Deck review: Steele Wizard Tarot by Pamela Steele

Previously self-published but now in an extended format, the Steele Wizard Tarot has 10 new cards for those seeking self-control, self-empowerment, and enlightenment!

What began as a love of Tarot and art evolved into a global revolution that has brought Tarot into the modern age. From ancient teachings to traditional learning, the Steele Wizard Tarot blends our collective quest for knowledge and fulfillment.

The Steele Wizard Tarot is a masterfully illustrated 88-card Tarot with additional court cards and Major Arcana cards providing clear, concise information to guide those seeking a deeper awakening and enlightenment. The extra 10 cards coupled with thoroughly explained layers of symbolism will allow the readers to eliminate any "guesswork" they may have about the messages, and inspire even the most seasoned ones to understand and find new perspectives.

• The perfect tool to unlock the mysteries of your personal reality

• Internationally acclaimed by Tarot groups since its initial release

• The 88 hand-drawn cards are full of symbolism

The companion book delves into in-depth analysis of each card’s image, new spreads created for this deck, detailed information on repeating cards, determining timing, and much more. It will be the perfect assistant in unlocking the mysteries of your personal reality. As “a picture is worth a thousand words,” the Steele Wizard Tarot speaks the “language of the soul.”

Steele Wizard Tarot is available now from Schiffer/REDFeather MBS. You can see the unboxing (labeled as flickthrough) and the flickthrough videos on tiktok.

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Steele Wizard was a self published deck before REDFeather picked it up. It's an expanded deck with 88 cards, one extra per suit and the rest in the Majors. The extra cards add depth to your readings.

The deck comes in a hard box about the size of a hardback book, opening with a magnetic closure on the right hand side. The cards sit in a well under the book, which is quite hefty, coming in at 192 pages. The intro features a quick guide to tarot and keeping your cards, some tarot myths - love that! - tips on dealing and forming questions, and some spreads, starting at one card and working up to ten. There are also tips on what having multiples of the same number in a spread might mean.

Card meanings! The Majors each have two pages; a small image of the card, a phrase to sum up the meaning, a detailed description of the card picking out some of the things Pamela inserted or emphasized, upright and reversed meanings, a brief meditation and a few lines for notes. Minors are roughly a page and a half each, including everything but the note space.

In the Minors, the extra cards are Maidens, coming between the Pages and Knights. They serve as both a female energy, and the potential of their suit. The extra Majors all come at the end of the Arcana, numbers 22 through 27. I've only had a couple of them come up in my readings, so I'm still learning them, but they definitely add depth and a different feeling to readings.

Cards! The cards feature this reversible back image:

The cards are glossy, and initially they clung together. However, some shuffling and handling has fixed that, and there's no trace of cling now. They are all hand drawn, and you can really see the care and attention and the details that went into the work. Things like the Fool approaching a fork in the road or the weeping willow in the Three of Swords bring the scene to life and would help a beginner remember the meanings. The colours are amazing, bright and bold where necessary and subdued where that's better. The images are borderless on three sides, which I love as you can really get 'into' the scene.

All the cards have their title written across a banner at the base of the card. These banners are different colours depending on the suit; Majors are purple, Cups are green, Wands are orange, Pentacles are red, and Swords are blue. Minors have their numbers written out, while Majors have theirs in Arabic numbers. You should also note that Death and the Devil have had their names changed, to Transition and Materialism respectively. Here are a few sample cards:

As it follows the RWS meanings (apart from the new cards) this deck would work well for complete beginners, with a good amount of information in the book to get them started. Learning the new cards from the beginning is probably easier than trying to add them afterwards as I'm doing!

This is one of the few hand drawn decks I've worked with, and it really adds a personal touch to readings. My querants have told me this is a very accurate deck, with very straightforward, obvious meanings - there's no digging or dealing clarifications or anything like that, just dealing and reading. I'm keeping this in my arsenal for when we need to dig a little deeper, as the extra cards definitely add a new dimension to things.