Universal Celtic Tarot

The Universal Celtic Tarot encourages you to tap into the ancient Celtic wisdom that celebrates Nature. It wants you to recognise and rekindle the connections that may have been forgotten, ignored, or dismissed as life became busier and busier. Rather than letting that happen the creators wants people to immerse themselves “in an atmosphere that makes all kinds of magic possible and quite natural.” And they succeed. The Universal Celtic Tarot is stunning. Some of the cards in this deck rank with some of the most beautiful I’ve seen.

The Universal Celtic Tarot Cards

As you can see the artwork on this deck is magical. I bought this deck after I saw III The Empress but XII The Hanged Man is my favourite of any of my decks to date. For me he says that taking time out to gain a new perspective can lead to new growth whilst allowing other aspects to fall away. There is such beauty in that.

Much of this deck is linked to mythology. Unfortunately, as I will go into later, the book doesn’t open this world up very much at all. But you can definitely create you own stories. Or, as I intend to do, you can use this deck as a launching pad into the world of Celtic Mythology. There are some snippets scattered throughout the book that will help you get started. For example, it is Derg Corra (The Green Man) that is pictured on The Hanged Man.

The cards are approximately 6½ x 12cm printed on thin card stock that makes them really easy to handle. The suits are Pentacles, Cups, Swords and Wands with Kings, Queens, Knights and Pages making up the court. Strength is VIII and Justice is XI with X The Wheel being the only slight name variation.

The imagery on the cards differs considerably to the Rider Waite Smith, as do some of the meanings. The 7 of Pentacles in this deck shows a child immersed in a magical world he is quite at home in. This is a completely different representation to the Rider Waite one. Yet, it could be said, that in being like the child on the card we will indeed grow, quite possibly in a new direction, but hopefully without regretting the time we directed elsewhere. Further examples of differing meaning include the 5 of Cups and the 8 of Swords.

As I flick through I feel compelled to follow the lead of the child on the 7 of Pentacles and immerse myself, without constraint, into the magical world the cards depict .

The Universal Celtic Tarot Book

I cannot speak highly enough of the cards, but now for the not so good. If you aren’t well versed in Celtic Mythology, don’t look to the guide book to help you much. As I have already said, it does at least offer some starting points for further research. A comprehensive accompanying book to this deck would be wonderful; however, it doesn’t exist. Therefore, over time I am going to seek to create my own and I will share what I discover here.

But until then, if you favour referring to the guide book when doing readings this deck may present some challenges. For example in the 15 page English section of the guide book, the 8 of Swords (pictured above) reads, “Blodeuwedd, the woman made of flowers, rises up already in the form of an owl. the eternal struggle between the King of Holly and the King of Oak for the Queen of May.” What the? I have my own interpretation for the card based on my reaction to the guidebook but, and it is a big but, the lack of explanation doesn’t take away from the beauty of the cards and the possibilities they offer. In case you’re interested, the English translation is followed by the Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese versions.

Spreads

There is only 1 spread offered in the book:

Past, present, future (3 cards)

So, if this is your first foray into tarot cards you will most likely need to gather some additional resources.

If you have this deck, or intend to purchase it, and you would like me to keep you updated on my research into it let me know either by commenting below or by emailing me – inquiry@mjstarot.com