Deck Name: The Halloween Tarot by Karen Lee and Kipling West
Artist: Deck Structure: The full 78 Cards, including 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana Cards.
Minor Arcana Suits: Imps (Wands), Ghosts (Cups), Bats (Swords), Pumpkins (Pentacles)
Dimensions:7.6 x 3.2 x 12.7 cm
Card Stock: Sturdy, Glossy coating
Packaging: Fold Box
Companion Book: Yes
Additional Notes: Based on Rider-Waite-Smith tarot deck
The colors are bold, the illustrations lovely and light-hearted images balance out the spooky creepy crawlies. A wonderful seasonal addition to any tarot collection. The Deck is published by U.S. Games Systems Inc so you know the cards are going to be easy to handle, brightly colored and sturdy cardstock.
This deck is so festive, it the perfect celebration of every commercial Halloween cliché that exists.
The Fool from the Halloween Tarot is cleverly depicted as a clown! Comparing to the Rider-Waite-Smith deck that these illustrations are based from, it’s fun to see the following differences.
- a black cat in the place of a white dog.
- a cleverly decorated suitcase instead of a back tied on the end of a stick.
- instead of our subject being distracted by dream visions, he/she is juggling.
- our scene is set at night time with a clever moon watching our clown teeter over the edge of the cliff
The card still shares a lot of similar features as well, and pays homage to the original:
- the jagged mountains,
- the sharp sudden cliff,
- the flowers by the clown’s feet look very much like the flowers on the RWS Fool’s tunic.
At first glance, this card doesn’t have the typical The Lovers Card shows a young woman in bed at night and being visited by a Vampire, so let’s take a closer look so we can connect with it better:
The Lovers represent relationships and choices, the complimentary balance of male and female, yin and yang and the deep connected understanding of two full entities coming together to form an even greater partnership.
The Lovers is also associated with the star sign Gemini. So what we want to do is look at contrasting opposites in this tarot card:
- A woman and a man
- A living human vs a non-living human
- cats vs dogs
- The woman is in the light (candle) the Vampire is coming in from the darkness.
The Magician is cleverly composed and and very well thought out.
We see our Magician is a very well dressed vampire pulling a rabbit out of a hat. This is a trick that performing magicians spend hours to perfect so this draws a lot of parallels with the Magician from the RWS using his wand.
The Minor Arcana Halloween Tarot
The Minor Arcana suits are Pumpkins, Imps, Ghosts, and Bats, with 14 cards each. As we explore the deck, it’s nice to see how pleasantly nuanced and
Playing on our sense of nostalgia and remembering favorite moments of our youth (or idealized versions of it), the Six of Pumpkins from the Halloween Tarot shows a Witch handing out candy to trick-or-treaters.
Some tarot readers might not catch the Addams family reference in the Page of Pumpkins from the Halloween Tarot, but it’s a cheeky surprise for those who do!
Check out Youtube Reviews of the Halloween Tarot Deck
More to discover:
- This isn’t the first time we’ve explored this deck on the blog. Check out Halloween Themed Tarot Card Decks.