Animal Tarot

[Rachelcat]

As I mentioned in the deck stork thread (dear, dear deck stork!), I have a subcollection of animal tarot, that have an animal species attributed to each tarot card. These five are all the decks of that description I have found so far. Let me know if you know of any others!

Animal Totem Tarot
Animal Wisdom Tarot
Animism Tarot
Reincarnation Tarot
Spiritsong Tarot

My favorite is the Animal Wisdom. The art is a little whimsical for me, but I like the animal to card attributions, which cleverly take into account esoteric attributions, bull for Hierophant (Taurus) and ram for Emperor (Aries), for example.

My favorite art is the Reincarnation, which has Audubon-style illustrations. On the negative side, it has a whole suit of bugs. I mean a few representative bugs is ok, but way too many here! (The Cico Victorian Steampunk Tarot has all four suits of bugs! Sure, entomology is very Victorian, but . . . ???) The Reincarnation also has French suited cards (playing card suits) instead of tarot suits. That doesn’t bug me at all, just the bugs!

The Animism has oddly specific species names in its lwb. I think it’s because the artist used reference photos. Check out the art of this one. I think it’s probably love or hate. There may be a caveat or two for using a liger for Temperance and a circus elephant (cute one though it is). It has a Happy Squirrel card!

Animal Totem has a few species I hadn’t heard of before: Raccoon dog, echidna, or sugar glider, anyone? I like the more realistic artwork of this one, too. MORE realistic, but it has swords, coins, etc. in the illustrations.

As I mentioned, the Spiritsong has a small glitch. It lists “panther” as a species. But there is no panther species unless it’s a puma, leopard or jaguar. Cougar (puma) and leopard are already listed for other cards, so I’m supplying jaguar in place of panther. This one also has whimsical art, which many seem to like. I’m still on the fence about that.

Attached are lists of all the attributions of all five decks. Maybe you’ll join me in animal tarot obsession land!

[litefoot13]

Like an entirely separate species for each card?
That's interesting.
I imagine that could help one remember the cards more easily.

I just have the Wild Unknown one, and it has suits dedicated to a single species, which is different. x3

[Rachelcat]

Thanks for the info on the Wild Unknown. I'm not sure if I knew that. I also like all the foxes in the Shdowscapes. But then I like foxes. And we need to start a new thread on cat decks, of course!

A forum technical question: Can you see the five pdfs attached to the first post? Or do you think I have to put them in line like I did the scans?

I thought it was appropriate to just have them as attachments because if they were in the actual post, they would probably take up too much space?

If anyone checks, please let me know! Thanks!

[litefoot13]

They worked for me!

The shadowscapes deck DOES have a ton of foxes - I think it's the most common 'natural' animal that shows up. Except maybe for ravens.

[The cat deck I have is absolutely adorable. I think it's meant to be more silly than necessarily usable, but it is still a ton of fun.
(And the creator actually has a new kickstarter running for a different deck, too)]

[Rekaj]

Thanks for the detailed pdfs Rachelcat. Some wonderful animal cards out there although I also like mixed flora and fauna as in Wisdom of the Four Winds (technically an oracle deck). It must be far more difficult to construct an animal tarot than an animal oracle deck. I think my favourite new animal tarot is the Forest Badger. Such lively illustrations. http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/badgers-forest/

[I Sunshine]

I have 3 of the decks you mentioned. I found problems with each one but also found many cards I liked. I have not used any of them extensively for readings, though. I am not sure why. I have used the Wild Unknown Tarot and find it .... intense. I am not sure how accurate.
Right now, I am eagerly awaiting the Brady Tarot, which is one you might want to check into!!! I backed it on kickstarter.


It looks like it will be fantastic! But time will tell.

[Amoroso]

The Wild Unknown is classified as an animal deck by AT but while all the courts and most majors feature an animal, most of the pips don't. It's still superior to many current decks quality-wise. The cards are nice to the touch.

[RavenOfSummer]

Hi Rachelcat, nice to see you here! I'm hoping I can make it back to the DC tarot meeting sometime soon- we've been traveling every weekend its been held for the last while now!

So I don't think either of the two decks I'm about to bring up fall within the parameters you discuss, but I still HAVE to mention them because I think they're such wonderful animal decks.

The first is the Badgers Forest Tarot. It doesn't have a distinct animal species for each card, but its four suits are Badgers (Swords), Foxes (Cups), Rabbits (Wands), and Crows (Pentacles). I think this deck is just wonderful.

The second is a relatively new deck to me- I've owned it for only a couple of months but fell deeply in love with it from the first moment it was in my hands. It's the Anieth Nature Tarot, by a graphic artist creator and available from her Etsy shop. The images are absolutely stunning. I get such a deep, resonant sense of the power of nature from this deck. I follow a nature-based Druidic spiritual path, and it speaks to me very deeply on that level as well.

I wonder if Lisa Hunt's Animals Divine partly fits your criteria? Although it mixes in gods with animals.

I think I'm going to put the Animal Wisdom and the Animism on my wish list! I need to look more at the other decks you mention as well

[RavenOfSummer]

I have 3 of the decks you mentioned. I found problems with each one but also found many cards I liked. I have not used any of them extensively for readings, though. I am not sure why. I have used the Wild Unknown Tarot and find it .... intense. I am not sure how accurate.
Right now, I am eagerly awaiting the Brady Tarot, which is one you might want to check into!!! I backed it on kickstarter.


It looks like it will be fantastic! But time will tell.

I'm regretting not backing this one! It looks like Emi will be making the deck available on her website, fortunately.

[RavenOfSummer]

Thanks for the detailed pdfs Rachelcat. Some wonderful animal cards out there although I also like mixed flora and fauna as in Wisdom of the Four Winds (technically an oracle deck). It must be far more difficult to construct an animal tarot than an animal oracle deck. I think my favourite new animal tarot is the Forest Badger. Such lively illustrations. http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/badgers-forest/

Whoops, I missed that you had already named this deck, Rekaj!

[Rekaj]

No worries RavenOfSummer; good decks can stand repeating!

[Amoroso]

It may be OT, but this thread reminds me of the Wild Unknown Animal Spirit Oracle. I reckon it would make a great companion for the Wild Unknown, and I may even use both in a multi-deck reading. It's looking mighty fine.

[Rachelcat]

Reviving this old thread to add another pdf: A listing of the attributions of The Ark Animal Tarot. It's a Kickstarter deck that I backed long ago that I just received. It has one species for each tarot card, and a bunch of extra oracle species cards. (The only imaginary and prehistoric animals are on the oracle cards, so the tarot portion still fits in my animal tarot category.)

Here's the website for the deck https://whatismyspiritanimal.com/produc ... acle-deck/

I like the artwork very much. It's straight RWS structure with the addition of some symbols on the cards showing which culture the meanings come from, etc. The cards also have glyphs for an element for each card. They're based on the Platonic solids for the elements, three dimensional shapes reduced to two dimensional signs, so they're very difficult for my older eyes to decipher. I wish the designer had stuck with the much easier to see triangle element glyphs!

There are three keywords on each card, maybe a bit of overkill, but I've included them in the list also, so the list has run onto two pages.

Check it out!

[Crying Owl]

Hi Rachelcat!

Thanks for posting.

I got an interest for the cards with the green circle symbols on. Can you please help me with their name? (I didn't get it)

CO

[Ailsaek]

I hadn’t seen the Anieth deck before, thanks for the pointer.

Would the Affirmators deck count in this category?

[Rachelcat]

Hi Rachelcat!

Thanks for posting.

I got an interest for the cards with the green circle symbols on. Can you please help me with their name? (I didn't get it)

CO

Hey! The cards with the green circles are the Reincarnation Tarot. It's a Lo Scarabeo deck. I did a quick search, and I think it's out of print. Sorry. The green circles are the symbol for the majors. In this deck, the suit cards are French (regular playing card) suits. But there IS an animal on each card!