Review of The Celtic Tarot

Artist & Premise of Deck

The author, Kristoffer Hughes, Chief of the Anglesey Druid Order, has chosen to develop a deck which incorporates the wisdom of Celtic Mythology; beautifully illustrated by Chris Down with a portrait like quality. The deck is rooted in the author’s Celtic background, and he uses it as an opportunity to spread the word about his culture’s history.

The suits relate to the tools of the time; so cups are represented by cauldrons, addressing the emotional aspects, both in their exquisiteness and in their deadliness; and pentacles by shields, bringing qualities of the North such as security and physicality.  Some of the cards are linked to Gods representing aspects of the message, but not all.  Every card carries a message in the form of a traditional Celtic story or philosophy… philosophies which will be familiar to anyone who already has an understanding of the cards.

The Presentation

The deck is presented in a beautiful, strong box, and would make a lovely gift.  Inside, the book is surprisingly heavy.  The 328 pages are strong and glossy, with an intricate black border with a Celtic frame and gold trim. The card illustrations are slightly bigger than the cards themselves, and printed in colour.

On first impression the cards themselves are exquisitely designed although, disappointingly, they have no border.  I’ll address the images in more detail later, but for now I will say that each card when viewed individually has depth and detail intriguing enough to draw me into each landscape. The colours are varied, some very dark and some quite lovely; and the images are consistent enough to be able to step into them as though stepping into a story board.

But they are flimsy.  And worse, they are shiny and smooth, giving them a life of their own.  Every time I have shuffled them, a dozen cards at a time will leap out of the pack and slide around my floor.  Last night, when my husband called me through for dinner, I set them down on my table, stood up, nudged the table ever so gently, and the entire pack leapt upwards and outwards and scattered themselves around the floor.  Well, I left them there till after dinner was done!

The Book

The beautiful book is one of the best tarot books I have ever read, drawing me into it ever deeper.

Reading the introduction was a little like stepping into a fantasy world, an adventure which started in a dusty old bookstore of the author’s childhood. I was drawn into his story right away, my emotions were invoked, and I was even a little jealous that he had a more mystical start to his tarot adventure than I did! But it tempted m to want to learn more about Tarot and the Mystical Soul’s Journey he spoke of that would transform his life both physically and spiritually.

Before jumping into the card descriptions we are given a 50 page taster of The Art of Divination, A Brief History of the Tarot, and Mysteries of the Celts and more, including quite comprehensive instructions for the beginner who might have just received their first deck.

The card descriptions take us back into a land of Dragons and Knights (which is perhaps to be expected in a deck based on Celtic Mythology). Many figures of the Tarot are reconciled with a character from Celtic Mythology who speaks to us in the first person to describe their background and then we are given comprehensive divinatory meanings.  Each card is allocated two or three pages of text as well as the full page illustration.

The Cards

This is not a deck to be used by the light hearted or those who have a tight comfort zone.  The deck challenged me in several ways – but especially with its open sexuality and nudity, and its dark portrayals of characters.

The first thing to strike me about this deck was the macabre nature of the illustrations.  Several are gory in the extreme, and while I wasn’t surprised to see the cracks in the soil filled with blood in the Ten of Swords, I was quite distressed to see the river at the heavily pregnant Mother’s (Empress) feet run red with blood from her scythe.  In place of the Scorpion which so many of us are familiar with, The Moon card has a grey hand reaching out of a watery tomb, giving an otherwise beautiful card a very ominous feel. And the nine of Wands disturbingly appears to have lost an eye on his journey, as blood seeps through a bandage covering his socket.

The most shocking card to me…. The Nine of Cauldrons conflicts entirely with my preconceived ideas of tarot.  I always considered the 9 of Cups to be the best pip card in the deck.  And yet this morbid card portrays a very dark chamber, with a banquet table set for a feast but empty of participants or nourishment. A severed head sits on the end of the table, and one chap at the other end appears to be dead, but has apparently eaten his fill and is contentedly napping it off now.  It simply doesn’t give me that feeling of love and celebration I like to associate with this card!

Now let’s talk about the sexuality. There’s a lot of it.  Many of our characters are stark naked. Well, maybe not many, I counted and there are only ten cards with full blown nudity and a further ten with partial or suggested nudity. But it is the nature of that nudity which is again a little disturbing. The King of Swords, for example, is sitting in naked tattooed glory, and it’s all I can do to stop staring at his very well hung member. And the King of Wands is apparently sitting on a giant erect penis, complete with veins. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love looking at fit men, particularly ones in rugby shorts; but this all just seems to be taking it that bit too far.

The gender inclusiveness is perhaps a step in the right direction given today’s culture.  Whilst I think most of us have accepted for a while now that a male court card doesn’t necessarily have to represent a male, but could equally represent a female with masculine qualities, there actually seem to be no gender boundaries in this deck. Many of our warriors appear very feminine. Our traditional male and female roles are sometimes swapped… a woman is driving The Chariot, Justice is a man, and a transgender (I think) with slim hips and breasts is adorning the wreath in The World. It appears The Lovers are represented by two men marrying. And the colourful Three of Cauldrons, with three most beautiful naked women offering up cups to the divine light on a tropical island, sets my imagination off on a path of fantasy I simply can’t explain aloud in public!

The Verdict

Now I need to talk about how the cards resonate with me, personally, as a reader.  Since receiving this deck I have done a reading with them every day to get a feeling for them.  I am finding them to be the darkest and most negative deck I have ever read.  Whilst I believe, in agreement with the author, that Tarot should be used as a tool to teach us what we need to know in order to develop ourselves spiritually and physically, these cards seem to be extraordinarily fond of throwing up reversed cards, and have consistently been picking up on the deepest and darkest aspects of the querents’ lives.  They have been forecasting doom and gloom in every possible manner… Telling us where we are going wrong, rather than praising us for what we are doing right.

Is that a bad thing?  Not necessarily. Sometimes we need to be told exactly what is what; like that friend who is willing to kick us in the butt.  In fact, after these cards spoke to her, one querent has already finally cut the last thin thread of an abusive relationship she has been desperately clinging to, so perhaps this deck is already working its magic… and to be honest this friend loved the cards so much that they will be heading her way after this review has been published, so the message they gave was clearly exactly what she needed to hear.

Personally speaking, I want querents to leave readings with a feeling that they have learnt how they can achieve great things and make their life a better place to be; rather than with a sense of impending doom, which is what these cards consistently leave me with.  I don’t like having to work hard to interpret and present foreboding cards diplomatically.  Perhaps the message these cards are giving me is that I need to harden up a little, and steer away from my tendency to sugar coat what the cards have to say for fear of worrying people.  I guess what I am trying to say is that these cards are great for those who aren’t afraid of the dark side, but they should be treated with caution!

Deck: The Celtic Tarot

Author: Kristoffer Hughes

Artist: Chris Down

Publisher: Llewellyn

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Katie Horn

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