"Need" a fairytale deck

[Rachelcat]

Need is definitely in quotes because I have 367 decks.  😼 

Right now one of them is the newish Lo Scarabeo Once Upon a Time Tarot.  It's ok.  Because I'm an old fogie, I'm not enamored of the fantasy artwork, but I thought I'd give it a try for the theme.  Well, it has tales for the majors, not all of which I'm familiar with, and just fantasy creatures for the minors, including courts (dragons, mermaids, fairies, mushroom cap people).  On the plus side, the Magician is Puss in Boots.

 

So I need recommendations for a fairytale deck I'd like better.  I've had Lisa Hunt's Fairy Tale Tarot and Isha Lerner's Inner Child Cards, both years ago.  I seem to not be able to connect with Lisa Hunt's artwork.  I'm open to re-acquiring Inner Child Cards, but it also has generic minors, not a tale for each card.  But some for the courts, I seem to remember?

 

Please convince me to re-try one of these two or recommend something else, if you like.  Thanks!

[katrinka]

This may not be much help, but Baba did a Fairytale Tarot years ago. It's very hard to find, and the artwork is decent but not up to the same standards as their decks that came after, IMHO. I'm lucky enough to have a copy but the only reason I was able to afford it is that there's no box or LWB, a few of the cards have creased corners and one got totally creased and crumpled at some point. The companion book is easier to find. And yes, there's a story for each card. It reads clear and true, I like it. If you spot a copy you can purchase without having to mortgage the old homestead, snap it up!

[Saturn Celeste]

I have a couple suggestions.

 

Tarot of the Divine and Chrysalis Tarot.

[Natural Mystic Guide]

2 hours ago, Rachelcat said:

Isha Lerner's Inner Child Cards

I've been working with this deck.  I'm not that happy with it.  I'm ambivalent about the art -- nice colors, but the execution feels amateurish.  It (the art and the development/write ups of the deck just could be done so much better.  I love the concept.  I'm also still looking for the right 'fairytale' deck.  I have recently picked up Tarot of the Divine.  I like the art and it's an interesting color scheme.  I have not worked with it enough to say this is the deck!  It is international/intercultural in orientation.  Usually I like that orientation, but for fairy tale archetypes there is so much rich and familiar material to mine from a Eurocentric perspective.  I have a strong dislike for the Chrysalis Tarot ... if you want that one maybe we can do a trade!  The art is great.  The structure of the Tarot has just been too tampered with --  IMHO not in a good way.  It makes me mad.

[Rachelcat]

@Natural Mystic Guide Thanks for the ideas.  I forgot about the Chrysalis.  I didn't like for the pettiest thing:  Spirals for wands.  I think creative suits are fine, but wands/batons should be something long and thin.  Spirals are too round, like the other suits, mirrors and stones.  I like scrolls for swords, though.  Long and thin thoughts!

 

I'll check out Tarot of the Divine and see if it might work for me.

 

Thanks again!  Good luck with your search, too!

[Rachelcat]

15 hours ago, Saturn Celeste said:

I have a couple suggestions.

 

Tarot of the Divine and Chrysalis Tarot.

 

Thank you!  Definitely going to check out Tarot of the Divine.  (Sorry, I'm replying in reverse order.)  I'll let you know how the search goes!

 

17 hours ago, katrinka said:

This may not be much help, but Baba did a Fairytale Tarot years ago. It's very hard to find, and the artwork is decent but not up to the same standards as their decks that came after, IMHO. I'm lucky enough to have a copy but the only reason I was able to afford it is that there's no box or LWB, a few of the cards have creased corners and one got totally creased and crumpled at some point. The companion book is easier to find. And yes, there's a story for each card. It reads clear and true, I like it. If you spot a copy you can purchase without having to mortgage the old homestead, snap it up!

 

Thanks for the info!  I didn't remember this from back in the day.  Yes, it's good that I can recognize the stories from these sample cards!  Even the dogs with the small, medium, and large eyes!  That was my favorite as a kid just because it was so bizarre!  I'll keep an eye out for it.  You never know when something might pop up!

 

Edited April 2 by Rachelcat

[geoxena]

I have Tarot of the Divine and could not connect with it.  For me, the artwork is too flat and cartoonish, almost manga-like, and I don't vibe very well with that style.  Plus I don't recognize a lot of the fairy tales it uses because they are from all over the world, and I hate to have to pull out the book every time.  TBH, I don't know why I bought it.  If you are interested in it and want a trade, let me know - but the support in the box to keep the deck in place was damaged and I pulled it out, so now the deck moves around in it.  But the box is very nice.  

 

US Games has a deck that uses a similar style of art, but with more shading so it is not as flat.  It's called the Woodland Fairy Tale Tarot.  https://www.usgamesinc.com/woodland-fairytale-tarot

 

 

Edited April 2 by geoxena

[Rachelcat]

3 hours ago, geoxena said:

US Games has a deck that uses a similar style of art, but with more shading so it is not as flat.  It's called the Woodland Fairy Tale Tarot.  https://www.usgamesinc.com/woodland-fairytale-tarot

 

Thanks for this one.  I haven't seen it before.  I'll check it out!

[katrinka]

6 hours ago, Rachelcat said:

Even the dogs with the small, medium, and large eyes!  That was my favorite as a kid just because it was so bizarre! 

 

You too? Wow. The Tinderbox is so niche, I thought I was the only one who liked it best!
Those pugs are like caricatures. Pugs are naturally a little bug eyed, lol.

I had a Tasha Tudor book of fairy tales when I was little, and she loved corgis and always drew them. She was a wonderful artist, very "cottage-y" but that's a good style for childrens' books. I remember a giant corgi with the princess sleeping on his long back and yes, "eyes like saucers." She didn't have to exaggerate the eyes too much since it was a very big dog anyway, but they were still quite large. It had a certain beauty and strangeness that fascinated me (and was a perfect complement to that bizarre story!), I must have spent hours gazing at it. I knew it wasn't real but that didn't stop me from wishing I had one like that!

The Baba is still a great deck, though, pugs and all.
 

3 hours ago, geoxena said:

US Games has a deck that uses a similar style of art, but with more shading so it is not as flat.  It's called the Woodland Fairy Tale Tarot.  https://www.usgamesinc.com/woodland-fairytale-tarot

The art is nice. There's too many decks with no shading these days. Why are so many deck creators so allergic to shading? Drawing outlines always felt like a chore to me, but shading is the fun part. It's easy, and it's the part that always made me feel pleased with the picture. Depth is what makes things pop and look real!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 2 by katrinka

[geoxena]

3 hours ago, katrinka said:

There's too many decks with no shading these days. Why are so many deck creators so allergic to shading?

 

Probably because they're creating their art digitally and solid colors and contrasts are easier to reproduce with digital printing, which it seems everyone is doing these days, especially for smaller print runs.  I learned that when I worked on a few cards for our "We Are One" community deck here.  I took such painstaking care with my shading and carefully blended colors to achieve what I wanted for the cards that I created with art pencils.  The blending and shading looked great in the digital image, but disappointingly muddy on the actual cards.  It left me a little bit brokenhearted, because much of the subtleties that I worked so hard on were lost.  So I think that might be the impetus behind some artists forgoing blends and shading.  If they do create shading, it's by delineating solid blocks of color.  And that's the kind of cartoonish art that doesn't thrill or appeal as much to me.  Even if someone is creating art by hand, they would have to be careful to give their work more contrast so that the details show up in the printed card.  Subtleties and shading show up better if offset printing (non-digital) will be used.

 

 

 

.

Edited April 2 by geoxena

[katrinka]

56 minutes ago, geoxena said:

I learned that when I worked on a few cards for our "We Are One" community deck here.  I took such painstaking care with my shading and carefully blended colors to achieve what I wanted for the cards that I created with art pencils.  The blending and shading looked great in the digital image, but disappointingly muddy on the actual cards. 

Printing issues might have a lot to do with it.
There's a way - Ciro's stuff is always beautifully shaded and printed. If I didn't know different I'd assume he used oils. But he creates his images digitally. There's no transition from art pencils to scans to the printer. Whatever his process is, the things he uses are probably quite specialized and pricey. And maybe it took him years to figure it out. Most people wouldn't know or have the equipment on hand to achieve that.
 

[geoxena]

Also, there is a range of quality when it comes to digital printers.  Some are much better than others.  And yes, I am sure Ciro experimented and found what worked best for him.  This issue with printing was the first thing I thought of regarding so many artists not adding much or any shading to their work, but I could be totally off-base.  It could be that it's simply a trend.    

[Nemia]

The Forest of Enchantment Tarot has a strong fairy tale feeling to it, even though the cards are not aligned with specific fairy tales. The whole deck is filled with creatures we know from fairy tales. It's a beautiful deck, maybe even too beautiful, too harmonious. One of the main points about fairy tales is the idea that danger lurks somewhere, and each fairy tale tells the story of hardship. The fairy tale heroes and heroines win their victory in the end, but there are some very difficult obstacles to overcome. 

 

I grew up with the undiluted, un-Disneyfied harsh folk and fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and others, and with the seemingly more harmonious fairy tales of H.C. Andersen and others. I haven't found a fairy tale deck yet that has really tackled the very dark sides of fairy tales (Blue Beard, the Robber's bride and many others). 

 

      

 

Another thing that doesn't really bother me but might bother others: the suit names and titles of the court cards have been changed. More about the re-naming and a fair review of the deck can be found here. 

 

[Rachelcat]

8 hours ago, Nemia said:

The Forest of Enchantment Tarot has a strong fairy tale feeling to it, even though the cards are not aligned with specific fairy tales. The whole deck is filled with creatures we know from fairy tales. It's a beautiful deck, maybe even too beautiful, too harmonious. One of the main points about fairy tales is the idea that danger lurks somewhere, and each fairy tale tells the story of hardship. The fairy tale heroes and heroines win their victory in the end, but there are some very difficult obstacles to overcome. 

 

I grew up with the undiluted, un-Disneyfied harsh folk and fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and others, and with the seemingly more harmonious fairy tales of H.C. Andersen and others. I haven't found a fairy tale deck yet that has really tackled the very dark sides of fairy tales (Blue Beard, the Robber's bride and many others). 

 

      

 

Another thing that doesn't really bother me but might bother others: the suit names and titles of the court cards have been changed. More about the re-naming and a fair review of the deck can be found here. 

 

 

Thanks for the recommendation.  I'm probably not a fan of the soft artwork, but I like that ace dragon!  And I also actually like the suit and court names.  It's good to change things up and see them from a different angle.  For me especially.  I seem to easily get in a court card rut these days.  Thanks again!

[Morwenna]

How about the Whimsical Tarot, illustrated by Mary Hanson-Roberts? That too has Puss in Boots as the Magician.

Edited April 8 by Morwenna

[Rachelcat]

21 hours ago, Morwenna said:

How about the Whimsical Tarot, illustrated by Mary Hanson-Roberts? That too has Puss in Boots as the Magician.

 

Oh, forgot that one too!  I wonder if it's still available?  That might be the answer!  Thanks!

[Rachelcat]

Just an update:  I'm about to order Kate Forsyth's Fairytale Oracle, a newish Rockpool deck.  It's not a tarot, but it looks interesting.  It consists of 4 items each related to 11 different tales.  The tales are Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, the Little Mermaid, Bluebeard, "Wild Swans," Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin.

 

I considered the new edition of Lisa Hunt's Fairy Tale Tarot, but a review said the book no longer has the full tales, and, since I remember some are not that familiar, I didn't spring for it.  Plus, as I mentioned, while it's lovely, I can't seem to connect with the artwork.

 

I'm also going to order the Tarot of Tales, not based on existing tales (and not the Tarot of Tales and Legends), but with a book that has story components for past, present, future, above, and below for each card, which we put together as a story with a five card spread.  I think its an interesting idea that's worth a try.  It's similar to the book of one of the multitudinous versions of the Enchanted Tarot that had a different meaning for each of the positions of a Celtic cross for each card.  (Which I gave away long ago.)

 

Stay tuned for deck of the week reviews!

[Bodhiseed]

https://www.usgamesinc.com/fairy-tale-tarot

Lisa Hunt

[RunningWild]

46 minutes ago, Bodhiseed said:

https://www.usgamesinc.com/fairy-tale-tarot

Lisa Hunt

 

I believe that was the one s/he couldn't connect to?  The booklet doesn't come with the fairy tales spelled out in the new edition, which I can attest to and have been spending time looking some of them up.

Edited May 8 by RunningWild

[FindYourSovereignty]

5 hours ago, RunningWild said:

The booklet doesn't come with the fairy tales spelled out in the new edition, which I can attest to and have been spending time looking some of them up.

 

Are the cards the same? I have the original book and wonder if the deck would be worth considering.

[Saturn Celeste]

On 4/1/2025 at 3:31 PM, Rachelcat said:

So I need recommendations for a fairytale deck I'd like better.

I have a couple more suggestions.  Shadowscapes Tarot, Tarot of the Secret Forest, and Joie De Vivre.  The last 2 are more fairy decks but they tell a story of their own.  How has your search been going?

[RunningWild]

17 hours ago, FindYourSovereignty said:

 

Are the cards the same? I have the original book and wonder if the deck would be worth considering.

 

I can't answer that for you, sorry.  I don't have the original deck just the most recent edition.

[FindYourSovereignty]

8 minutes ago, RunningWild said:

 

I can't answer that for you, sorry.  I don't have the original deck just the most recent edition.

 

👍

 

Tnere are several FairyTale decks that have come out on Kickstarter this past year or so, but often just the Majors relate to a known story.

[RunningWild]

1 minute ago, FindYourSovereignty said:

 

👍

 

Tnere are several FairyTale decks that have come out on Kickstarter this past year or so, but often just the Majors relate to a known story.

 Not the Lisa Hunt Fairy Tale Tarot.  That one has a story for each card.  I'm just not all that familiar with fairy tales except the most common like Rapunzel so I have to look them all up.  I didn't bring the deck downstairs with me today but the booklet tells you which fairy tale it's from but not the details so you're left to look them up.

[katrinka]

Just want to mention: This has got to be the easiest deck on earth. It's just one fairytale, and it works.

The images are from The Wonderful Story of Cinderella: Rhymed and Retold, published in 1921. It consists of 29 cards printed on sturdy stock, and it’s exactly what it looks like: it follows Cinderella from her spot in the ashes by the fireside to her wedding to the Prince. No meanings to learn since you already know the story, just put the cards in context. Great for beginners who need practice with that, but I think most readers would appreciate the incisiveness of it. "Simplified" is not the same as "dumbed down"! You could go full bore Clarissa Pinkola Estes with this thing, or just check and see what the weekend will bring.

It's ONLY the Cinderella story on cards that you can randomize, it’s not force-fitted to Tarot, Lenormand, or anything else.
 

I got mine back in 2017, but it looks like it's still available here.
https://www.printerstudio.com/sell/designs/the-cinderella-deck.html
 

Edited May 10 by katrinka