Ooohh! I love this Tarot Tube tag! Tarot of Exception. Originally started here I believe, https://youtube.com/shorts/JAEFVD_c2U0?si=0H4K2gjhWz43RSs4, from Cozy Core Craft, the prompt of this tag asks what are decks that have “wormed their way into my heart” despite having characteristics that I usually loath? Lets do it!

1. Anthropomorphized Animal Decks: I usually think anthropomorphized animal art is distracting. I am an animal lover and seeing animals look and behave like humans can really throw me for a loop. I’ve turned down a lot of decks that I otherwise love (I really really adore The Northern Animal Tarot : https://wilderheartsstudio.com/) but cannot take the imaginative leap). I do have some notable decks though that I use and am perfectly fine with which feature animals acting like humans! They are of course the infamous Fantastic Menagerie, the Mimit Tarot decks, and The Silver Acorn Tarot.

I think The Fantastic Menagerie break the rule because the anthropomorphized animal tells a human story (represented by cultural ideas of animal characteristics) that is very relatable and takes me out of the animal mind-set. I also understand the historical context of the comics that were chosen for this deck.

The Mimit/Bimit Tarot really reminds me of my love of the Redwall Series I had as a kid (and got to explore as an adult). I find the mice a vehicle for my childhood spirit of adventure.

In a similar vein, the Silver Acorn Tarot is everything I wanted my Halloween to be when I was a kid. Many things, like holidays, were very lacking when I was growing up and this deck really filled a need for spooky season endearment that I did not know I had.

2. Decks with Multiple Artists that do not utilize the same art style: I originally titled this as “Decks lacking visual cohesion” but I found I actually have many MANY decks that are collage style but have the same art style and thus work wonderfully together (like The Victorian Romantic Tarot, W.I.T.C.H. oracle, and so forth). But I really struggle with decks that are a collaboration between many different artists (like the various 78 Tarot decks out there). There is ONE mighty exception to that rule, which is a deck I followed for years before it finally came to Kickstarter.

The Woven Path Tarot feels thematically fantastical enough that I find the differing images to be like separate voices narrating a different part of a story. I get serious Canterbury Tales vibes from this deck! Hey tarot artists! Someone please make me a Canterbury Tales deck please! I’m here for it.

3. Pip Decks: It is true, I’m not a Marseille lover. I even waffled about getting the Trionfi della Luna, and my waffling paid off because they finally printed illustrated minors. Numbers and me just don’t really get along, what can I say. Alas, I still have decks that are plenty pipish.

The Mythical Creatures Tarot has very ornate and quite illustrated pips but they are pips nonetheless. I also have The Tarot of the Broken Mirror, Marseille (5th ed) that DOES use pips. Both of these deck have little cheater RWS imagery to help those of us that are Marseilles or generally number challenged (cries).

4. Landscape Decks: I love landscape art, I really do. There’s some famous decks out there using awesome paintings or pictures or drawings, but I don’t really get vibes from a specific place. On a really frontal brain level I get a place is supposed to be scary or imposing, but I simply don’ t really associate a space with being these things–awesome, unrealistic, or interesting, sure, but rarely any sort of strong negative feelings I typically will associate with some of the traditional tarot cards.

The one, admittedly soft exception to this rule which is I love, is The Spacious Tarot. I don’t think this deck is explicitly a “landscape” deck, seeing as there are many still life moments, zoomed in moment, and the occasional animal thrown in, but I really do feel like I’ve been thrown into the picture and get caught in the moment of it.

5. Animal and Human Hybrids: I considered putting this into the category of anthropomorphization, but I feel like there’s a bit of difference between the two. I am okay with classical mythical creatures like mermaids, centaurs, angels, satyr etc, but other wacky hybrids are again rather distracting to me.

I waffled for YEARS before buying The Children of Litha because the human/animal combinations kinda freak me out, but finally my curiosity got the better of me and I took the plunge. I still feel like I’m warming up to this deck, but it really is beautiful and a fantastic take on the RWS (also, it does come across a little pipish, hmm…).

6. Tarot with Keywords: I like art to speak for itself, that’s perhaps my golden rule for buying a tarot deck. I can tolerate one or two cards being meh, but most have to make a statement of some sort. It’s strange because you’d think being a writer I’d live for the words, but not in the case of the cards!

I finally broke down though and purchased a copy of the 5¢ Tarot. It’s actually a new edition to my collection and I’m in love! Kitschy, old–time-y animals and objects? Fantastical and fun? A deck that doesn’t take itself too seriously? There is something just thematically correct with the use of keywords in this deck (hello old school encyclopedia!) and now I’m thinking that I have to go back to using reversals.

PS this deck is so fun its out on loan!

7. Franchised Themed Decks: I’m really really not into decks that center around a movie or book. Though I’d love a great LotR deck, but I don’t care for the one out there, which also has pips–I mean, you mean to tell me that in the entire LotR’s books you couldn’t find enough imagery to illustrate the minors?!? Failure.

I have one deck which is the exception to that rule, and that is by and large because I wasn’t even aware there was a franchise before I purchased the deck. Enter The Raven’s Prophesy Tarot. It is based on a popular book series; I still haven’t read any of the books, but love the deck!

8. Art Decks: I feel like this can be taken in many different ways–there’s art decks where existing art from either a time period or a specific style is cherry picked for a deck (like Baba Studio’s Victorian Romantic Tarot) which I’m COMPLETELY fine with, but then other decks which are a singular artist who have art which was not intended for making into a deck that is then forced into a Tarot structure. As much as I really really want to be okay with these sorts of decks, I’m not, and I struggle with some of the images feeling “off” to me when I try to read them.

But I DO have an oracle deck that breaks this rule, The Original Arthur Rackham Oracle printed by Duck Soup, (that now I realize also breaks my no keywords pet peeve). Perhaps this is an exception because being an oracle it does not have to adhere to the more strict structure of a Tarot deck, and also the words paired with the images are very specific and can be rather unusual. I find this old school fairy tale oracle to be wonderfully cheeky and on-point.

Do you own decks that are a exception to your deck preferences?