Crow Tarot

The Crow Tarot infuses art designed to pay homage to crows and ravens with familiar Rider Waite meanings. The aim was to create a tool that aids and encourages self discovery and I believe this deck succeeds in this. Since people don’t feature directly on the cards you can really focus on the scene and what’s happening rather than getting caught up in who you’re looking at.

The Crow Tarot Deck

These digitally collaged cards use crows to tell their story so I wasn’t surprised to learn that they’ve developed a significant following among crow-lovers. The images association with the Rider Waite deck is readily apparent. Yet the presence of the crows infuses the cards with a different energy and additional interpretations come to the fore. I can’t help but look at a crow and think “take flight” or in some instances “why struggle when you can fly.” This is a powerful message that I’m really starting to internalise, so thank you M J Cullinane for that. Obviously I’m not a crow but I do believe that sometimes we ignore, dismiss or deny our capabilities and struggle unnecessarily as a result. Hopefully that’s just me; unfortunately I don’t think so.

There is so much that can be said about the Crow Tarot but before I move on too far I want to draw attention to some of their physical aspects. The cards have different coloured borders but the colours appear to have been chosen purely for aesthetic purposes. They don’t align elementally or numerically and no obvious pattern presents itself in the Major Arcana. Whilst this makes the cards beautiful I generally think if borders are different colours then I like it when they add to the interpretation. In this case the colour differences are subtle though so I don’t think it would have made much difference.

Another thing I noticed is that due to the way the cards are labelled, the image size on the Major Arcana is the smallest followed by the Aces and Court cards (see above). I find this makes the Majors, the Court and the Aces stand out quite boldly in a reading and my eyes naturally return to them even though the image is smaller. Yet, if you asked me I’d say I like the bigger image.

The Court cards follow Page, Knight, Queen and King. The pages show crows engaging with their suit symbol, the Knights all incorporate horses, and the Kings and Queens all feature crowns with the pairs have something that shows they’re linked. For example the King and Queen of Cups have crescent moons and the King and Queen of Wands have the lions. The subtle differences between how the crow is interacting with the lions make a world of difference to how I read the cards.

Like most decks I like working with, the more you look the more you “see”. I can’t work out what some things are but if I’m drawn to them I know that in itself is a message. It is definitely possible to draw many interpretations from the cards. Take the 9 of Pentacles pictured below. What do you take from the crow’s positioning on the wolf and the presence of the wolf in the first place? What about the lotuses and the Monarch Butterfly? Is the wolf lying in water? How is he reacting or not reacting to the crow? What does the tree symbolise and the buds opening on the branch that the crow’s looking at?

I know I felt compelled to look up information about Monarch Butterflies when I saw it pictured so prominently. I now know that amongst other things, they lay their eggs on toxic milkweed leaves which the caterpillar eats when it hatches. They retain this poison seemingly without harm to themselves yet that’s not the case for predators. Not only do they begin to protect themselves as soon as they hatch, their colouring serves as a warning also. They don’t try and hide away to stay safe – they are big, bright and beautiful. Tarot cards can really open up all forms of learning.

I also like the progression from the 7 of Cups to the 9 of Cups (see below). It’s really clever. To me it shows the power of recognising, grounding and being grateful for what you have rather than just dreaming of what you want and becoming paralysed by having too many choices. The problem with having too many choices or thinking we need so many things to feel fulfilled can mean we make no decisions at all or we focus on what we imagine others have rather than what we have and need ourselves.

The cards themselves measure approximately 8 x 12½ cm with flexible, easy to work with cardstock. I like the slightly larger cards and I really appreciate it when they come in solid two part boxes like these do. It’s funny, I don’t normally shuffle cards and wait for one to fly out as my selection method but it seems to happen a lot with this deck even though I don’t find it difficult to shuffle. Seems crows are just meant to fly!

The Crow Tarot Book

The card-sized book really focuses on the card meanings. There is a short introduction in which M J Cullinan shares her motivations for creating the deck but then she dives straight into the Major Arcana. Each card begins with keywords and its elemental association which is then followed by a description of the card and meanings for both upright and reversed positions.

The Minor Arcana is organised by suit with keywords for the elemental association. For example, the suit of Wands keywords are Intuition, Creativity and Action and the element is fire. The suits are ordered King through to Ace with the information provided following the same pattern as the Majors. Whilst there’s not a lot of information provided, I like that the same attention is given to the Minor Arcana as to the Major. It would have been nice if she had explained why she ordered the Minor Arcana in the way that she did but that’s just because I’m always curious about why creators make the choices they do.

Spreads

There is only one spread included in the guide book:

• The Crow Tarot Spread (8 cards)

I like that she explains each position in the spread rather than just giving a “title” such as heart energy/inner self. It really opens the reading up for deeper exploration and understanding. Overall, I like this deck and I think if crows are your thing you will absolutely love it. For me they seem to say, “Light your own star. Don’t chase someone else’s. Feel comfortable with you are and your ability to rise above,” which is a pretty powerful message.

Publishing Details

Deck Creator:

M J Cullinane

Pictured Version:

Published by US Games Inc in 2019