I am thrilled to share that the first printing of my very own 78 card Tarot deck - the Wyrd Tarot - was officially launched at Samhain 2023. A private limited edition of just 50 sets, the cards were professionally produced by a British playing card company - printed in full colour on both sides of a rather deluxe 400 gsm satin card stock and housed in a custom tuckbox, the cards are a lifetime's dream made manifest and one I am very proud to present. Each set has been individually signed and hand numbered and the pre-orders all received a bonus full colour postcard as pictured. I have a very small handful of sets remaining, please message directly if you wish to secure one.
The Wyrd Tarot is an uncompromising but surprisingly accessible deck. A unique meld of ancient and modern, this Tarot sidesteps dominant trends by turning to the earliest surviving decks – such as the Visconti Sforza, Modrone and alleged Charles VI deck – for its primary inspirations. The format is large, just as with these earliest decks, but is smaller than the full size Thoth Tarot Deck, a favourite of many modern readers. As is also the case with these earliest decks, my 22 Trumps – or ‘Major Arcana’ - are presented without title or number and thus function as a mutus liber, forcing the reader to interact with the images on their own terms. When working with this deck, the Trumps stand out - they dominate the spread – something I believe to be very important.
I had originally wanted to use the Trump titles and sequence found in the 15th Century MS ‘Sermones De Ludo Cum Aliis’ but when I self-published a set of the 22 Trumps in 2017 with this sequence and circulated them among clients some responded as though this was a mistake and I therefore decided to be bold and lose the titles and numbers altogether, allowing the reader to project their own titular and numerological connections onto the cards if they felt the need for any. This solved a number of problems and, intriguingly, made for a stronger deck.
The Minors stand somewhere between ancient and modern, eschewing the full pictorial path in favour of a more stripped back decorative feel. They reflect modern interpretation while using a restrained but focused symbolic language drawing from European rural folklore and cunning craft – possibly a result of their being created in the wilds of the Welsh borders.
The only Minors featuring human figures are the court cards. Each suit has its own distinct feel and I like to think that, as with the oldest Tarots, the deck works both as a united whole but also as two distinct divinatory decks. Indeed the Minors were partially influenced by the Gypsy Witch and Lenormand fortune telling decks.
There are nods to modern Tarots here and there but only where they feel appropriate – great pains have been gone to to ensure that this is not another Waite clone though there is a Waite / Sola Busca reference with the Three of Swords. This was included as it suited the feel of the Minors and I could think of no better way to express the ideas connected with this card.
The creation of this deck spanned ten years. Initially conceived as a set of 22 Trumps, the first of these was started in September 2013 with the final being finished in Spring 2017. After a four year hiatus for personal reasons, I started work on the 56 Minors in late 2021 and completed these in September 2023.
I am a self-taught artist at best – no formal art education beyond the usual school Art classes up to the age 15 - and this set presented many different challenges, but each card exists as a hand drawn original (coloured pencils) which was then scanned and enhanced to create the final image as I envisioned it. Each card is the first attempt – it was important to me that any flaws or stylistic defects were retained, thus making it an honest Tarot. I wanted to show that one doesn’t have to possess great artistic skills to create a potent working deck and I hope I have succeeded in this goal. Certainly the feedback from those who have purchased a set directly from me thus far has been overwhelmingly positive and I appreciate each and every comment received.
It is my belief that this is the only modern deck that puts the Trumps firmly back on their throne while retaining an accessible Minor Arcana. I also believe that, as a result of the pagan feel of the Trumps and the rural folklore references in the Minor Arcana, this deck will appeal primarily to a pagan / Witch audience though I have been careful to ensure that its iconography is accessible to a wider audience of occultists and is highly likely to appeal to those who are fascinated by the grimoire tradition as well as those who are fond of the playing card divinatory traditions.
For more information please contact me using the Contact Me form or email.
