The Brady Tarot

To me the Brady Tarot is the quintessential five-star tarot deck. I think it's one of the most complex, imaginative, provocative, fully realized, and well-executed decks around. As you can see, the artwork is stunning, richly detailed, extremely carefully considered, and layered with multiple meanings. The suits are presented as feathers (wands), horns (cups), arrows (swords), and roots (pentacles).

The accompanying guidebook is written by veteran tarot expert Rachel Pollock, and it's wonderful, full of insight into the cards, tons of information about the animals and contexts depicted, and enlightening details about the environmental meanings and other key factors. This deck is often brutal and harsh, like nature itself, but displays tons of warmth and humor at unexpected moments (like the 10 of arrows!).

I can't praise this deck highly enough, it's one of the most rewarding decks around for me.