A Survey of Unique Tarot Decks

For the month of October, I thought it would be fun to review some unusual tarot decks. I’ve been using tarot on and off for years and am just now moving into doing it professionally. I like tarot because a skeptic like myself can get just as much insight from the cards as the most devout believer in the supernatural. The images are drawn in such a way that they work like ink blots, allowing the querent (the person with the question) to project meanings onto the cards and reach parts of the brain that were perhaps stuck.

I’ve also had enough weird things happen with the cards to say, “Hmmmm…” so although I am a skeptic in my brain (I think the power lies within the querent, not the cards) my heart lies with those who think that the cards themselves have a special something. Frankly, I really just love the art.

Here is my go-to deck:

It’s my strong opinion that if a reader offers you, say, three decks, and two are pristine, pick the one that’s held together by rubber bands. But that’s just me.

This is the Universal Rider-Waite-Smith deck. This deck was designed by Arthur Waite and illustrated by Pamela Coleman Smith and originally issued in 1909. Most tarot decks today follow the basic pattern of this deck. It has 78 cards, of which 22 are called the Major Arcana. The remainder are the Minor Arcana, and are divided into swords, wands, cups, and pentacles. Each suit includes a King, a Queen, a Knight, and a Page. A note – There’s an earlier version of the Waite-Smith deck but the only difference is the brightness of the colors. Pamela Colman Smith used a LOT of bright yellow!

The Fool (card from the Rider Waite Smith deck)

Want to check out some fun decks that pertain particularly to either Halloween or that seem relevant to our interests? Here are: The Halloween Tarot, the Zombie Tarot, and the Housewives Tarot!

The Halloween Tarot

People seem to be either immediately drawn to this deck or immediately turned off by it. I love it. It’s standard size, with good quality cards. The art is charming and bright and playful. The only confusing thing about the deck is that the Rider-Waite-Smith suits are replaced by Halloween suits. Cups become Ghosts, Pentacles become Pumpkins, Wands are Imps, and Swords are Bats. Watch for the black cat on every card!

The Halloween Tarot created by Kipling West a black cat illustrated against an orange background with white animals surrounding it

This is the deck for when you need to visit the carnival of childhood – a place where everything is a little bit scary, but not too scary.

Two ghosts with jackolantern faces and yellow cloaks floating below a black cat - they are the two of Ghosts

It’s a place of layers, because everything has a costume and a mask and maybe another one under the top one. It’s a place of tricks and treats.

 

6 of the cards, featuring bats, ghosts, and pumpkins

The pic above is not a layout. It’s just a selection of cards so you can get a feel for the art.

 

The Zombie Tarot

Here’s a deck that is clearly intended to be funny, but it is also well thought out. I love the clever packaging. The cards seem pretty sturdy but they don’t have the high gloss of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck.

Featuring grisly art in the style of 1960’s era zombie movies, the suits are wands, cups, swords, and hazards.

Zombie Tarot in a carnivalstyle box with Insight and Ammunition to Fight the Undead at the top

In this deck, the images and the meanings are shifted enough so that you really do have to study the deck instead of just applying your basic Rider-Waite-Smith template.

There’s an instruction book but it’s very scanty. It doesn’t give any information about reversals (cards that come out of the deck upside down) at all. On the other hand, the chaos depicted on the cards makes a great visual companion to internal chaos. In some cases this works better than others. For instance, the booklet claims that the King and Queen of Hazards represent confidence and good business sense but he images don’t suggest that to me at all.

King of Hazards, a zombie businessman in a desk chair tied to the chair with chains and caution tape

An Example of the explanation: King of Hazards distant hard work business man Steady reliable and slightly boring the King of Hazards is shackled to his material possessions and proud to admit it. Go to him for advice on money or investing and he'll never steer you wrong. Although this person may be a valuable person in a business endeavor, he can be somewhat distant in personal or family relation ships. He may represent an older man looking out for your well-being.

On the other hand, the Temperance card, in which human and zombie blood combine to make a vaccine, is a great way to think about balance and mixing elements in the proper proportions.

Here are some examples of the cards:

The Fool from the Zombie deck, a white man in a grey 50s suit walking blithely through a cemetery with zombie women hands reaching from the earth behind each tombstone. He is carrying a pink wreath and a picnic basket and looks completely ignorant

The Lovers, a zombie woman who is grey in a pink 50s underwear set with a white man wearing a tank top and boxers making out in a field of flowers

I did three different readings, two of which (The Gravestone and The Broken Heart) came with the deck. I found that for the most part the imagery was perfect for my current state, which is one of dealing with some stuff but trying to have a good sense of humor about it. The layout below is one I drew without asking a question, so you can see what The Broken Heart layout looks like without also seeing into my innermost soul.

cards from the zombie deck used in a broken heart layout

I feel like this is a really good deck for when your life feels chaotic and you feel under siege. Everything about this deck is extreme and my guess is it’s best for extreme situations when you feel like it’s all life or death.

The Housewives Tarot

First off: Best. Packaging. Ever.

The Housewives Tarot is in a box that looks like a 50s cookbook with blue gingham and

recipe box style packaging with tabs and cards inside the box

The box, of course, holds the deck but also contains some cards with actual recipes on them. Such a cool way to make the box part of the deck.

The problem with the packaging is that I hate to mess it up by shuffling the cards. Still, I did it for YOU, Bitches! The publishing company is the same one that publishes the Zombie Deck so comments about the quality of the cards and their size etc apply here as well.

This 1950’s style “Domestic Divination Kit” features layout ideas like “The Clothesline” and “The Martini.” The suits are cups, wands, swords, and pentacles. Like the Zombie deck, some of the meanings are changed and some images work better than others.

I didn’t think I would like this deck aside from the novelty factor, but I did a couple of readings and found the imagery to be surprisingly apt.

The Hanged Man Death and temperance. Hanged man is a man hung by a clothesline, death is a jar of salmonella because everything expires, and temperance is a mixer surrounded by ingredients like joy justice anger and sorrow

Like, oh, say, ALMOST EVERY OTHER WOMAN IN AMERICA I feel a need to meet certain standards of house care and childcare and professional competence and LIKE ALMOST EVERY WOMAN IN AMERICA I always worry that I fall short. This deck, with its businesswomen replete with Coins and Wands represented by mops and brooms resonated more than I’d like to admit.

Devil a devil's food cake

I did a basic body/mind/spirit reading and then one of their original layouts, The Martini, which was actually really good. Here’s a neutral one I drew for photo purposes:

Martini glass layout
Sure, it’s a little crooked, but after a couple of martinis yours will be too!

The reading directions specify when to take a drink from a real martini while using this reading but I had to substitute hot chocolate. Like the zombie deck, this deck doesn’t give any guidance for reversals so I just read every card upright.

There are many different decks to play with, which can make this a insightful and also expensive interest.

What about you? What is your favorite deck? What’s your weirdest tarot story? What tools do you use to unstick yourself when you are stuck?

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  1. CarrieS says:

    Am loving comments! Yes, there is a Jane Austen Tarot, but it’s out of print.

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