Embark on a soul-stirring journey where ancient wisdom whispers across the tapestry of life, unlocking the power of the arcana within, with this luminous 78-card deck and comprehensive guidebook.
The Westwood Tarot will take you on a magical journey of self-discovery. Whimsical characters await in the enchanted woods and glens artwork, ready to share their stores and wisdom. Recapture your sense of childlike wonder as you explore these storybook-inspired illustrations.
The characters of The Westwood Tarot serve as your trusted allies, helping you find answers, igniting your creativity, and embracing the power within. The 78 cards in this deck and comprehensive accompanying guidebook explore each character's story, card meaning, and interpretations for Love, Career, Wellness, and Finances
The Westwood Tarot is a celebration of the profound connections between the human experience, intuition, the magick of divination, and the natural world around us.
You can see the unboxing on TikTok or Youtube and the silent flickthrough, featuring every card, on TikTok or Youtube. I posted two spreads, the deck interview and the perspective spread.
I. First Impressions
Minor Arcana: The Minors are fully illustrated, with their names in the lower left hand corner. Each suit has a looping design after the card name; all Swords have the same, all Cups have the same and so on. It's a cute little detail.
Card Stock and Size: As I mentioned, these are just a little bigger than standard tarot, but I can still shuffle them without any difficulty. The card is thin enough to handle easily, but feels sturdy. The gilted edges add a touch of luxury - using these cards feels like an event.
III. The Guidebook
Unboxing Experience: This is probably the nicest box I've seen so far. It's designed to look like a book, with a rounded spine and the top and bottom looking like page edges. The box is held closed with a magnetic flap on the right, so it even opens like a book. The Little White Book is chunky at 254 pages, with the cards sitting under it in a well. They're slightly above standard tarot side, I could still shuffle them but they're definitely stretching my hand.
Artwork Style: The cards are designed with a fairy tale style. There are no humans, but some of the animal characters are dressed or standing like humans, while others are animals. The cards are colourful and bright, really nice to look at and study. They feel smooth and shuffle nicely, and the edges are gilted.
(Image of the High Priestess)
II. The Cards
Artwork Style: The cards are designed with a fairy tale style. There are no humans, but some of the animal characters are dressed or standing like humans, while others are animals. The cards are colourful and bright, really nice to look at and study. They feel smooth and shuffle nicely, and the edges are gilted.
(Image of the High Priestess)
II. The Cards
Major Arcana: The Major Arcana has Strength at 8 and Justice at 11. There are two renamed cards; The Hermit has become the Seeker and the Devil is now the Shadow. The cards loosely follow the RWS style - for example, the Sun card has a snail on a wooden horse with sunflowers around - but I'm not sure they're close enough to be a first time deck. Majors have their names and numbers, in Arabic numerals, in the lower left hand corner of the card.
Minor Arcana: The Minors are fully illustrated, with their names in the lower left hand corner. Each suit has a looping design after the card name; all Swords have the same, all Cups have the same and so on. It's a cute little detail.
Cups are animals that live in or around water, apart from the Knight; Swords are flying creatures, apart from the Seven and Knight; Wands and Pentacles don't have a theme that I could figure out, but I'm probably not well enough up on my animal families to notice it! The LWB doesn't mention if there's meant to be a theme in the Suits. The images are great and really help to kick start connections - the LWB mentions that Yasmeen's inspiration was Enid Blyton's Faraway Tree series, and some of the cards really made me think of that, while others reminded me of Harry Potter or even other tarot decks I've used! Every time I looked at a card I saw something new, which was great.
Card Stock and Size: As I mentioned, these are just a little bigger than standard tarot, but I can still shuffle them without any difficulty. The card is thin enough to handle easily, but feels sturdy. The gilted edges add a touch of luxury - using these cards feels like an event.
III. The Guidebook
Writing Style and Readability: The LWB is written in a chatty, friendly style, inviting the reader in to enjoy the cards. Yasmeen is clearly big on ceremony, inviting readers to meditate and clear their minds before doing a reading. I'm more of a casual mood reader but I love seeing how different people approach things!
Card Meanings: Each card gets two-three pages depending on spacing. There's an image of the card with a short, original poem describing the meaning: keywords for upright and reversed (called 'light' and 'shadow' here); a description of the scene, which is really helpful as it points out details I often missed first time around; meanings in Love, Finance, Career and Wellness; Magick, Wisdom and Indulgence, which are short meditations or ideas for rituals to connect with the card; and a piece about the animal chosen for the card and how it relates to the meaning. It's a lot of information and a reader could learn a lot from this deck! Pages, Queens and Kings are also associated with specific astrological signs, which is listed on their pages. I found that even when I wasn't pulling cards, I was flicking through the book, reading about different animals!
Spreads and Techniques: The book includes some spreads; there's nine suggestions for three card spreads, a five card Looking for Love, and a nine card Perspective, the spread I've linked above. It was an interesting read!
IV. In Use
Card Meanings: Each card gets two-three pages depending on spacing. There's an image of the card with a short, original poem describing the meaning: keywords for upright and reversed (called 'light' and 'shadow' here); a description of the scene, which is really helpful as it points out details I often missed first time around; meanings in Love, Finance, Career and Wellness; Magick, Wisdom and Indulgence, which are short meditations or ideas for rituals to connect with the card; and a piece about the animal chosen for the card and how it relates to the meaning. It's a lot of information and a reader could learn a lot from this deck! Pages, Queens and Kings are also associated with specific astrological signs, which is listed on their pages. I found that even when I wasn't pulling cards, I was flicking through the book, reading about different animals!
Spreads and Techniques: The book includes some spreads; there's nine suggestions for three card spreads, a five card Looking for Love, and a nine card Perspective, the spread I've linked above. It was an interesting read!
IV. In Use
Intuition and Connection: The cards are generally RWS based; sometimes I had to look for the link, but mostly they were clear. The colours and design are amazing; even without reading anything, I enjoyed studying the scenes and picking out details. I'm not sure these would be great for beginner readers, although the wealth of information in the LWB would certainly be a help!
Clarity of Readings: I found the readings went well. My usual Querant was surprised at a couple of things I brought up without having known about first, but thought that not every reading hit, although they may come true in the future. My Querant also liked the art, finding it detailed and interesting to look at.
Suitability for Different Skill Levels: I do feel you'd need at least a little bit of experience to use this deck, though you wouldn't need to be an expert by any means; just have a general sense of the cards. If you worked with the book these would certainly make sense to you.
V. Final Thoughts
Clarity of Readings: I found the readings went well. My usual Querant was surprised at a couple of things I brought up without having known about first, but thought that not every reading hit, although they may come true in the future. My Querant also liked the art, finding it detailed and interesting to look at.
Suitability for Different Skill Levels: I do feel you'd need at least a little bit of experience to use this deck, though you wouldn't need to be an expert by any means; just have a general sense of the cards. If you worked with the book these would certainly make sense to you.
V. Final Thoughts
I've really enjoyed working with this deck. It's been a lot of fun and the artwork is amazing - photos don't do it justice, it glows in real life. I'll be keeping it near at hand to study the artwork and do readings with! A fantastic addition to anyone's collection.
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