Deck Review: Sawyer’s Path Tarot

Prepare yourselves for some serious gushing because I really really really LOVE this deck, the Sawyer’s Path Tarot by Jamie Sawyer. It’s fun but it’s also deep. The art manages to be both quirky and cute, but strangely haunting and emotive. I first saw it on @tarottidbits78’s beautiful page and was like “oh noooooo” because I’d promised myself no more decks, especially not (understandably) expensive indie ones with international postage costs, but the minute I saw it I knew it HAD TO BE MINE! I bought it as a pair with the Tarot 336, and I also got the Tarot Transitions, but I’ll introduce them all separately, because they all have very different personalities!

The box design and the card backs are just 👌🏼. Card stock is great quality, and they feel really lush to handle. 10/10, top marks.

I warned you there’d be gushing!

Annnnnnd you get this fab guidebook by Sawyer and her mum, which is the perfect balance of practical and whimsical ♥️

Obviously at this point the Death card gives me major OFMD vibes, which is a bonus, because I freaking love that show. I love the flag (black apparently means that the pirates will show some mercy to those that don’t resist, quarter will be given), and I love the ship sailing away towards the horizon. It really expresses that sometimes we need to grieve, lose, and let things go in order to be free and experience a new dawn.

The Chariot is just super beautiful. Interesting she has pentacles on her crown, as I do see The Chariot as quite a Pents-affiliated card.

I love this depiction of Strength; the affection between the woman and the lion, as well as her being older. I think it’s difficult to achieve the kind of emotional maturity the card speaks to without having been around the block a few times!

The nine of Pents here is just lush, the wealthy woman in her fertile garden communing with nature. I love the snail callback from the original RWS. Apparently this was based on Rosalind from Shakespeare’s ‘As You Like It’, where she says she’d rather be wooed by a snail than Orlando, because, though he comes slowly, he comes with his house on his back, “a better jointure, I think, than you make a woman… he comes armed with his fortune”. Nine of Pents don’t want no scrubs!

I struggle a bit with the court cards, so it’s a great testimony to Jamie’s art that I just really connect with her King of Cups, Queen of Pents, and Knight of Wands so well. The wise old King keeping his ship steady even on stormy seas, the high-achieving matriarch, the relentlessly driven quester (love his laser vision eyes!)

The three of Swords is beautiful, and the two of Wands does such a good job of showing the glory of having the world at your feet, and the recognition that the world is not enough.

And the Hermit ♥️

Deck interview with Sawyer’s Path Tarot

1. Tell me about yourself? What is your most important characteristic as a deck?

The Empress: This deck is a nurturer and a comforter, here to provide loving guidance.

2. What are your strengths as a deck?

The Emperor: Interesting! This deck is also practical and quick witted, goal focused and solution orientated. I did a full on swirl everything around, shuffle, swirl, then purposefully split all the remaining adjacent majors and suits up and shuffled again, so the fact these two cards came together after all that suggests this deck is basically channelling all kinds of energies. Muma gives me a hug and then dad tells me how to fix the problem 😂.

3. What are your limits as a deck?

4 of Cups: I’ve got to be willing to open myself up to opportunities and embrace life enthusiastically. This deck is not here for apathy or boredom. If I need a time of rest and withdrawal, I should look elsewhere for advice.

4. What do you require from me in return? How can I best collaborate with you?

Judgement: I need to wake up and listen to what the cards tell me about how to pursue my calling and stay true to myself.

5. What is the potential quality of our relationship?

3 of Swords: Given the energies of the spread as a whole (Emperor *and* Empress, Justice, Judgement) I think this card here is telling me that this deck will help me resolve conflicts between my heart and my head. It is unwise to be totally led by passion and instinct, but neither should you be so ruled by logic that you ignore your emotions and desires. Bringing these two things together when they’re in conflict can be painful, but is ultimately worthwhile.

6. In what space / with what type of query will you best communicate?

Justice: I need to be ready to take accountability for my actions, but this deck will dispense its wisdom fairly and compassionately. The whole deck is telling me it’s here to help me make sensible yet emotionally fulfilling longterm choices about my future.

.

.

.

.