Spiritsong Tarot
The Spiritsong Tarot is an entirely animal-based Tarot deck. There’s not a person to be found and yet these are very approachable cards that I find easy to read intuitively. To be honest, I wasn’t sure that would be the case when I bought them, so I was pleasantly surprised. The Spiritsong Tarot melds the idea of animals as spiritual helpers with the tarot system. The choices made for each card merges “each animals unique power with classic tarot practices.” These choices are then rendered in detailed, watercolour images that are beautiful to look at. The colour palette is soft and muted and yet still quite alive. They really are a joy to look at.
The Spiritsong Tarot Deck
This is an inspirational deck that focuses on suggesting how to move forward and take control of your life rather than showing you what you already know might be a negative situation. I know some people aren’t a fan of that but it’s in line with how I read tarot. The cards don’t ignore that we go through things. But rather than showing dramatic images, (after all it isn’t that we aren’t aware of negative situations when we’re in them), they highlight a potential way forward.
Take for example the 10 of Feathers, the 3 of Feathers, and 13 Transformation. For those not familiar, the 10 of Feathers represents the 10 of swords which often depicts a person lying prone with ten swords sticking out of their back. For the 3 of Swords, rather than seeing a heart pierced with three swords we have the moth, which is comfortable in the dark but attracted to the light. This is not advocating that we ignore, or gloss over, our emotions at all. Rather it encourages the opposite.
Finally, rather than seeing a cloaked skeleton riding a horse or some version of a grim reaper the Spiritsong Tarot Death card is a cicada – a transformative insect. Cicadas lay eggs on trees. When the egg hatches, the nymph falls to the ground and burrows underground where, in Australia, it remains for around six or seven years before it surfaces, releases itself and flies away to find a mate and create a new cycle. It may be hard to go through certain events, but generally something good comes from them – a new perspective, renewed strength, new situations and opportunities for example.
One of the things I really love about this deck is that it encourages me to discover more about the animals and insects that I share the planet with. Along the way I have discovered some fascinating things which in turn has added to my general understandings of tarot overall.
The cards are approx 7½ by 12½cm, on fairly thin durable cardstock that is a pleasure to shuffle. As you can see, each has two keywords in small unobtrusive cursive underneath the card title. Normally I’m not a fan of keywords on my cards and yet these don’t bother me. When my daughter was looking over them, like me she didn’t overly notice the keywords either. Each Minor Arcana card also incorporates the relevant Greek elemental symbol between the keywords. The cards have borders that blend beautifully with the artwork and yet they don’t signify anything. By that I mean that there isn’t a certain colour associated with a particular suit.
The Major Arcana has undergone a few name changes – 0 The Fool is now The Traveller, V The Hierophant has been renamed 5 The Shaman, VI The Lovers is now simply 6 Love, XV The Devil is 15 The Shadow, and XX Judgment is now 20 Awakening. I’m not sure on The Lovers change but I like the others. As I alluded to earlier, the suits have been renamed too. Swords are Feathers, Wands are Acorns, Cups are Shells and Pentacles are now Crystals. I feel these work well on many levels. In addition, I like that she didn’t try to make all the Shell cards water dwelling animals and so on. The animals represent the meaning rather than the elemental association. That being said I love the two “horses” that represent the King of Acorns and the King of Shells.
The Spiritsong Tarot Book
The 105 page card-sized guidebook is a great accompaniment to this beautiful deck. For each card of both the Major and Minor Arcana she lists the card name and the animal she’s chosen to represent it plus the keywords that are printed on the card itself. This is followed by the cards messages, keywords, the reversed message and reversed keywords. The entries aren’t long but they definitely provide a an insight into the animal and how it relates to the card meaning and enough overall information to get you started.
Spreads
There a six spreads included which she has divided into four tarot spreads and two oracle spreads. I wouldn’t differentiate the two, but she has, so I did.
Tarot
- The Spiritsong Single-card Reading
- The Spiritsong Star Spread (6 cards)
- The Spiritsong Healing Spread (6 cards)
- The Spiritsong Tree of Life Spread (10 cards)
Oracle
- One card oracle reading
- Spiritsong Three-card oracle reading
The Star, Healing and Tree of Life Spreads I found really valuable and I will add variations of them to my practice. They are perfect for a tarot-inspired system I am working on – as are these cards. For me these cards are a fantastic addition to any tarot collection. If you’re new to tarot then they may not be the best deck to start with but, overall I find them to be a safe and secure deck that helps and encourages you to take care of your own wellbeing.
Publishing Details
Deck Creator:
Paulina Cassidy
Pictured Version:
Published by US Games Inc, 1st Edition, 2017
Creator’s Website:
Paulina Cassidy has an Etsy shop
