I received an early and unexpected birthday gift in the form of The Hieronymus Bosch Tarot. My friend knew I’d been eyeing it up in the shop for a while, and she also knows I’ve been thinking about getting back to writing about symbolism within art. I’ll take it as a sign, or more of a cattle prod to get myself moving once I’ve finished a couple of posts I left half finished in draft. Published in 2022, Travis McHenry, an author and occultist, is the man responsible for bringing this concept to fruition.

I’ve had my eye on this deck since before its official release and was so excited to look through the cards. I am embarrassed to admit it’s been sitting in the cupboard for about six months now. Published back in May 2024, The Awakening Tarot is another creation of Monica Bodirsky. Monica has previously created: The Shadowland Tarot, Shadowland Lenormand, the House of Shadows Lenormand deck, Between The Worlds Oracle, and Bats Blood Ink Oracle.

I’m always interested in combos of tarot and oracle that work well together. The Rackham Tarot and Fairy Oracle are a natural pairing thanks to the use of Arthur Rackham’s artwork. Lo Scarabeo publishes both. Because the artwork is quite busy and intense, I doubt either deck would be suitable for beginners. That being said, some of the images for the tarot cards are actually very well chosen. A handful of images are in both the tarot deck and the oracle, and it’s these cards I want to give extra

Le Tarot aux Ramures Étranges (The Strange Antlers Tarot, Tarot of the Strange Antlers) was published in April 2022. The author/illustrator is Alisa Marazyuk, and she uses the name Rouxalis as the author. It comes in a solid box with a lift-off lid, and the guidebook is a respectable size. There’s no box insert to keep the cards cosy, but a cloth bag is

Published by U.S Games in 2020, Tarot of Mystical Moments is the creation of Catrin Welz-Stein. The cards are on the large size, although they’re not unmanageable. They arrived in a small but sturdy box and come with a small guidebook. We have gilded edging, but this time in silver. However, thanks to the mass-market price tag

The Dreamkeepers Tarot is a lovely deck published in 2021. Liz Huston spent the best part of twelve years creating the images, and I like that she talks about this process at the beginning of the guidebook. Liz self-published the first edition in 2018, and US Games published this updated mass-market version in 2020.

This is the most expensive deck I’ve bought in a while, so I feel justified in being less than impressed with its shoddy box insert. Now that I’ve got that bit of info out of the way, I’ll get onto the praise. I absolutely LOVE this deck. Yes, it’s childlike. Yes, it borders on ostentatious with its, erm, blingy border. And yes, the liberal use of yellow appears almost garish