This inventive Tarot deck by artist Lisa Hunt combines the accepted meanings of the cards with images of traditional fairy tales, which are known to encompass archetypal messages.
The fairy tales used originate from many different cultures, and cards of the Major Arcana are renamed to reflect either characters from ancient tales (‘The Empress’ becomes ‘The Fairy Godmother’, ‘The Hierophant’ becomes ‘The Mentor’ and so on) or qualities (‘The Hanged Man’ becomes ‘Entrapment’, ‘The Devil’ becomes ‘Temptation’). In the Minor Arcana the symbols of the four suits of Pentacles, Wands, Swords and Cups are built into the fairy tale images, sometimes very subtly.
Though the conflation of two strands of folk wisdom may seem forced, users report that by stepping away from the occult, the artist has made the use of the Tarot more acceptable to many users, and by incorporating motifs from ancient tales has made the narratives of life which can come out of a Tarot card spread all the easier. In addition, if the Querent is a naive user (not familiar with Tarot already) the fact they will almost certainly already be familiar with characters like Jack and Beanstalk, Cinderella, Rapunzel, or the Princess and the Pea and their stories may be an advantage.
The artwork of the cards, which is deceptively similar to images in a children’s story book, is lush and contains plenty of details to assist with insight in your readings.
Suitability
This deck would be suitable for anyone, though as a ‘first’ deck the user would have to be prepared to read the book and become familiar with all the tales.
Supporting material
The deck comes with a supporting book to explain the symbolism of each card of the deck, and from which culture the tales used originates from.
Read more about the Fairy Tale Tarot
If you line this deck, check artist Lisa Hunt’s other work:
