After a series of hard hits and feeling the dooming sense that her world was collapsing around her, Jessi Huntenberg went outside to sit alone in nature and cleared her mind. Once her mind was clear, she heard the universe whisper to her, “Paint.”
And so she did. The Genius Garden Tarot was created from 78 acrylics on canvas paintings, and the first work to be produced was St. Brigid, then a smoldering brush fire, and then a woman in nude. These three visions in succession conveyed the divine message that came to instruct Huntenberg’s creative direction.
Since the opening premise of the tarot deck I created, the Spirit Keeper’s Tarot, was to explore and experiment with the concept of animism, I thought I might chime in. To that end, I’d like to separate out the discussion on deck personification and the discussion on animism.
This is just a flip-through first impressions look-see of the Earth Magick Tarot by Daniel Martin Diaz. So I won’t delve too much into commentary. We’re here for the pretty pictures. =)
I was gifted this deck by the creatrix while at the Omega Institute Masters of the Tarot Conference and thought it might be fun to write up a first impressions walk-through. This is the Abstract Futures Tarot, illustrated by Dannielle Tegeder and Sharmistha Ray who together, make up Hilma’s Ghost. Tegeder and Ray are both Brooklyn-based avant-garde artists.
Hilma’s Ghost produces art that is conducting “experimental pedagogy, transcultural dialogue, and collectivity through the lens of feminism and spirituality to build community and reckon with patriarchal art histories that have excluded women, trans, and nonbinary practitioners.”
The Symbolic Soul Tarot is a black, white, and gold deck that’s brimming with Expressionist mystique. It was released late last year in 2022 by Lo Scarabeo. The artwork is by Italian illustrator Elisa Seitzinger, and the companion booklet written by one of our favorite Llewellyn editors Barbara Moore.
Packaged in a unique two-piece box structure departing from Lo Scarabeo’s norm, the production value is indie-reminiscent. The luxe, matte finish cardstock with metallic gold accents will tantalize.
Everybody needs a vampire deck. Is a tarot collection even complete without a vampire tarot? 😉 And this one in particular is tantalizing!
The Tarot of the Vampires by Charles Harrington and illustrated by Craig Maher is sleek, modern, and cinematic. You might recognize Charles as the author of the Murder of Crows Tarot (2020), Tarot V (2021), or the Ferenc Pinter Tarot (2021). He’s also a frequent speaker at various tarot conferences.
In terms of a genre, this tarot is delectable blood-sucking dark urban fantasy horror. These illustrations reveal a secret world coexisting with ours– as Harrington puts it, “the world of the undead and their eternal dance suspended between Heaven and Hell.”
That world of the undead and eternal dance enthralls all the more in Tarot of the Vampires because of Maher’s art. Craig Maher is an impressively talented artist in the realm of fantasy and imaginative realism. His renderings of this vampire universe are masterful. The detailing in these illustrations is next level. Just you wait and see.
I reviewed Bela Síol and artist Igor Alexandre’s The Transformational Oracle of The Morrighan here previously, and I’m impressed by how versatile Síol and Alexandre are with their style and point of view, because The Oracle of Nehalennia is so distinct from the artwork and point of view in Oracle of the Morrighan.
The Sacred Awakening Lemurian Temple Oracle Cards, created by Sa’arah Esther Felix, was first published back in 2013. The artwork created from original paintings by Sa’arah melted with photo-collage.
Production wise, the cardstock is very thin and high gloss. While my copy seems to have sustained quite a bit of wear and tear over the last decade, as you can see from the photographs, they’ve still held up to the test of time.
Each card is intended to be a vessel for an ancient mystery, invoking the divine sciences. Working with the deck helps to activate your higher consciousness and connection to the ascended masters.
The images are designed to hold healing power and the ability to transmit encoded information from the Lemurian Temple.
This is a look-through of Casey Zabala’s Wanderer’s Tarot. It’s a black and white tarot deck published in 2021 by Weiser Books billed as a feminist tarot deck for modern witches.
In terms of production, it comes in a fold-out matte finish box while the cards have a semi-gloss finish with metallic silver edging. The size is more oracle than your typical tarot standard, which elevates the presentation aesthetics when you use these cards on clients for professional readings.
Meera Tarot immediately stands out from the crowd, and as soon as I saw it, I realized I had nothing quite like it in my current collection. The art has postmodern avant-garde somewhat Cubist take on medieval Hinduism, rendered with bold, vivid colors and emotive geometric forms.
The deck’s namesake “Meera” means prosperous, virtuous, and fearless, in disregard of social conventions; it can reference a devotee of Krishna, one who is a mystic and a creative.
From the suit of Cups. Per the companion guidebook, this is the realm of feeling. People connected to this suit tend to be artistically gifted and imaginative. Reversed, the suit of Cups can express emotional blocks and repression.
A compelling thesis of this deck is the binate feminine and masculine within each one of us, and that dichotomy’s ever shifting balance. How do you become self-aware of that internal exchange and how does one integrate the two toward self-actualization? The narratives within these cards express the Twin Flame Journey not as one soul in two bodies, but two souls within one body–thus you’ll see the recurring symbolism of the yin and yang.
benebell wen 