You may remember that back in November I reviewed “Astrology for the Cosmic Soul: A Modern Guide to the Zodiac” by The Pulp Girls. While working on that review I learned that The Pulp Girls also created a tarot deck, and I HAD to get my hands on it! Thankfully, Quarto Publishing Group was kind enough to send me one.
I had high expectations for the deck, and they were met. The most important thing is that the whimsical artwork that I fell in love with when reading “Astrology for the Cosmic Soul” is on full display in “The Pulp Girls Tarot Deck.” I mean, I cannot lie to you, the artwork is the main appeal of this deck. It’s not as if they reinvented the tarot. The Pulp Girls follow the tradition Rider-Waite-Smith format; however, their artwork makes for a more female forward, racially inclusive experience.
The companion book is well-written, providing most of your basic tarot guide information such as basic card spreads and card meanings. The Pulp Girls also include affirmations, which definitely infuses the deck with a good vibe.
Do you NEED “The Pulp Girls Tarot Deck?” Probably not. That said, if you’re in the market for a fun, feminine interpretation of the tarot with wonderful art, you’ll want this deck.
You can learn more here.
Get your own copy here. (This is an affiliate link to my Bookshop, which supports independent bookstores throughout the United States. If you use this link to purchase the book, I will make a small commission at no additional cost to you.)
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If this is your first time checking out The Magical Buffet’s Favorite Things list, welcome! I started doing the list as a response to the overwhelming popularity of Oprah’s Favorite Things that she does each year. I started with the argument that I’m far more relatable than Oprah, with the whole me being broke as opposed to a multi-millionaire. That evolved into The List as you see it today, which is 10 things that have been featured on The Magical Buffet website since the previous year’s list was published. So, although many of these items were published this year, you’ll find slightly older ones too.
7. The Bavarian Illuminati: The Rise and Fall of the World’s Most Secret Society by Rene Le Forestier and translated by Jon E. Graham. From my review, “This is 912 pages of pulse pounding intrigue and yawn inducing bureaucracy that was originally published in 1915 and hasn’t been available in English until now.” Yes, it is a pricey spend, but if you’re interested in occult societies, this is an interesting look at the OG of societies. You can read my full review 
Due to its nature, tarot is ripe for assorted interpretations. Decks can differ in art, theme, and/or purpose, but it is still tarot. However, no matter how far afield a deck my drift, its core, the heart of tarot resides with the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. So let me say, when I saw that Weiser was going to “reimagine” or “reinvent” the most influential tarot deck ever created, I couldn’t help but feel it could be a lazy cash grab by essentially creating their “own” Rider-Waite-Smith tarot to sell or just kind of bad.
It’s feels weird to say, but Weiser has created the new traditional tarot deck. Since I started writing about magical and occult topics, when people would ask me a good tarot deck to start with, I would always suggest looking at where tarot began, the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. However, why would I do that now? “The Weiser Tarot” keeps the core of the tarot while making it better represent the diversity of tarot enthusiast today. Every person who loves tarot should have this deck in their collection.
Tarot decks are wonderful, and versatile. They lend themselves to all sorts of reinvention, for better or worse. Today’s deck is for the better because it takes the mythic, fantasy setting of “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” (an insanely popular video game) and meshes it nicely with the mythic, traditional tarot. 
Obviously, it is important for a tarot deck such as this to be well thought out, but if the artwork doesn’t do justice to the game, and the grand tradition of excellent tarot artwork, the deck is worthless. Fortunately, it was Erika Hollice’s artwork that first caught my eye, before I even realized I was looking at a deck based on a game I personally love. Hollice’s art deco, graphic, fantasy style translates wonderfully to the card. The only complaint that I have is in Insight Editions attempt to have the cards be matte, the cards tend to stick together, making for difficult shuffling.
I am fortunate that I get offered the opportunity to review lots of books and decks. If you’re part of my Patreon, you’ve seen my reasoning behind some of the items I’ve chosen to review. When I was offered a copy of the deck “Cultivating Grace: Access Inner Peace, Clarity, and Joy on Your Spiritual Path” by Miranda Macpherson I accepted, and I could not tell you why. It didn’t look awful, but it also didn’t seem like something I would enjoy, and yet, I wanted to review it. I’m glad I did.
Each card features beautiful art by Anna Kuptsova and ideas to reflect on and practice. Macpherson’s appreciation of classic spiritual thought is obvious when reading the accompanying guidebook, and unlike some decks I highly recommend reading the guidebook as it offers much more than just card descriptions. Also, I just need to mention, you get the beautiful 64-card deck, which comes in a lovely fabric bag and a full-color 176-page guidebook, all in a compact, sturdy box for the suggested retail price of $18.99. That’s just shockingly reasonable.
2. Your latest book, “Tarot by Numbers” discusses using the number of the card as a jumping off point to doing a reading. When did you realize this was a viable way to use the tarot?
About Liz Dean:
Now, when it comes to tarot, I know a thing or two. Not to toot my own horn, but I do some halfway decent monthly single card tarot forecasts on my 
The oracle deck we’re looking at today is wonderful, but also prompted some design questions on my part. Let’s look at the “Soul Helper Oracle” by Christine Arana Fader and illustrated by Elena Dudina. If Fader’s name sounds familiar it’s because you’ve seen it before on The Magical Buffet when I held 
The deck itself is 43 cards and the guidebook offers a 21-day cycle of working with the theme of a card to explore yourself. Each card has four companions to support your work with the message of each card: a crystal, a spirit animal, a number, and a plant essence. I love how the deck is geared towards self-discovery and that Fader offers ideas to support your work. The only question I have, is with such clear ideas in mind, and a capable illustrator rendering the cards, couldn’t the crystal, spirit animal, number, and plant be incorporated into the art of each card? (Each card has a number, some have the animal, some have crystal, and some have the plant.) As it is, you need to always refer to the guidebook to see those.
I had to say yes when offered the opportunity to review “Soul Cats Tarot” by Leeza Robertson with art by Adam Oehlers. I’m good friends with Deborah Blake, an author well known for her affection for cats. If she found out I had the opportunity to review a cat-based tarot deck and passed, well, she wouldn’t be angry, just disappointed. And here we are….
Leeza Robertson’s cat inspiration and Adam Oehlers artwork have created an evocative deck that should resonate with many tarot fans.
Ozaniec’s reading of tarot is that, “The language of the Tarot is that of the symbol in many forms: numerical, mythical, elemental, zodiacal, alchemical and Hermetic,” and that it’s, “a visual representation of the Western Esoteric Tradition.” This certainly isn’t the first book about tarot that I’ve seen make these observations, however “The Watkins Tarot Handbook” exceeds expectations when it comes to proving its point. Sure, like many books about tarot, you’ll find images of classic tarot cards, but in this book, you’ll also see the Wheel of Correspondences (as produced by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki), Strephon Kaplan Williams model of The Seven Archetypes, a table of Hebrew letters, the Tree of Life, the Psychosynthesis Egg, and so much more. Ozaniec’s version of tarot is a full-on initiation in the Western magical traditions.