrations effortlessly tell a story that will resonate with Asian Americans, straddling East Asian culture and the landscapes of Northern California, where the artist is domiciled. As an Asian American, every scene in this deck is familiar to me, resonates close to home, and echoes my lived experience.

Click on any of the photos for a zoomed in close-up view of the artwork. Let’s consider the deck’s Key 20: Judgement:

“Emi stands on the edge of a stormy ocean. Although many have failed before her, she answers the call of the Phoenix. She is ready to beat impossible odds. Her past battles have prepared her for this moment. C’mon people, we can do this.”

The capitalized Phoenix, as I interpret it, is the Fenghuang 鳳凰 of Chinese lore, a symbol of rebirth, nobility, purification, and the divine promise of blessings to come if you overcome the trial that you have been presented with.

Pay attention to the details! Because through the details you can play connect the dots. Emi featured in The Tower card, for instance, is in the same hat and outfit she’s in for the Nine of Coins, showing how she prevailed despite facing the harrowing trial of The Tower. In the Nine of Coins, “Emi has made it!”

In the vast landscape of tarot decks, few capture my experience, my world view, and my sense of personal identity quite like Ted Hsu’s Tarot of the Guiding Muse, right down to the detail of Emi being a cat lover.

Scenes like the Four of Cups in the ice cream parlor brings nostalgia. “Emi puts on her pouty-pants face, even when offered ice cream from beyond. Despite the variety of divine offerings, she remains skeptical.” She says “meh”…

I love that this deck is not exactly an RWS dupe where linework mimics Pamela Colman-Smith’s. See the Aces in the deck, for instance, or that Two of Swords (“She tip toes…”). The card meaning will be familiar to any studied tarot reader, but the artwork is creative and original.

I love the recurring motifs, like earlier in the Six of Coins, “Emi enjoys volunteering at the local cat shelter” to here in the Six of Swords, “Emi takes her cat and a bag of swords on a lonely journey towards greener pastures.”

In lieu of the Fool’s dog, we have Emi’s cat, who began the adventure by her side in Key 0, “Her loyal cat at her side.”

Even that Ten of Swords depiction is exquisite. Woven into the deck is a love story, though here in the Ten of Swords, it’s of heartbreak and betrayal. “Emi is horrified to discover her partner’s infidelity.”

There’s a plot connection between the Ten and the Three of Swords. In the Three, she is heartbroken. “Emi stands at the doorway, watching her lover pack his bags. Hurtful words have been exchanged and tears continue to fall. Although dark clouds gather, the sun breaks through. She will work through this.”

Every detail in the artwork is thoughtful. Take, for instance, the reflection in the mirror from the Nine of Swords:

“Emi is up late washing her hands again. Her demons plague her and she is fraught with anxiety. But it’s all in her head. Why? Why? Why?“

That late-night hand washing suggests deeper psychological processes and inner conflicts at play, from obsessive-compulsive disorder tendencies to a need for absolution and purification.

Emi, by the way, follows her own moral compass, with a strong sense of social justice. The Seven of Swords depicts Emi trespassing and, well, breaking and entering into a mansion, stealing, and then making her escape undetected. “Got ’em!” 

Revisiting the departure from RWS iconography to interpret the card meanings more originally, see the Eight of Wands. She speeds up…

“Emi rides her agile jackalope, propelling towards each target. She shoots quickly, knowing that her opportunities are fleeting. *Zoom!*

Or that Ten of Wands illustration —

“Emi swims towards the surface. She is determined to make it while carrying all of her belongings. She may have bitten off more than she can chew.” I can swim harder…

One little point — Usually I like to assess the deck creator’s chosen order of the cards, though here, it’s unclear what Hsu’s intentions were in terms of order in the Minors. The cards out of the box went in the order of Coins, Cups, Swords, Wands, which appears to be simply alphabetical order, whereas in the guidebook, the card entries appear in the order of Wands, Coins, Swords, Cups, which is likely to follow an astrological order (i.e., Fire, Earth, Air, and Water signs as they appear around a zodiac wheel).

Here, due to that inconsistency, I wasn’t quite sure what the artist’s intention was in terms of deck architecture and the implications of his particular choice of structural design.

As for the artist, Hsu is a neuroscientist and science writer who took a leap of faith and changed careers, now pursuing the arts. During the pandemic, he went through a bit of an existential crisis, as many did, and started to pursue art more seriously.

His approach to the tarot, and thus the key premise of the Tarot of the Guiding Muse, is to work with the tarot beyond fortune-telling, esotericism, or spirituality, but rather, as a practical everyday tool for introspection and self-reflection. It’s about stepping into another world to better understand yours.

You could even say that Hsu’s approach to tarot is somewhat existentialist, because Tarot of the Guiding Muse, on some level, conveys the thesis that meaning-making is in our own hands, and is a personal responsibility. The protagonist of this deck, Emi, is on a journey of self-discovery and actualizing personal authenticity, which inspires us to take on a similar existential journey for ourselves.

In terms of production values, the cardstock has a matte linen finish and the card size at 7.6 x 13 cm is just slightly wider and taller than standard tarot size (7 x 12 cm). Also, that it is packaged in a magnetic keepsake box and comes with a full-color paperback guidebook all at just $40 USD (as of this posting) makes it really budget-friendly! You can even pay in 2 interest-free installment of $20. As someone with background experience in the logistics of that, that’s an incredible and generous kindness by the artist.

I feel deeply connected to Emi’s journey, her growth from that initial call to adventure, crossing the threshold, the adversity she faces, her transformation, and her return with new knowledge — yes, her heroine’s journey. I follow her across landscapes that are familiar to me, and a cultural tapestry that is meaningful to my cultural experience. And yet the Tarot of the Guiding Muse is a world that is truly universal, because it is authentic.

Tarot of the Guiding Muse and its storybook weaves meanings and interpretation of the tarot into an emotionally resonant narrative arc. The deck is first and foremost a love song, from the artist dedicated his wife. It is magical realism with thoughtful parables, subtle recurring motifs and symbols, beautifully written prose,  that all comes together to present us with an enchanting, memorable epic.

Truly one of my favorite tarot decks and highlights of 2024.

Order the Tarot of the Guiding Muse Here

FTC Disclosure: In accordance with Title 16 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Part 255, “Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising,” I received the deck set from the creator for prospective review. Everything I’ve said here is sincere and accurately reflects my opinion of the deck.