A cheeky Familiar! Acquired 2020

Overall: 7/10 This is one of those decks I’m quite sure anyone with an internet connection and an interest in Tarot has seen. There’s a reason for that; one, it’s a mass marked deck published 2017 so it’s been around a while, and two, this deck had PERSONALITY. A charming, idiosyncratic, yet surprisingly traditional RWS deck, it sports youthful and colorfully dressed witches who cavort across the cards. Extremely popular, copied many times over in decks with less substance, this is a personable, lighthearted, and very cute deck that loans itself well for daily readings as well as more through readings. I will say that this is by no means a serious deck, so there are a certain subset of readings that this will feel rather silly or otherwise too soft and kind.

Card Quality: 3/5 Okay. A higher grade Llewellen card stock. Very shiny. Easy to shuffle and hold in hand. Nothing exceptional, nothing awful either.

Reading court cards are notorious for being a difficult hill to climb for beginners learning the RWS system. I personally struggled with differentiating the Aces vs the Pages, but the artist of this deck did a splendid job at helping the reader along!

Readability: 4.5/5 This deck shines in the complex story each card tells. I think this deck does an incredible job at guiding viewers with people (witches) who have expressive faces, that are doing elaborate things. The symbols are, well, mostly every day mundane (except for our witchy paraphernalia), but are purposeful and lend themselves to the story rather than just being the “typical” RWS symbols. One could easily use this deck in place of an RWS clone, even though this isn’t a clone at all. I find the rich colors, details, and entertaining ‘stories’ of each card so easy to “get” that this is a perfect deck to learn off of, or for intermediate readers to just pick up and run with it. The book it comes with is darn good too, though it doesn’t guide reversals. I love giving others readings with this deck; it’s very fun and generally well received. Again though, for a more serious reading this deck tends to struggle.

Part II of the Aces vs Pages. Almost in all of the Pages you see the element of practice and study, with the notable exception of the Wands Page who is just going for it! I also love how the Page of Wands has some strong Fool energy–it’s perfect!

I do want to laud the artist in their interpretation differences between the Aces and the Pages—I struggled for a long time getting to understand the court cards and I particularly struggled with differing meaning between Aces and Pages which both have new beginnings as part of their intrinsic meanings.

Art: 3.5/5 There’s a lot of character here that is constant through each card. I think this deck does human expressions better than any other deck I’ve seen and that’s what makes this so accessible, to me at least.  Our witches are flying around in adorable and kitschy psudo-witch/renfest costumes with cutesy striped leggings, but it can be off-putting to some when the scenes change from medieval time to modern, from sitting in a vintage sidecar-motorcycle to doing yoga. There seems to be no clear “time” that the various stories of the cards are taking place in. But regardless, the colors are rich and bold and appropriate for each situation.

I’m over the moon about the cute kitties and dogs and other familiars we see here, especially since they often actually help understand the meaning of the cards by pointing the way or giving attention to a particular object.

A selection of various facial expression and time settings and not a variety of body type, age, or skin color, though perhaps the King is slightly older.

I think that the biggest downfall of this deck, and it is quite the downfall given this deck is representing witchy-ness today (and the general number-one complaint online), is its lack of diversity–it’s mostly young, thin, Caucasian people. There are a few, slightly darker skin tones, but really not enough. I know there are older folk in here too, but I kinda wished there were some more in the not necessarily elderly titles (like the king/queen). I’d also like to see some other bodies besides the tall and thin and the short petite. They did this in the oracle deck that was published after the fact, but really, the tarot needs it too. It would be awesome if this deck was redone with greater diversity!

Favorite Card: Death, or maybe Temperance. This is one of my favorite Temperance cards. I also really like how the Ten of Swords isn’t just a complete fatalistic and “giving in”, but rather the struggle continues and is yet to be determined, though the outlook could go either way.

Least Favorite Card: The Eight of Wands–I don’t know why, but I tend to have issue with the old Eight of Wands in RWS decks. I get what the artist was trying to do here with the need to act swiftly, and I appreciate doing something other than the eight wands poking into the card, but I tend to think of the doer in motion, not just responding to motion. Again, maybe this is just me, but I’d have had a witch riding in the tornado, not throwing/losing wands into the air like a dork.

I also feel like the Five of Cups pictured really is pushing a narrative of crying over spilled milk (did y’all learn it as “crying over SPILT milk”? because I did)—I personally do not usually read this card like that, and I typically read it as a grief and processing card. So, while I personally feel this does fall under a Five of Cups theme, it misses the deeper point of the card.

Card I Identify As: 20 Judgement. I personally find self-discovery and growth when I’m not actively trying to do so but rather through actions of having fun and play mentality.

The Deck Identifies Me as: 7 The Chariot. I seem to constantly draw this card when asking internal questions about myself and I have learned to love this depiction! I DO struggle with making “this or that” choices!

Season: Summer

Boxes it Checks: Youthful, Bright, Bold, Clever/Witty, Charming, Story-Telling, Cats, Traditional, Witchy

Similar Decks: The Green Witch Tarot is astoundingly similar, but the GWT definitely is very wiccan/modern pagan focused while the EDW doesn’t take itself seriously at all, The Dark Woods Tarot, The Modern Witch Tarot, Teen Witch Tarot, Ask The Witch Tarot (which is a very cool deck IMO), The Mystical Dreams Tarot, The Spellcasters Tarot, As Above Tarot, So Below Tarot, Tarot of the Witch’s Garden, there are too many to list!

Do you have this deck? What do you think of it?