The Durer Tarot’s Hierophant

After all the brain contortions of bending gender and thinking about numbers and animas and animuses (animi?), let’s take a day to reset back to a more traditional image. Besides, the art of this deck is so very lovely, I’m always willing to look at it. (If you like this, you can see more here [...]

The Manga Tarot’s Hierophant

I included this deck just to try and make your brains explode. This is another compelling deck designed by my friend Riccardo Minetti. In this deck he plays with the idea of gender and how it influences our understanding of the cards.
In the Manga Tarot, all the cards that are traditionally male are depicted as [...]

The Gaian Tarot Hierophant

The other day I mentioned that I often thought of the Hierophant as the Teacher. Perhaps one of the many reasons I love The Gaian Tarot so much is that it names and depicts Arcana V as The Teacher.

The creator, Joanna Powell Colbert, says that this card is the Humble Teacher, as in a Holy [...]

The Fey Tarot’s Hierophant

In this deck, this card is called “The Wisest” (printed on the actual card), while in the book, it is called “The Wise One.”
The creator (who many of you know is Riccardo Minetti from Lo Scarabeo) says that this card is of a venerable and wise creature, the source of infinite, ancient, and wonderful memories, [...]

The Pagan Tarot & a Special Guest

You are so lucky today! Instead of just reading my babble about the Hierophant, you get a behind-the-scenes peek at the what goes into creating decks. The creator of The Pagan Tarot, Gina M. Pace, has very graciously shared her story behind this deck’s Hierophant. It’s a fascinating tale, and, Gina, I thank you so [...]

Does The Hierophant Need a Makeover?

Yes, I know…everyone’s most favorite card, right?
Here is the image of the classic RWS Hierophant next to the image from the Tarot of the New Vision (a deck that shows the cards from behind the traditional image):

The High Priestess easily transitioned from the Popess to her current incarnation and is, consequently, one of the cards [...]

Quaint Meanings

Years ago, I read the 9 of Cups was related to the 9 of Hearts, which was considered the Wish Card in playing card fortune telling. So I’ve always thought of the 9 of Cups as the Wish Card. When it comes up, I get excited and act like I’ve just blown out the [...]

The Mystic Faerie Moon

Since I wrote the text for this one, it focuses on what I think about The Moon. I actually hadn’t looked at this text in a few years. I am surprised to see how unchanged my thoughts are about the moon, for I really think this sums it up nicely (for me).

“The Moon fae’s illumination [...]

All a Twitter Over Tarot

We asked our Twitter followers a few questions about their first Tarot deck and giving decks as gifts. We had such a great response and enjoyed reading their tweets so we thought we would post them here for everyone to see and comment on.
Join the conversation here and follow us on Twitter as @LlewellynBooks.
Question #1: [...]

Writing Your Own Tarot Book

About five years into my tarot obsession, I joined the American Tarot Association and went through their certification program. There were various things you had to do to earn certification. One was to create a list of keywords for each card upright and each card reversed. That keyword was to cue you into a sentence, [...]