The Ark Animal Tarot & Oracle Deck

Ark Animal Tarot & Oracle Deck

The Ark Animal Tarot & Oracle Deck is unique in a number of ways, with the most prominent reason being that it is a 100-card deck (with options of getting additional cards) which is comprises 78 tarot cards and 22 bonus oracle cards. The interpretation of the tarot cards is based on the Rider-Waite system, however these cards have been designed in such a way that they can also be used as oracle cards. This deck was designed to be a diverse tool. The list of applications given on the back of the companion book are:

-Tarot readings

-Oracle Readings & Daily Inspiration

-Shamanic Readings & Healings

-Meet & work with Spirit, Totam, & Power Animal guides

-Cartomancy

-Playing Cards

The cards are beautiful and vibrant in color with a glossy finish. They are quite large, which is great for immersing yourself into the spirit of the animals but also challenging for handling and riffle shuffling. Each card is mostly just a large image of an animal with a background of the animal’s habitat. There aren’t anyRWS symbols that one might see in the tarot cards, therefore I find it very difficult to read the cards without the companion book. The cards do have a few keywords/phrases, so perhaps once I have become more familiar with each animal’s description in the book then the keywords will become easier for me to rely on. So far, I haven’t found them to be sufficient to complete a reading.

My reliance on the companion book has not been a problem for me, though, because it is truly a joy to read each and every entry in the book. Each card gives a detailed description of the animal with a major focus on the spirit meaning. A lot of times the description talks about history, mythology, or stories from other cultures that involve the specific animal. In addition, the tarot cards provide a clear enough description for the reader to make sense of why some animals were chosen to represent certain cards. You can truly feel the authors’ love for animals in this deck.

I have used this deck for both tarot and oracle readings. For tarot, I simply remove the 22 bonus cards. When I use the deck for an oracle reading, I use all 100 cards. There is so much depth and energy to each card that I find that this deck is quite powerful even with single-card draws. But it is also quite fun to draw multiple cards or use a spread and see how all of the animals relate to each other.

I simply adore this deck and would highly recommend it to any tarot or oracle reader who loves animals!