Open the gates to the Celtic Otherworld with this inspiring new Tarot, a vivid and powerful, 78-card deck painted through direct inspiration from the Sidhe, (pronounced Shee), the ancient Gaelic name for the Faery race. The Sidhe take us beyond popular images of flower fairies, to a deeply magickal and spiritual set of images that take Tarot reading to a deeper level and may be used for meditation, magick, and more. Connecting with the Sidhe at this time may help you reconnect with inner powers of the primal Earth and bring healing to the land around you. The cards use original, non-derivatory symbolism and potent imagery within traditional Tarot structure. This Faery deck is born from shamanic techniques and can help you build a stronger connection with their realm. If you wish to strengthen your intuition and perception of the Otherworld, then this is the deck for you. Descriptions, meanings, and keywords are explored. There are also channeled oracle messages received from the beings on the cards.
This deck is written and illustrated by Emily Carding and published by Schiffer.
(You can see my unboxing and complete flickthrough videos for this deck on Tiktok.)
The Irish relationship with the Sidhe is - complicated. It's hard to explain to people who haven't grown up in it. I'm an amateur mythology fan - I don't know as much as I'd like from different mythologies, but I've read a lot of stories from different cultures, and I can't think of a race who are quite as alien as the Sidhe. Maybe Eastern dragons? But they are mostly indifferent to humanity, at least in the stories I've read. The Sidhe have a certain kind of honour, and they'll keep their bargains even if it hurts them, but they do enjoy tricking people - often fatally in the oldest stories. But they are undeniably closer to the world, to the natural rhythms and ways of life that we've mostly forgotten now.
This is my long winded way of saying; These are not flower Fairies. They're not Victorian sweet little things with flower petals clothes and twinkly wands. If that's the kind of card you're looking for, these won't suit you. But if you're looking for something with depth, and life, that can genuinely help you? This is the deck for you.
The cards are housed in a sturdy white cardboard box, with a lid that fits down over the top. The sides of the lid are illustrated with sample cards and descriptions of the deck. The back has a short blurb. The inside of the box is undecorated. The back of the card features this stunning glyph.
Cards are not reversible. They're a standard tarot size, glossy and shiny. I've found they have a slight tendancy to cling together straight out of the box; I've spent several nights now shuffling them and dealing them out without trying to read them, and that tendancy is fading, so it will go away with time.
Be warned that the print in the book of words is quite small. It's still legible, but I find myself squinting at it more often that not. It starts with a short background piece on the creation of the deck, some care tips and how to work with it. We move quickly into the card descriptions. Each Major card has a short, poetic description of the meanings of the cards, a set of keywords, and then Emily talks a bit about the actual illustration, what she was thinking and any particular symbology in the card. Each Major averages two pages. There's no image of the card.
The Majors are named as you're used to, with two exceptions; the Devil is Pan (yes, that's a Greek character not a Celtic one, but it's addressed in the book) and the Hierophant has become The Elder. The reasons for these changes are talked about in the book so I won't go into them here.
Minor cards have a four line poem and a handful of key words each. Reversals are not mentioned anywhere - not only not listed, but simply ignored completely; the book doesn't address them at all. The Minor suits have been renamed; we now have the Dreamers of Air, the Warriors of Fire, the Dancers of Water and the Makers of Earth. The Ace in each suit gives you the element; the other cards are labeled Warrior or Dancer, so it takes a little getting used to. The Court cards here are Princess, Prince, Queen and King. Each Minor card apart from the Aces have a keyword; on the Aces that space is taken up with the suit name. The cards follow the RWS meanings; occasionally it takes a minute to figure them out, but there's always an 'ah ha!' moment.
After the card descriptions there are several spreads - the basic one and three card spreads, some tips on creating your own spreads, and then three spreads invented for the deck, the Pentagram Career spread, the Hexagram Relationship spread, and the Septagram Whole Self spread. I haven't tried any as I'm not great at spreads, but they look fascinating. I look forward to having my skills level up to be able to try them!
So far I've mostly been doing one card draws, and I've found this deck does not sugar coat things; it's very honest and sometimes quite brutal. It's good to have a deck that tells things like they are, of course. (For example: an online friend of mine asked "Do I deserve to have X good thing happen? I did Y bad thing and I feel bad." I shuffled the deck, got a jumper almost immediately...and it was Judgement. I let you draw your own conclusions!)
I'm really enjoying studying these cards. There's a depth and realness to them. This is a deck that will pay off study over a long time. I don't think it's the deck you give a complete beginner; it does follow the RWS, but I think it's abstract enough that it could be hard to learn on. But once someone knows the basics, this would be an amazing deck to follow up on - especially with the keywords on the deck! The colours are fantastic and I'm really looking forward to using this for years to come.
I received this deck for free and have written this review as honestly as I can.
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