Darkness Piercer Tarot by Philippe Rouchier

The Darkness Piercer Tarot– To Shed Light into Dark Places

The Darkness Piercer Tarot is an exciting, modern and innovative Tarot deck for novices and experienced card interpreters. With a theme that is based on personal development, divination and meditation, the Darkness Piercer boxed set contains an instruction book with a spiritual philosophy, with interpretations for each Major and Minor Arcana Cards, a unique intuitive ‘Constructive Reverie’ method, a variety of recommended spreads, and extended explanations of its stylish and enigmatic artwork. It also gives access to a word game hidden in the titles of the Major Arcana cards.

This Tarot takes us back to first principles, and how divination was originally used - to reveal what is hidden! The Darkness Piercer Tarot has been designed to be a strong and powerful tool that digs deep into the underground streams of consciousness, prises open profound wisdom, and accesses values that were born at the dawn of time, and are rebirthed here.

Darkness is the place of mystery and enchantment. It is the place of the unknown. Danger can lurk in dark places - and when light is shed - it can provide revelations. By piercing the darkness of our lives, we detect wrongdoing and can therefore suggest new ways of relating and new spiritual paths to walk.

The images of the Darkness Piercer are enigmatic and surreal, but magic is placed within the colour, shape and design of the artwork so that an awakening of inspiration and guidance occurs which provides valuable answers. The Interpreter of these cards might see caves, mountains, futuristic monuments, dolmens, monoliths, strange landscapes, flowing liquids - and within these scenes - by gazing deeper from the outer images, there lies an inner place where the answers are held.

This introduction is an extract from the original text written by Tarot Reviewer Wendy Stokes.

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You can see the unboxing and flickthrough videos for this deck on Tiktok.

Open disclaimer: Philippe, the creator of this deck, contacted me to ask if I would consider reviewing it. I agreed but told him it would be an honest review, which he agreed with. So my first point, which I will come back to in a little while; this isn't a beginner's deck.

As always, let's start with the physicalities. The deck is a tiny bit wider and a bit longer than standard cards - I can still shuffle them but it's a stretch. The cards come in a box made to fit. The lid hinges on one side. This first print run is limited to 500 decks, and each one comes with a numbered certificate of authenticity in a small envelope. There's a space in the LWB to stick the certificate if you don't want to keep it separate. There is also a small card with a QR code that will lead you to the etsy shop.

The card well is decorated on all sides with designs that echo the cards themselves. The base has the same design as the back of the cards, but with the colours inverted, and each side features one of the elements, something the Minor Arcana cards draw heavily on.

The LWB is printed in French and English, with the French first. It opens with a letter from Philippe to the reader, leading into a guide to studying the cards. This leads into two spreads, a Three Card and a Five Card Cross, a simplified version of the Celtic. Following this, we get into the card descriptions themselves. 

Slight digression; when I first started looking through this deck, the images seemed so odd to me I couldn't see how they were connected to the card meanings. However, as I read through the book, I started to see the deeper meanings in the images. I highly recommend reading the LWB at some point, even if you are an intuitive reader; I think it will add depth to your readings.

The Major cards have a few paragraphs each of description. The Minors, in the order of Cups, Pentacles (Pentacles in the LWB, Circles on the actual cards), Swords and Wands, have a shorter but still insightful paragraph. There's a brief note about Philippe and a couple of pages for your own notes, and the space for your Certificate.

Please note that Philippe wrote the book in French, and while the English is perfectly understandable, it's a little awkward here and there. Nothing to put you off, but just to be aware of.

Now; the actual cards.

First of all, the presentation is amazing here. This is one of the best sets I've seen, hands down. The edges are gilded and feel smooth and lovely under your fingers. The back has this beautiful, completely reversible design; if you use reversals, this deck is perfect.

The card images - well, I said it in my flickthrough and I stick to it; the images remind me of the grandiose set designs in the sci fi and fantasy films of the 80s. The colours and solid images are immediately bold. There are no people or animals anywhere in this deck; it's all objects and landscapes (though there are a couple of eyes!).

The Majors have a number at the top - unusually, in Arabic rather than Roman numerals - and the names of each card on the bottom in both French and English. 

The Minors are pips rather than images, each with a colour/element association. Cups are blue and water, Pentacles/Circles are orange and earth, Swords and purple and lightning, and Wands are red and fire. It makes them easy to pick out in a spread. The cards have the suit name in French and English on the bottom, along with the number in Arabic. Cards 2 to 10 have a keyword as well; I love a keyword on cards, it really helps me focus.

The cards shuffle beautifully, no stuttering or catching, and every edge and face is smooth and feels nice in your hands.

In readings with this deck, I found that they take some intrepretation and thought, but once you get there they are very insightful. In fact, there's often a few layers of meanings! This isn't a quick look and done deck; it's for pondering, mediating on, really thinking about.

The pips and non standard illustrations mean that I wouldn't recommend this for beginners. But for those who are ready to go a step further, this is an amazing deck to study and work with. It'll deepen your understanding of the cards and give you a wonderful meditation tool. 

This is an expensive deck. I'm not arguing that. But if you are a real tarot fan, it's worth it. It's such a gorgeously put together deck, really beautiful.

This isn't the deck I'll be using for my daily card draw, but it is the deck I'll be using when I need real insight into a problem or situation, and I look forward to the insights it'll give me.

The Darkness Piercer deck is available now from Philippe's etsy store. I am giving my honest thoughts after working with and using the deck.