Oracle of Novice Witches is a 50-card deck featuring 24 witches and wizards from history and folklore, 13 tools of the craft, and 13 animal familiars. The deck was created by Francesca Matteoni and with art by Elisa Macellari.
The full-color guidebook accompanying the cards features a profile summary of every witch and wizard depicted. Entries for the tools of craft define each tool’s purpose and how it’s generally used. For the familiars, animal symbolism and correspondences are provided.
With a berry and jewel toned color palette, The Art of Adventure Tarot is a space-faring sci-fi graphic novel in the form of a 78-card tarot deck. The deck is the brainchild of Pakistani filmmaker Bilal Lashari and illustrated by Manuel Pasmino.
This fun-filled deck is a little bit of everything. You get Victorian Steampunk that’s retrofuturistic with industrial machines and robotic motifs. It’s dystopian. It’s utopian. And everything in between.
Continue reading “The Art of Adventure Tarot by Bilal Lashari”
Created with the intention of being a shadow tarot deck, the Dark Wood Tarot by Sasha Graham and illustrated by Abigail Larson unveils the hidden aspects of your inner psyche. It is designed to guide you into uncharted territory, expressed as the forest deep.
Atmospheric, gothic-inspired, with a Legend of Sleepy Hollow vibe to it, and steeped in animal symbolism, this is a deliciously witchy deck– the Shadow Witch, to be exact. If you love animal symbolism, you are going to love this deck.
Continue reading “Dark Wood Tarot by Sasha Graham and Abigail Larson”
If you have MS Word, then you can use all the templates in this post to create your own spiral-bound tarot journal keyed to the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot.
Convert your final document to PDF and upload it onto a third-party print-on-demand publishing site like Lulu.com.
The above cover design is for 6″ x 9″ trade paperback size journals, spiral bound.
Inlé’s Inlet recently posted the above deck review and commentary on the Angels and Ancestors Oracle Cards, which raises cultural awareness of some concerns with the imagery in this deck. To be more precise, it’s not the imagery that’s of concern, but the lack of credit and acknowledgement for where the sources of inspiration came from.
The distinct drum design featured on the Drum card, the Shaman card, and on the card back of the Angels and Ancestors deck (photographs of it in my deck review) have been taken directly from Sámi religious and spiritual iconography.
However, no credit, reference, or source citation was provided in the accompanying guidebook, in effect erasing the Sámi, who are a historically marginalized indigenous minority.
This is a form of appropriation of indigenous cultural intellectual property rights. Yet this particular instance is one that could be reasonably remedied.
In this type of a scenario, I do think addressing the issue head-on is the compassionate approach.
Continue reading “Sámi Erasure, and Takeaway Lessons; Angels and Ancestors Oracle”
Just another blog post update on the progress of my Etteilla deck. This is the Ace, Two, and Three of Cups.
Please continue to treat what you see in these progress posts as works-in-progress. Everything is subject to change. Keywords are temporary placeholders. And I still don’t know about the final layout design.
My last Etteilla tarot deck project update left off with an incomplete Ace of Cups. I’m back from my hiatus, but due to a lot going on in my life right now, the pace at which I’ll be creating these cards will be significantly slower than what I could do for the SKT.
For the suit name I decided on Cups instead of Chalices because this isn’t an occulty esoteric deck like the SKT. I want the Etteilla deck to feel more mundane and versatile.
Etteilla associated the Ace of Cups card with the Ten Commandments, so in the reversed position, I feature the Ark of the Covenant, which houses the tablets.
The Ark is depicted on the Ace of Cups reversed as a divinatory omen that a profound change has already occurred in the querent, a complete change to your essence that results from reconciliation between Divine Will and personal will.
There’s also another fun connection. In theosophic numerology, the Ace of Cups corresponds with the number 4. Note here in Etteilla’s numbering, card 49 = 4 (4 + 9 = 13, 1 + 3 = 4). And that Ark image I’m using is the same one from SKT’s Key 4: The Emperor. =)
A while back I shared zip file downloads of the above deck here. I called it the Petit Etteilla, because that’s what it was called on the British Museum page that I got the images from.
And then much smarter cartomancy community members pointed out that it’s actually a deck called the Livre du Destin, or Book of Fate.
Continue reading “Reading with the Livre du Destin (or Book of Fate)”
Back in 2018 I had the great privilege of reviewing the Majors Only version of Hans Bauer’s The Lost Tarot. The deck is premised on a fictionalized back story of an English merchant, William Bradford, who purchases from Leonardo da Vinci an optical device and early prototype of the modern camera.
This certain Mr. Bradford takes a series of photographs with da Vinci’s device, which was then lost in time, and only rediscovered in 1994. After some restoration efforts of those medieval photographs, The Lost Tarot is born.
Finally in 2022, the full deck is realized, accompanied by a fantastic full-color guidebook written by Carly Fischer. The guidebook is absolutely amazing. Not only does it make for a great primer on the tarot, following popular RWS card meanings, but it supports Bauer’s deck beautifully.
I do love the parchment design for the card backs. It works well with the premise of the deck. Love that Ace of Cups!
Continue reading “The Lost Tarot by Hans Bauer (Guidebook by Carly Fischer)”
I’ll be taking a several-month hiatus from working on the Etteilla deck project because I have a book manuscript to complete. But before I take that hiatus, I want to “leave off” on a happy card.
And the last card of the Second Septenary in the Etteilla– The Devil– isn’t quite the happy card I’m thinking of. =)
So I’ve started the Ace of Cups, and am intentionally leaving it incomplete. That way it’s the prolonging energies in my space until I return. More about that. Keep reading.
POLL #1: Should I call the suit Chalices or Cups? I think technically for this deck, it’s supposed to be Chalices, right? But Cups just flows off the tongue better than Chalices, and much easier to verbalize. Let me know what you think.
Continue reading “Etteilla Redux Project & Hiatus: Finishing the Second Septenary”
This masterpiece reproduction of the Jean Dodal Tarot by Justin Michael and Shell David (of East Tarot) is everything to me right now. It’s a fixture on the corner of my personal reading desk and when I’m catching up with old friends via zoom video calls, I’ll reach for this particular deck, sling some cards while we virtual-klink wine glasses, and read about Life.
I wish I could tell you that they’re selling these and you can buy one for yourself, but I’m not sure. You’ll need to reach out to either Justin Michael or Shell David directly to find out. Whatever the cost, having just one of such decks is worth your investment.
It becomes that prized tool. You’re not paying for just another tarot deck for your collection. Something like this is special. It’s the artisan craftsmanship and the personal touch that you’re investing in, which I truly believe is converted into energy and gets infused throughout the deck.
Dating back to around 1701, the Jean Dodal deck, one of the early iterations of the Tarot de Marseille tradition of tarots, were printed from woodcut engravings and hand-colored by stencil, produced primarily for export. Shell David’s restoration project is top notch, and Justin Michael’s printing and production– just, wow.
Continue reading “Jean Dodal Tarot (a hand-crafted masterpiece by Justin Michael and Shell David)”
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