I've been reading tarot for many years and I have used a fair few decks. These are or have been parts of my collection.
Idea for this page shamelessly stolen from Yarrow
This deck is my staple, I have used it so hard the art is wearing off of some cards. For me it was the first time that a tarot made sense to me. I'm someone who gets herblore a lot more easily than I do the esoteric imagery of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck design. The herbcrafter tarot tunes into this beautifully. It does cross somewhat out of my understanding occasionally; the author is from a different continent than me and its cards contain plants that were at first unfamilliar stories.
I have read this deck so many times and for so many things. The cards are like old friends now. Some decks can feel harsh in their reading, the guidebook for herbcrafter's tarot doesn't entertain the notion of negativity. This deck is as nurturing and gentle as it can be. As someone commonly affected by lack of confidence in myself, it never gives the option for self doubt or fear of failure. Instead even cards about failure like the tower are focused deeply on the opportunities for self care, love, and growth it presents.
I haven't used the recipies in the guidebook but it comforts me to know that they are there if I wanted to. They encourage a deeper connection to each of the plants represented on the cards. This isn't the only way the guidebook encourgaes you to connect with the cards beyond reading, each page suggests ways to connect with community, ideas for meditation, or healing uses for the plant in question.
This deck had three aspects of appeal. The first was that it is designed by Fen Inkwright. If I have any reccomendations for books about herblore they are Fen Inkwright books. The art is gorgeous, the writing is beautiful and they are an author/illustrator I follow exitedly from project to project. The second reason for wanting this deck is that it makes the TTRPG playing, LARPing, fantasy story loving parts of me very happy. This oracle deck is an archetypes deck where ach archetype is a common character or figure in fantasy stories. Pulling out this deck at a LARP and watching descriptions that perfectly match characters I know in the game fall out on my mat is a delightful experience. In that situaltion this deck can be read so literally and with no chill. It can make a game so interesting to have these fortunes hanging over characters heads.
The third appeal of this deck is simple:
HEXAGONAL CARDS
Who doesn't want hexagonal cards? They change the ways you can lay out spreads, there are more sides to connect to other cards, it stands out from other decks. Sure, they shuffle weirdly and they're cut to sharp coners with lots of them so it's easy to poke yourself as you shuffle. But hexagons are the bestagons as they say. The limited edition citadel oracle that came with the seed and sickle oracle (I'll get to that one later) even came in a sick hexagonal box.(I am not down with the kids. I do not know if this is the correct use of sick.) This deck is so good that I have had it twice. Once as the regular hexagons in the special edition seed and sickle oracle deck and once in the elongated full size deck that had its own ttrpg adventure alongside its guidebook.
The cards are just the right mix of direct and mysterious, it is easy to imagine yourself in the role of each of the archetypes or map them onto people in your life. Even if you don't live in a fantasy story. If you're an elements person, you can read from them too as each community within the citadel is represented by an element. The court, academy, crowd, and troupe this lets you relate these cards to the tarot too making it an excellent clarifier or companion deck.
I don't use this deck as much as I should. It aims to inspire creative work and suggest through colour and creativity ways we can explore parts of our lives. In action I often find it hard to relate to more general circumstances, and too specific to guide artistic ideas. The reverse of the cards steal the show here. Where most cards have the same back across all of the cards this deck has a beautiful flowing gradient across the back of the cards. Each cardback holds its own symbols and colours. The whole deck can be laid out into one connecting design. The backs of the cards are great for colour magic, and are strewn with symbols that can be read into for added depth to the reading. The guidebook, though just a small pamphlet, makes connections between intention and art materials that I had never considered before. All of its suggestions feel intuitive and easy to apply.
I loved this deck, and I would still be reading it often. If I could find it. The deck is another beautiful peice of Fen Inkwright art, Each card representing a piece of herblore from around the world. The folklore is so well considered for the cards meanings, the cards are gorgeous, and there are two fantastic guidebooks. In lieu of reversed meanings here there are dawn and dusk readings each with their own guidebook. Dawn focuses on action, projects, ideas, and looking outwards. Dusk conversely focuses on healing, reflection, self awareness, and looking inwards. Because of this the deck is wonderful for daily card pulls. One in the morning for what the workday has in store, or how your projects and relationships might fare; and another in the evening for what your inner world is dealing with after the day you've had and what self care is in order. Habitual use is a strength of this deck, its suits are sorted into seasons that you can spilt apart to read each season in your year ahead reading.
Have you ever wanted a deck of cards that is all names of hypothetical pubs. Apparently I once thought I did. This oracle deck of animal and plant imagery has almost no justification in its guidebook of why each plant is on the card it represents. This made it uncomfortable to get used to as drawing the connection between imagery and meaning felt unpredictable. The author seems to have recognised this because every card has a basic meaning on the bottom of the card but this felt to me like taking away some of my ability to take an intuitive response. I bought this deck on a date with a particularly terrible ex boyfriend and it held on to those negative associations for me. Suffice it to say that it has been passed on to someone else.
I've been working on painting this deck for about four years. Every few months I pick it back up again for long enough to add a few cards and then life gets in the way and I don't finish it. I've got less than 2O cards left to paint now. Maybe I'll finish it in the summer, probably not though. It's painted on top of a colour in your own tarot deck I bought cheaply form a discount bookshop, The cards weren't designed to take acrylic paint but seem to have reamined sturdy. Some of the cards stuck together where the acrylic paint was appiled too thickly and the backs of the cards are definitely marked with paint splatters and tears now. One day I will be able to properly read it. I hope its worth the wait and all the work.
