The Pagan Mother Deck, acquired 2020, Mass Market

Tasteful nudity warning: those who are offended by breast feeding humans and monkey butts should avoid this post!

Overall: 7/10 Let me start off by saying that I got this deck at the perfect time in my tarot journey, and I use it not only for readings but also as a learning tool. This is a beautiful, interesting, fresh take of a deck. Even though its been on the market for quite a while, I think its pretty stand alone in its radical rethinking of the Tarot. For many people it will really scratch an itch, but, it not a deck I personally reach for often.

It will never cease to surprise and intrigue me how Tarot has been adapted through time to represent different cultures and beliefs. Tarot as divination historically is based off of Renaissance Roman Catholic esoterica (and their undercurrents of non-Catholicism esoterica, like ancient Grecian and Roman and Norse mythos), and as time progressed elements of the Kabbalah, and newer mysticism (like The Golden Dawn) were mapped onto the cards and the whole visual system was remade over and over again. Since the 60’s there has been a growing (if not massive now) trend of neo-paganism adopting and owning the Tarot as their own. This deck is a testament of how versatile the Tarot system can be and I love it deck for that, and it will always have a home in my collection.

I tend to not pull more than one or two cards at a time from this deck, but that is more than substantial. The overwhelming majority of my decks I feel like the interpreter, but I feel The Witches’ Wisdom interprets me. Time and time again this deck gives me exactly what I need, no more and no less. You don’t have to be Wicca or Pagan to really feel the gentle loving touch of this deck, but you do have to have a connection with nature to feel comfortable in the images. The messages are all extremely kind, offering advice and a place to deeply meditate, and there’s a very strong Divine Feminine vibe to this deck even though there is plenty of masculinity portrayed. It stands on its own, but also works well with other similar themed decks. Unlike the Light Seer’s Tarot, this deck doesn’t shy away from some rough passages through life, but it still is one of the gentlest decks I own.  

If you are a guidebook reader and want to be actively learning and thinking deeply about your cards and are okay with decks that don’t really follow a traditional system, this is a perfect deck for you. If you are a “grab and go” kinda reader you won’t be happy with this one.

Card Quality 2.5/5: The card colors are gorgeous, but I find they started chipping at the edges right away. They’re also massive, but I personally like that—I can really peer into the image. Love the back design with the compass rose (but with a four leaf clover). It’s very stiff cardstock, forget about doing anything other than an overhand shuffle. They want to hold a bow, unfortunately.

Some cards that I think are an excellent and intuitive graft onto the RWS!

Readability 2.5/5 (5/5 with the guide book—this guidebook really rocks). I really don’t think of this as a standard Tarot deck as it has its own system that only kinda touches on the RWS/Thoth, but the fact that it does in about a half of the cards is a bit disjointed for me. This deck falls into what I’d consider the advanced reader category since much is contingent on how you feel about the art during your query and there’s only a little core-system reference. I would not by any means say this is a system-less deck though!

The majors work in reverse as the Fool’s Journey progresses to self actualization and realization. While this is challenging for me personally, I adore this very different take.

TWWT is a total revamp of the majors as you work from The World and into yourself/The Fool—it’s very clever. The minors think holistically on the smaller impacts you feel in life rather than the immediate issues at hand and can feel a bit…over your head? Vague? Puzzling? Vast? I find the guidebook quite critical in readings. But at the same time, some of the minors in this deck are the most interesting and evocative I’ve seen, and its been several years since I first picked up this deck.

Can you use it as a Tarot deck? Yeah, I suppose. Should you? I tend to treat this more like an Oracle deck, or somewhere in between the two. I find that I need time to think on the image given to me, that I find different meaning most every time I use the deck as it’s very situational-sensitive. The guide book is wonderful if you’re feeling stuck or just need inspiration. It demands time and meditation and sometimes I just want an immediate answer, in which case, I’m not using this deck.

Some not at all intuitive (to me) cards that do not come across as RWS. But gosh they are beautiful!

There’s also a lack of the tragic (call me dramatic if you will). That’s not to say that there isn’t negativity in the deck—this isn’t a fluffy clouds and unicorns deck, but, I cannot imagine getting a reading that won’t leave you feeling pretty good after, which isn’t always what I want. 

Art 5/5: I’m in love with the artist’s idea of the natural world. I love how the beautiful and ugly and everything in-between is portrayed. The colors are stunning and the subjects picked for the cards are for this odd deck, perfect. I love the Empress/Great Mother, and anyone who’s offended can grow up. I LOVE some cards, and they are burned into my mind. This deck definitely leaves an impression.

Favorite Card: I can’t choose—it changes every time I use the deck. I fell in love with this deck because of Love and the Messenger of Air. I cried when I saw The Maze (The Tower) because it profoundly moved me. I have a special connection with the Goddess of Fire (Baba Yaga!)

Least Favorite Card: Nah, don’t got one!

Card I Identify As: The Lovers and the Page of Air, there’s just something about them that moves me.

The deck Identifies me as: 9 of Fire (I dunno why, I seem to draw it consistently through the years as “my” personal card, it’s very lovely and lush!)

Season: Mid Spring to Early Summer (Beltane)–there’s definitely a heavy theme of rebirth and self-discovery

Similar Decks: The Enchanted Wood’s Tarot, The Druid’s Craft Tarot, The Green Witch Tarot, As Above Tarot, So Below Tarot, Tarot of the Hidden Realm, Tarot of the Witch’s Garden

Boxes it Checks: Celtic, Shamanic, Feminine, Self-centric, Nature Centric, Kind, Lush, Landscape, Animal-centric, Spirit work, Mother, Earthy, Wiccan, Pagan