Hard as it is to believe, 2023 marks the ten-year anniversary of TAROT OF THE ZIRKIS MÄGI, the deck that quite literally saved my life and launched this site. The correct pronunciation, by the way, is “Maggie” — as with the old comic strip characters Maggie and Jiggs, or Maggie O’Connell, the free spirited lady pilot of NORTHERN EXPOSURE whose boyfriends are known for their mortality rate. It is an Estonian surname. Don’t feel bad if you didn’t know this. I didn’t know the correct pronunciation myself until years after the deck had been published! This is particularly embarrassing, as before the deck arrived I wrote an entire novel centered around a circus family named Mägi — and I was...
A long-term project is finally nearing the finish line -- at least in part. I've been working on LE TAROT DES ANIMALERIES (or, The Tarot of Pet Shops) for the better part of two years. With the Major Arcana now completed, the opportunity to do an early-issue Majors Only deck was there, but I took some time to think about what I could do to make such a release really special. First, it will be an extremely Limited Edition, meaning only as many copies as are actually ordered by customers and collectors will be produced. Second, it will only be available (for reasons that will become evident below) in a striking giant-sized 3.5" x 5.75" deck. I know that some...
If you go down to the woods today, you’ll get a big surprise! In the beginning there was our Old Bear Oracle, a 52-card, personality-driven pack with a multitude of uses — it can even be used to play your favorite traditional card games! Now the bears have banded together to form a complete traditional Tarot deck, with all of Tarot’s deep symbolism intact. Having strong links to the classic Rider/Waite/Smith pack, and occasional crafty allusions to Crowley’s Thoth, this fully-evolved tarot is ready to become your hardest-working and most congenial deck. Old Bear Tarot is a full 78-card pack, featuring 42 completely new designs, including 22 original Major Arcana cards. Of the Minor Arcana, 20 images are brand-new, while...
I recently had a letter from a customer who thought it would be a great idea to trim her second edition Arthur Rackham Oracle. No more than seven cards in, she realized what a horrible mistake she’d made, and that she’d ruined the deck. Somewhat less recently, I saw a YouTube video made by a woman who’d trimmed her Tinker’s Damn Tarot. As I looked at the cards that she had destroyed, it made me so mad that I couldn’t finish watching the video. Folks, my decks are not for trimming. Just Don’t Do It. I’m not like U.S. Games, that publishes everything to a set mass-market pattern and puts a goddamn white border around all the art of all...
