Pre-Order: Available October 2024

The two first elements that stand out in veteran Heavy Metal artist Michael Calandra's tarot deck are the back art as well as the borderless front art. Personally I have always found an attraction to a deck's back art since it is what we see when shuffling. This deck has an amazing dapple-painted image of two mirrored trees connected by a spiral, set floating within light blue skies. There is a peace to the image, bringing about a sense of the micro and macrocosm we exist in, helping to set the tone for the reading. Once you begin to explore the deck and go through the cards, the borderless images spring forth bathed in an array of purples and blues. Being a fantasy art fan and growing up on Dungeons and Dragons along with all my comic books, certain cards really stand out in his style. The VlI of Swords, for instance, brings back memories of Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar series with the Grey Mouser stealing the swords from the traveling tents. I particularly like The Hanged Man as a skeleton which then leads into XIII. It's as if the skeleton climbed down from the tree only to begin its journey clearing a new path to enlightenment and rebirth. That said, this is definitely a deck for folks more interested in light fantasy that doesn't go too dark. It has a whimsy to it with cards like The Sun and the V of Swords. This also might be a little disconcerting for some readers, as the characters' faces lean more into caricature than reality. Overall my only issue with the deck tends to be the faces, since they seem to run the gamut from serious to whimsical to downright strange as can be seen in the X of Cups. One other interesting aspect is the addition of two extra cards that echo the back art with an As Above and a So Below card. With these additional cards you can examine the microcosm versus the macrocosm in your reading, adding a layer that can give you guidance as to where to focus. Overall, it's a deck that I enjoy from nostalgia-one that leans back into the stories I loved as a fantasy kid who was overstimulated on a heavy dose of Dragonlance, Tolkien, and Le Guin. Great job, Michael and US Games!
—B. Earl, Tarot collector and workshop presenter