You may be familiar with the Playful Heart Tarot by Kitten Chops (Zaara), based on the RWS, whereas the latest creation from the KittenChops studios is a Marseille-based pip deck, the PipSpeak Tarot.

After completing the RWS-based Playful Heart Tarot, Zaara redefined her work with the tarot by unpacking her RWS framework and re-learning the tarot with the Marseille. The result is the PipSpeak Tarot, which became a liberating experience. Likewise, this might just be the very deck to get a seasoned RWS reader out of a rut.

“Fortune tellers and cunning folk have been reading with Marseille and playing card/pip decks for hundreds of years,” writes the artist. “Instead of esoteric intellectual prowess, these readers have been relying on their common sense, their understanding of human nature and key card reading wisdom passed down from generation to generation.”

The namesake for this deck, PipSpeak, is a play on words. “Pip” also means to chirp or to crack the initial hole while hatching from an egg, which is the underlying premise of this deck — to help you crack your pip deck readings, to thus learn how to listen to your own hunches.

When reading the trump cards, observe what the characters illustrated on the card is doing, not what they represent. Thus, read at face value, interpreting actions and behavior within the four corners of the card, not metaphorical symbolism or correspondences into other mystery traditions. Go back to basics and keep it simple.

Let’s run through an example. Above, see La Bateleur, the Magician card. (For funsies, I’ve also included the Magician card from Zaara’s previous deck, Playful Heart Tarot.) If you’re a seasoned tarot reader, try to forget all of your learnings. Don’t look at this card as an archetype or bring in astrological or Kabbalistic correspondences to support interpretation of meaning. Just look and observe what the character depicted on the card is doing.

What is the main action you can identify? What can you intuit about this character just by looking at it? What does body language reveal? Here, The Magician’s gestures suggest slight of hand, and so he is someone performing tricks. A trickster. Someone is putting up a great show, trying to dazzle and show you how clever they are.

The Popess is well-studied, self-assured, regal, and powerfully positioned, secure in that position. Here is someone who understands everything she sees, and who is keeping track of what’s happening.

The Pope, Key V, is someone that the people (the masses) look up to as a figure of authority. The Pope has the power to bless, the power to change lives, to steer in people per his moral compass. When this card comes up, you see a beloved teacher, an influencer, with devoted acolytes, or perhaps even fans.

The Hanged Man is suspended upside down, so he is going to see the world from a different perspective than most. But perhaps, because of that, he doesn’t always conform to the rule of law.

In homage to TdM tradition, Key XIII is untitled. This card in PipSpeak is The Unnamed One. He cuts, he severs, he clears the field, and also, he harvests.

Card XV, The Devil, features two little sunflower seeds chained to the devil’s podium. He’s holding down and suppressing potential. Then see how in Card XVIII, The Sun, those two sunflower seeds have bloomed into sunflower babies. Full potential is actualized.

Some symbolic interpretation does come into play when we start reading the pip cards, following numerology. Here, though, feel free to program the cards with your own attributions for the numbers. Is the number 4 going to indicate stability or cessation for you (a generalization of the western and eastern divide between their respective numerological systems)? Is the number 8 unrealized gains/losses or is it prosperity?

I love the approach to reading pips that Zaara shares in the guidebook: the number scale is like a control knob, with 1 being low or dim and 10 being high or intense. So, for example, one coin is a little bit of money, but the verdant growth around the coin represents future potential, and ten coins is a lot of money, suggesting materialized gain. The Ace of Cups is one cup, for little love, minimal feeling at this time, while the Ten of Cups is too many drinks, overwhelm of feeling, and exhausted emotion; there’s going to be spillage.

Note the specific color coding that you’ll find in the PipSpeak. The suit of Batons (Wands) is color-coded yellow, for the sun, for ripening fruits, and industry. Whereas the suit of Cups is color-coded red, for desire, delight, wine, and blood. In PipSpeak, the suit of passion is here in the Cups.

The Swords are color-coded blue, to signify that which is cool, cold, impersonal, and pensive. The Coins are green and black — green for vitality, strength, and growth; black for endurance, resilience, transformation. Together, green and black signify life and death, balance of light and shadow, nature and mystery.

Note also how the court cards in each suit do not continue the color-coding of their respective suits, but share a similar golden-hue background as the Majors. The Cups court are people driven by desire. Coins people are driven by reason. Baton people are melancholic, and driven by contemplation, possibly even idealism;. Swords people are driven by action, ambition courage, and pride.

Kings order and delegate; they wield power in their respective fields. Queens are creators and instigators, so for example, if ill-positioned, a Queen can instigate drama or gossip. Knights go off on adventures; they’re mission-driven. Pages are still apprentices and in learning/play mode.

There are four bonus cards in the PipSpeak deck:

Time: This is the cosmic hourglass. In lieu of the Death card, you can swap in this Time card.

C’est Si Bon: This is Curious Courage, which as iconography reminiscent of the Fool card.

The Language of the Birds: This card features St. Francis. Per the guidebook, “In European medieval occultism and literature, the language of the birds was thought to be a divine, angelic language to communicate with the initiated ones.”

And finally, the Yes (Oui) and No (Non) cards.

The deck is printed on micro linen cardstock, which means it’s buttery smooth to shuffle. There’s gold foil detailing on the cards, which just elevates the cards to a level of luxe that makes them fun to work with.

While the PipSpeak cardstock is the same finish as the Playful Heart Tarot, it’s slightly smaller than the standard tarot size dimensions. The PipSpeak is 60 mm x 110 mm (compared to the standard tarot size of 70 mm x 120 mm).

The edges are a matte finish with just the slightest most subtle gold shimmer when the cards move across your reading table. I love the LWB (little white booklet) and how much practical TdM reading how-to is packed into it. The mantra for working with this deck: See for Yourself. Think for Yourself.

Everything comes in a beautiful matchbox style box with gold foil detailing. KittenChops is kind of a branding and design genius. I love how everything is always so cohesive.

From the moment you receive the package, it’s an experience. She curates every millisecond of your interaction with the deck to make sure it counts.

As I had ruminated on for Playful Heart Tarot, cuteness is often dismissed as trivial, playful indulgence, but the soft, endearing forms can serve as powerful symbols of resilience, hope, and emotional connection.

It’s joy. It’s evocative of primal responses within us, the positive ones that induce us to love, to nurture, to comfort, to hold affection for. Playfulness and hope fosters emotional resilience.

Likewise, those cute, playful elements are here in the PipSpeak Tarot, in all the incredible art that comes from KittenChops.

Working with her art is like micro-meditation. It’s momentary relief from negative thought patterns. It’s a shot of oxytocin that gifts us with a sense of comfort.

I love the childlike wonder in Zaara’s art. It’s like spiritual balm. I feel sense of wonder and gratitude. The cuddly animals and anthropomorphic characters instruct us, on a subconscious level, to be kind.

There’s incredible therapeutic benefits to working with a deck like PipSpeak or the earlier deck Playful Heart Tarot.

I love how these simple, adorable paintings (Zaara’s illustrations are done in gouache and colored pencil) are so highly effective at helping us navigate complex feelings.

Zaara’s art guides us to celebrate cuteness, and to see the positively transformative force that such illustrations can possess. Zaara and I met back in 2022 in Portland at the Northwest Tarot Symposium. (Scroll through that linked post and you’ll find a selfie of Zaara and me.) You’ll see how even in that photo caption, I noted that Zaara was, at that time, at work on a Marseille deck.

Well, here it is now! She gifted me with this copy of the PipSpeak, not for review purposes, but just because she’s cool.

Working with the Tarot de Marseille becomes irresistible fun with the PipSpeak illustrations. It’s delightful and whimsical, and stands out for its combination of the traditional TdM structure and its uniquely charming cute art style. It’s a fresh take on the classic Marseille system, yet blends in something playful and refreshing.

KittenChops is known for her playful aesthetic, art that is somehow both minimalist and yet detailed, with a whole lot of personality. PipSpeak succeeds at de-mystifying the TdM. Its whimsy and warmth are what set this deck apart.

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