A brand-new tarot deck radiant with mystical energy by renowned American Wiccan Priestess Phyllis Curott and British Hedgewitch and artist Danielle Barlow.
The Witches' Wisdom Tarot brings users into the heart of what it means to be a Witch, a wise one who lives with reverence for the land, for life, and for the magic that flows through us.
The Witches' Wisdom Tarot is more than just a divination tool for Witches. Radiant with numinous energy and magical imagery, it is a doorway for everyone who wishes to encounter and understand the Sacred--in reals of Spirit, embodied by Nature, and residing within our hearts. Presented in a deluxe, large-size box, the cards are wrapped in an eco-friendly hessian bag alongside a comprehensive guidebook.
Best-selling Wiccan author Phyllis Curott and Hedgewitch Danielle Barlow journeyed for each of the images, spreads, and spells, seeking the divine wisdom of Mother Earth and diving deep beneath traditional archetypes and the ceremonial symbolism of the ubiquitous Rider-Waite-Smith deck.
The Minor Arcana reveal the primal sources of swords and wands, cups, and pentacles, drawing on the spiritual teachings of the elements. Each card immerses users in the beauty, wisdom, and embodied divinity of Nature and offers a mirror for them to recognize that they too are part of Nature. The Major Arcana will speak to users of any spirituality, age, race, or gender identity with culturally diverse mythological, archetypal, and sacred imagery, guiding them on their path of self-knowledge and purpose.
The first thing to know about this deck is; it doesn't read like tarot. You'll need to train yourself to think about it in a new, different way.
The second thing is, this is a very fancy set. You can see the cover above. It opens with a magnet on the side to reveal a beautiful interior, illustrated with trees, a fox watching over us, and a poem by the set's writer. The cards sit in the well on the right hand side. The box is very sturdy and would stand up well to being carried about, but it's big and probably won't fit in most purses.
However, the producers have thought of that! The cards come in this lovely hessian bag, featuring the design from the back of the cards and a cord closure. I have to admit, I don't own any bags yet, my decks all live in their boxes, so this is lovely to have, and the cards in their bag would fit much better into a handbag if you wanted to carry them around.
The guidebook has a lovely linen-feel cover. The endpapers continue the wood theme from the box, in blues and gold; my camera doesn't really pick up the details of the colours, sadly, but they're gorgeous in real life. (This extends to the cards as well, the colours are so vibrant and rich in person but my camera just flattens them all out.) The pages of the book are a beautiful smooth feeling paper; the book is a pleasure to hold before we ever get to the contents.
There's a lot of information in the book; I've read through it a few times and am still discovering bits I missed or didn't absorb fully. It's written very simply, there's just so much here! There's a brief background to the creation of the deck, some history of tarot in general and how it relates to this deck in particular, and some tips on how to make this deck feel like yours and how to get the best out of it. This includes three spreads; One Card, Three Card, and a custom spread called the Compass Rose. I haven't tried that one yet as I'm still learning the cards, but it certainly looks like it delves deeply into a situation - it takes eleven cards, mostly doubled over each other to provide extra insight. Once I can handle that spread I'll feel like I know this deck! After all that, we're on page 38 and we reach the cards themselves.
Explanations start in the Minor Arcana. Each card has a full page; no images, but plenty of information. There's a keyword, a Wisdom section which is essentially a description, Essence which is extra keywords, Counsel which is expanded meanings and finally Magic, which is a spell or guided meditation that the card is suited for. The Majors have two pages; still no images, but the number of the card and the number of the standard Major it corresponds to, and all the other sections as in the Minors. Wisdom and Counsel are extended further for the Majors. After them there's a table of Major correspondances for quick look up.
A quick note; the book says that the deck is designed to be used upright only, and no reversed meanings are included; the note does say that if you feel moved to do so, use reversals anyway and let your intuition guide you to the correct meanings. That's very much a personal thing, but it is something to be aware of.
Now; the cards. You saw the back of the deck in the picture above; it's a beautiful deep blue with gold highlights. They're among the larger cards I've handled; not quite impossible to handle, but getting up there for me. Those with smaller hands will probably need to turn them on end and shuffle them that way rather than on the length. They have a lovely feel, not quite glossy, but they move and shuffle really well without sticking or clinging. The images are borderless. Majors have their number and name on a band at the bottom; Minors have the number and suit name on a similar band.
As part of the reimagining of the deck, the Majors have all received new names, and they've been flipped back to front; the card that corresponds to the Magician, for instance, the Council of All Beings, is number 21 in the deck. The number 1 card is The World. Here is a selection of Majors - the Maze card really is that dark, but it's much easier to see in real life! There's the World, with our Pilgrim setting off on her travels; the Shaman, leaning into the teaching side of the Hermit, and the dreamcatcher-like Wheel of Life.
Here are just a couple of cards from each Minor suit to give you an idea of how they look. The suits don't have a coherent colour scheme like some decks - although I appreciate that the Earth cards I've chosen make it look like they match! There is so much amazing detail in these cards, I really can't overstate it.
Instead of Page, Knight, Queen and King, we have Messenger, Witch, Craftsman and Goddess in each suit. These are the only Minors with human figures on them; Ace through Ten have only animals and, in some cases, only natural vistas. Look at the colour on that Air Goddess! These cards are honestly so amazing.
There is one card that some people might have a problem with. I'm going to insert it at the very end of this review, so you don't need to look if you don't want to. Personally, I think it's beautiful, but I can foresee some people disagreeing.
As a deck:
I tried to read the book and look at each card when I first got the set, and although I did get through the deck I didn't really absorb anything. It's too much for my little brain to take in at once. What I've found works better for me is to take some time in the evenings and choose one or two cards, study them closely, read the book and find the commonalities between the picture and the meaning. Once I let go of expecting them to match my knowledge of Tarot, I found it was easy to find those commonalities; for instance, that Eight of Fire in the picture above, with its bright sunrise, reminds us that every day is a new chance to start again and achieve our aims. So far every meaning I've read has made sense to me, even if some are mindstretching in the best way!
It's quite a gentle deck; it doesn't really have any bad or sad cards, or not that I've come across yet. The closest to a 'bad' one is the Ace of Earth, which basically says 'you're not the be all and end all, you're part of a web that affects everyone around you'. Or at least that's how I've understood it! For all its gentleness it's very accurate, though.
It's definitely a deck that's going to take a lot of study. I'm very happy about that, and I'll be spending a lot of time working with it in the future.
With many thanks to the publisher, I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
The Great Mother, corresponding to the Empress:
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