Mass Market Decks
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Deck Review: The Lubanko Tarot
The Lubanko Tarot is raw, queer, and unflinching - an indie darling now heading to mass market with Llewellyn. E. Lubanko’s art dives into grief, desire, and truth without sanitising its edges, offering cards that confront and comfort in equal measure.
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Deck Review: The Erenberg Tarot
I seem to be on a bit of a massmarket deck buying spree lately – there have just been so many fab new releases! My heart will always belong to Kickstarter, but it’s such a joy when interesting, layered decks become available at more affordable prices. My latest massmarket acquisition is the Erenberg Tarot by artist and designer Steve Erenberg, and, to the surprise of no one, I’ve got lots to say about it 😂. The deck is essentially a little lovesong to his bestie, the late Stuart R. Kaplan, founder of U.S. Games. The two spent decades “travelling the world together, exploring every antique shop and flea market along…
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Deck Review: The Tempest Tarot Deck
I hesitated before buying the Tempest Tarot Deck, as it’s a little too Pippish to be ‘fully me’, but, in the end, the gorgeous and intuitive art won me over. I’m also a nautical girl through and through. It was me and Mr TarotCake’s lifelong dream to live by the sea, and two years ago we made it a reality when we moved to sunny Southsea. We now live about a 12 minute walk from the beach, and I cannot tell you the wonders it has done for my mental health! There’s something about the sea – its limitless possibility, its hidden depths and luminous horizons – that makes everything…
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Deck Review: MindScapes Tarot
I fell in love with the art for the MindScapes Tarot by John A. Rice the moment I saw it. At that point, it was a Majors Only deck BUT with whispers of an eventual 78-card version, so I decided to bide my time before buying it. I don’t tend to work with Majors Only decks (unless they play nicely with my beloved Minors Only Wyrd of Sarah Howard), so I held out. That said, I did buy an original print of the High Priestess. My wallet winced a little (don’t get me wrong, artists absolutely deserve to get properly paid; I’m just broke, haha), but I couldn’t resist. She’s…
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Deck Review: The Unveiled Tarot
I don’t often buy mass market decks these days, as I try to save my Tarot budget to support indie creators on Kickstarter, but occasionally one comes along that catches my eye, and the Unveiled Tarot was just that. The first thing I’ll say is this is one DARK deck. Like, dark dark. Mother’s-going-to-lock-us-in-the-cellar-and-feed-us-pins dark. Deep, dark, truthful, uncomfortable, almost abrasive at times. It doesn’t have that ‘I’m gonna kick your (metaphysical) teeth in’ vibe that some of my other ‘Dark Decks’ have right off the bat (e.g. the Nigredo Tarot, the Manny Garza Tarot Deck, the Tarot Restless, the Cursed Auguries Tarot). It’s not that obvious darkness. No, this…
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Deck Review: Tarot of Echoes
I’ve felt thoroughly spoilt this year with the release of not one, but two, decks by(/with the involvement of) the incredibly talented Ana Tourian (on top of news of a mass-market Bonestone release :-)) I’ve reviewed Ana’s deck with Claire Duval, Le Tarot Arthurien, here, and in this post I’m going to talk through her recent solo deck, the Tarot of Echoes. I love all of Tourian’s decks. I think her art style is perfectly suited to the Tarot – it just clicks together. Bonestone is my all time ride-or-die deck, and now Tarot of Echoes is right up there. It’s a really beautiful, thoughtful, wonderful deck, and I wholeheartedly…
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Deck Review: Liberation Tarot
“The Tarot cannot show me anything I do not know, but it can help me uncover and dance with my knowing… With a practice like Tarot, we are liberated from isolation into a conversation we can have with ourselves and that which is beyond ourselves, even when we appear to be alone” adrienne maree brown Any deck that features contributions from the amazing adrienne maree brown (I use her writing with my Criminology students *all* the time) instantly gets my attention, so I was very excited to see the Liberation Tarot Deck come up on Kickstarter and backed it straightaway. The deck is now for sale on most online stores, or through the publishers,…
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Deck Review: The Universal Folk Tarot
I’ve been waiting for Anita Iverarity‘s Universal Folk Tarot to come out for aaaaaages, and I’m so happy it’s finally here. I’ve always been a big fan of Inverarity’s art style, as evidenced in their gorgeous Universal Folk Oracle, but Oracle decks aren’t really my thing (with a few notable exceptions), so I was so excited to see this beautiful Tarot deck in the works. The art reminds me, stylistically, of the art in one of my favourite books as a kid, In Search Of Unicorns, illustrated by Wendy Hall (I can find out literally nothing about Hall, btw. It’s like she illustrated this one awesome, quirky, darkly odd little…
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Deck Review: The Light Seer’s Tarot
The romance novel plotline for my relationship with The Light Seer’s Tarot did not start with a classic meet cute and InstaLove, but was much more a case of enemies-to-lovers! Very early on in my Tarot journey (when the ADHD blackhole-pull of deck accumulation was at its most ferocious) I was intrigued enough by the deck to buy a really cheap copy on eBay. I bought it mainly because it’s such a popular deck that I felt it would be worth me exploring a bit (to see what all the fuss was about), not because I felt a particular connection to it per se (unlike my intense, violent, love-at-first sight…
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Deck Review: Ostara Tarot
One of the first decks I bought (after a vintage Morgan Greer deck) was the Ostara Tarot created by the four-illustrator team of Krista Gibbard, Eden Cook, Julia Iredale, and Molly Applejohn. It’s a really gentle deck, and was largely pretty beginner friendly. Also, one of my cats (Cat Stevens) became oddly obsessed with it, which I take as a good sign, given how discerning kits are. The below photo was taken after I extracted it from his thieving paws (those gilt edges are not claw friendly!) I photographed this deck with the beautiful wisteria that I lovingly planted and nurtured in my old garden (I love living by the sea,…
