The Shadowland Tarot

I don’t have many quirky decks. The Tarot of Curious Creatures, Nicoletta Ceccoli and Deviant Moon Tarot come to mind. But The Shadowland Tarot feels quite different. Even though Monica Bodirsky labels it a shadow deck, she doesn’t drown you in dark imagery. This deck is filled with creatures and monsters that are many things, but terrifying isn’t one of them. There’s a powerful message in that alone. We shouldn’t be frightened to explore our shadow. Therefore the intention behind The Shadowland Tarot is to encourage us to explore our shadow without fear. Monica Bodirsky wants us to befriend our “monsters” and become familiar with our own personal Shadowland.

The Shadowland Tarot Cards

I am always drawn to pen, ink and watercolour artwork. Even though I have some heavily saturated decks, I really like the softer colouring of my watercolour decks (Some others are Sasuraibito Tarot, Wild Unknown Animal Spirit and Spiritsong Tarot). Each get their message across without “screaming” at me. This allows me to make my own connections and notice things more slowly.

Take the two Major Arcana cards pictured above. 14 Temperance speaks to me in so many different ways. There’s the obvious fire and water aspect. Albeit I notice the approach taken to the water seems quite timid and ineffective for someone who is literally on fire. It leads me to ask, “where am I bit slow to see the imbalances in my life? and am I letting their impact escalate when I could address them quite simply?”

Then there’s the red shoes. Red shoes for me suggest the need to consider my sense of safety and security. This is because my initial response to colours is to align them with the chakras. After that I consider how they make me feel, what they make me think etc. In this instance the fact that I love red shoes because to me they signify a sense of personal freedom comes to mind next. Therefore when I look at this Temperance card I also see the need to balance the desire for security with my desire for freedom.

The Chariot links to my own personal experience in a different way. When I’m out of alignment, suddenly huntsmen spiders seem to find me in my house and come straight at me. This is counter to the usual tendency of these shy spiders to stay still or move away from people. I am not referring to one random spider appearing every now and then here either. I’m talking multiple spiders in a week, sometimes even in the same day. I listen to this message when it happens because I’d really rather it didn’t. So to see spiders depicted as they are on The Chariot card made so much sense to me. I couldn’t help but smile.

The 9 of Swords, pictured above, speaks to me for the same reason. Well, same, same but different reason. One night my husband and I were lying in bed gibbering away happily. That was until I spotted a huntsmen on the wall to the side of the bed. Worse still, the spider began to run and then it just dropped down off the wall. Now, I’m not a fan of spiders in the bedroom full stop. Knowing there’s a spider in my bedroom that I can no longer see even less.

I can’t and won’t hurt them, but nor can I catch them. Catch and release is my husband’s job. But, that’s hard to do when you don’t know where said spider is anymore. Let me add that this was around midnight and our alarm goes off at 4.45am. So, it probably comes as no surprise that my husband wasn’t interested in going on a spider search. Instead he kindly told me that it would be fine. Me, I wasn’t quite so sure. I hadn’t seen huntsmen drop off the wall like that. So, now I had visions of him/her climbing back up the wall and dropping on my head.

Eventually I came up with a solution I could live with. Since the spider was at the head end of the bed, I slept with my head at the feet end. Somehow that made me feel more comfortable. Illogical fear followed by an illogical response. Yes. And now I equate this 9 of Swords cards with this experience and my reaction to it. I never thought a deck filled with spiders and monsters etc could feel so relatable. I was wrong.

The Queen of Wands, also pictured above, is a powerful message that links in with the other cards I’ve just discussed. Why is she, of all the queens, hiding behind her hair? Why isn’t she expressing herself fully as who she is – a confident, bold, powerful presence? Hiding, for me, is what cues my spider experiences. As I sit in my spider free office I can smile about all of this.

Many cards in this deck make me smile. Some because my mind takes me to some interesting and sometimes adolescent places. Other times I find the approach humorous. And sometimes I smile because the card is sweet. These thoughts and emotions don’t come to mind when I think of other “shadow decks” I own such as the The El Goliath Tarot, Tarot of the Abyss, or Mary-El Tarot.

This is not just silly, attention-seeking different though. The Shadowland Tarot is a well thought out deck. On the Fool card, renamed 0 The Seeker, we see him leaving his head behind. I mean that’s one way to get out of your head and follow your intuition. One I can honestly say I have not come across in any of my other decks.

The 4 of Wands makes me smile because it is both clever and cute. In fact, I think it’s the cleverness and originality on each card that makes me smile. It’s often a bit of a “wow that’s good” smile. Yet it’s also so much more than that. They touch on an inner knowing. A knowing that feels so obvious when pictured in front of you that you just have to smile. In Monica Bodirsky’s illustrations I feel like someone gets me. She knows what I need to see. And if she can draw something that makes so much sense to me, I am not alone in my experiences. There’s definitely a comfort in that. And no, I never thought I would consider a deck full of spiders, skeletons, monsters and vacant-eyed creatures comforting.

I could keep talking about these cards through the lens of everything they bring to mind from my personal life experiences. That’s how they talk to me. But I’ll stop now.

I will say “ouch” to the 5 of Pentacles pictured above though. It made me feel sad when I first saw it and it still does. I never said all the cards make me smile. This 5 of Pentacles reminds me of the 5 of Pentacles in the Gregory Scott Tarot. My reaction was the same then too.

Furthermore, when I consider the 9 of Pentacles alongside the Strength card, (both pictured below), I become quite conflicted. On one hand is the idea of not hiding your strength in order to conform to feminine ideals. On the other is the idea that if you push for success and independence you may find yourself just feeling trapped in different ways. Hmmm. I know there is more to these cards than that but it’s what stands out to me. Monica Bodirsky wasn’t kidding when she said this is a shadow work deck. I find it shines a light into all the little nooks and crannies.

Some cards look very familiar but as is the case with the 2 of Swords pictured below, for me they aren’t. The bat changes everything. Bats don’t rely on sight so the relevance of the blind fold becomes more pointed. Bats listen. They are tuned to recognise their own unique calls. They send their sound out, it bounces off things in their environment, and in this way they are able to locate what they are looking for. This feels so much more positive a rendering than many decks.

The Knight of Pentacles, also pictured below, is another card I like because it adds the idea that “just because you can doesn’t mean you should.” In this card a grasshopper, capable of great leaps forward, chooses to ride on a snail’s back. Sometimes slow and steady is the way to go. It’s maintainable and allows you to stay aware of what’s going on both around you, and within you, as you move towards your goals. Whilst not as flashy and possibly not as appealing as the Knight of Wands or the Knight of Cups, this Knight gets things done. It’s not all about the show.

Nevertheless, as is the case with most decks, there is a card that doesn’t resonate with me. In this case it’s the 7 of Swords. The book meaning describes the card thus, “This little poppet is running away with the pins before he gets stuck with them. A smart strategist, he knows how to act proactively to avoid confrontation.” That would be fine if the other poppet didn’t have two pins sticking out of him. Guess there is something I need to look at here.

Nevertheless, I’d much rather go the 10 of Cups route and paint my own rainbow than press forward at the expense of someone else. Life has taught me many times though that sometimes that doesn’t work. I convince myself that taking that stance aligns with my personal moral compass. Now the shadow side of the 7 of Swords suggests people pleasing to me. Okay ouch, no hiding here.

Before I move on to discuss the book, I’ll wrap up this section with some information about the cards themselves. This is a borderless deck, edged with gold gilding, printed on matt cards stock, and measuring 6.5 x 12cm. I found the gilding caused the cards to stick slightly when I first looked through the deck but it was minimal and I had no trouble separating them. Now they are easy to sift through and they riffle and bridge easily. However, I did find they bowed slightly when riffling. Plus, I know riffling isn’t good for gilding so I will probably stick to over hand shuffling with this deck from now on.

I previously mentioned that 0 The Fool has been renamed 0 The Seeker. The only other change is that 20 Judgement is 20 Discretion. The suits are Pentacles, Swords, Cups and Wands with Pages, Knights, Queens and Kings for the Court. However, unlike most decks, how each suit is represented varies. For example, Wands can be represented by staves, sticks, chopped wood, candles or brooms. This isn’t as confusing as it might seem though since the suit is printed in large yellow letters at the bottom of the card.

The Book

The Shadowland Tarot comes with a great full sized, full-colour, 209 page book. It’s especially great if you want to understand shadows and shadow work. In the preface Monica Bodirsky explains both. She says that, “the shadows are parts of us that need to be integrated, so we see ourselves with compassion and wholeness.” She goes into more detail in the Introduction.

Her aim in creating the deck was to share the knowledge she has gained through years of shadow and healing work. She writes, “Perhaps my greatest hope is that in looking into the shadows, we can all make peace with those parts of our rejected self through recognition, integration and self actualisation.” Shadows are not necessarily negative. She adds that they are “circumstances or personality traits that have gone unnoticed.” These perspectives are great lenses through which to see, and then approach, shadow work.

I didn’t expect the deck to resonate with me as deeply as it has but I did expect to connect with the philosophy behind it. My personal and professional practice incorporates shadow work because I want to help others to uncover the stories that shape their personal and world view, their causes, and where they may be surfacing in their lives. The book makes the importance of this understanding clear. She ends the Introduction with, “May these cards help you see many of life’s dark corners as a little less threatening, bring balance into your life, and leave you smiling.” In my mind that’s the perfect way to consider shadow work.

The Shadowland Tarot book is ordered slightly different to many others. Having explained shadows and shadow work, she launches straight into the cards themselves. A slightly smaller than card size, full colour image complements each two-page card meaning. Under the title for the Major Arcana cards is what I’d best describe as the character’s thoughts. For example, for The Moon card pictured above it reads, “If I stay on this path and don’t fall for any tricks, I can make it to Grandma’s house.”

Under ‘The Card’ heading that follows there’s a brief description of the artwork followed by ‘Keywords’ for both the general interpretation and the ‘Shadows’ aspect. For The Moon, under ‘Shadows’ it reads, “Delusion, erratic, deception, visionless, discouraged, mania, disruption.”

The ‘Message’ section offers context and advice. For the Major Arcana, suggested professions are included in this section, whereas in the Minor arcana she includes possible health, finances and love meanings. Then, in the final section, ‘Reflections,’ she poses five questions to encourage readers to view things from a different perspective.

Following the card meanings she wraps up the book with a chapter on ‘How to use the cards.’ There’s some interesting information in here as well as two basic tables showing Major Arcana meanings and Simple Numerology respectively. She’s also included information on Court cards and the four Suits. Wrapping it all up is a few pages answering ‘Tarot FAQ’.

Spreads

Twelve spreads are included in the book:

Single card (she includes two approaches to a one card draw)
Three card (with four options)
- I found the transitions one to be a beneficial approach
Four Card Spread
Six Card Integration Path
Seven Card Shadows of the Past Spread
Nine Card Blockbuster
Four Card Moon Cycle Spread
The Thirteen-Moon Spread

She wraps the spreads section up with tips for creating your own spreads. I have to say I found the Seven Card Shadows of the Past Spread and her explanations on how to work with it yielded some important information and I will definitely work with this spread more.

Where my mind took me as I flicked through some of these cards for the first time made me laugh out loud. That has never happened before. When you consider that The Shadowland Tarot is intended as a shadow work deck that’s pretty amazing.

Though I do want to point out that this deck can still be used as a general tarot deck. In fact I think it works really well. Despite it’s title, it is in no way limited just to shadow work. Whilst it is in no way a RWS clone, it follows that system. The portrayals may be different, but for the most part the meanings are very easy to recognise. This is a wonderful all around deck that is both fun and profound in equal measure. I’m so glad it has made its way into my collection.