Deck Review: The Forager’s Daughter Tarot

Having seen it in a few other people’s collections, I initially decided to get the Forager’s Daughter Tarot (Afterlight Edition) because I really liked the concept of it as an artwork (as opposed to thinking I’d necessarily work with it a lot). I was not disappointed – the art in this deck, and the quality of the cards, really is stunning. If you collect Tarot/pretty, clever things then this deck is a really worthwhile addition to your collection. The artist and creator, Jesscia Lei Howard grew up surrounded by nature (a forager’s daughter!), and it is this love for the natural world, and the gifts it gives us, that is reflected throughout the deck.

“Nature has always been an integral part of my life. Many of my fondest memories are family camping and hiking trips. We had a garden each year and fished local lakes and ponds. I first learned about mushrooms and foraging from my dad, and I learned about flowers and gardening from my mom. It was in these wild spaces that I found a world of empathy and inspiration that I now aim to reflect in my artwork… My work utilizes magical systems as vehicles for meaning and awareness, and I try to capture both the beauty and the harsh reality of nature in my drawings.”

Jessica Lei Howard

The Deck: Look, Feel, and Finish

The deck is really beautiful deck, and you can see that a lot of time and effort has gone in to perfecting it.

The deck comes in a sturdy magnetic box with a gorgeous internal print design. The cards are really well made – thick and sturdy with a gilt edge that feels reassuringly chip resistant!

And look at this guidebook 😍

The cards are often really deep, and really smart. Howard does not present nature as some cutsey little dormice-in-the-hedgerows kind of affair, and I really respect that. This is a deck that honours nature red in tooth and claw, and as such it is able to fully engage with both the light and shadow aspects of the Tarot.

Greatest Hits: My Favourite Cards from the Forager’s Daughter Tarot

I love the idea of Justice as a food chain, with the apparent apex predator (the coyote?) ending up food for mushrooms. However high and mighty we think we are, we always end up being absorbed back into nature’s great cycle. Justice here isn’t about the law or fairness, per se, it’s about balance. It’s ecological, inevitable. Everything that lives must also die, and everything that dies feeds something else. The mushroom doesn’t need a sword or some scales; it just gets on with the quiet work of breaking us down. There’s something strangely comforting in that.

The two forks of the river is a great way to represent the Two of Wands (as so often with this card I am reminded of Robert Frost, a fellow nature lover: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference“). Twos in the Tarot are often about choice. Standing at the edge of decision, we’re asked to not just look ahead, but to imagine what each direction might ask of us. One fork might be the familiar current, smooth and known; the other, a wilder stream with no clear map. The Two of Wands doesn’t tell you which is better, only that it’s time to decide.

The diligent little ant with his seemingly impossible burden is an interesting take on the Ten of Wands. Ants are nature’s tireless workers, small but determined. Howard’s take us to consider the difference between being crushed by responsibility and rising to meet it, one tiny step at a time. The Ten of Wands often speaks of overwhelm and burn-out, but here the message is more nuanced: the burden may be heavy, yes – but it’s not necessarily unmanageable.

A lot of my decks use bees for the Eight of Pents and I am *here* for it! Bees are the best. It’s such a fitting symbol for this card, which so often speaks to practice and mastery achieved through the quiet magic of repetition. Like the bee, the Eight of Pentacles doesn’t seek applause – it’s about honing one’s craft and trusting that all those tiny efforts will eventually build something golden.

The Queen of Swords as the spider in the web she’s woven, patiently waiting for the tiniest of vibrations to let her know the game is afoot, is 👌🏼. Every strand of the web is something she’s placed with purpose, a truth she’s tested through her own long experience.

The Five of Pents is a really bleak take on this card, but I still like it. The five pentacles as rotting berries is really unnerving. There’s no sugar-coating here, no softened metaphor. It’s about desolation at its most physical: starvation and exposure. And yet, even in this decay, there’s a kind of stark honesty. The Five of Pentacles doesn’t pretend things are fine. It says: sometimes they’re not. Sometimes we’re left out in the cold – forgotten, struggling, lost. But even in Howard’s most bleak cards, like this one, there’s the quiet suggestion that things can grow again. Rot feeds soil. Berries fall, and maybe next year flowers bloom.

More industrious little weavers for the Seven of Pents. She’s done the work and now needs to wait for it to bear fruit (flies). This card is all about that moment of pause after effort – when there’s nothing more to do, only to see if the work pays off

And the Four of Cups warning you not to “clam up”, losing yourself to deep in introspection and shutting yourself off from new possibilities. If you open your heart to hope and connection again, you may find yourself experiencing the Two of Cups, instead of the apathy and loneliness of the Four.

Deck interview with the Forager’s Daughter Tarot

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

Five of Cups: This deck will help me deal with grief, and uncover buried emotions after an unpleasant experience. A deck to help me pick up the pieces and move on.

2. What are your strengths as a deck?

Ten of Wands: The deck is good for giving guidance to find the strength required to carry on with difficult or thankless tasks.

3. What are your limits as a deck?

The Devil: The deck is less good at shadow work.

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

Queen of Swords: it’s weird how often the K & Q of Swords come up in my deck interviews. Almost every deck is like “hey, you need to be prepared for some blunt, no BS, straight up advice!” And this deck is no exception!

5. What is the potential quality of our relationship?

Five of Swords: Bittersweet. I think I might not always like what it has to say.

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

Queen of Wands: As such, *I* need to be in the right frame of mind to let go of emotional pain, move on, and get on with the task at hand and/or the difficult work of rebuilding after loss before I use this deck. So I should only consult this deck when I’m feeling confident in myself and ready to take on new projects.

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