Multiethnic tarot decks

August 21, 2024 4:29 AM

I've been getting into Tarot and one of the major stumbling blocks I encounter (particularly when using a Celtic cross spread in which a card is used/chosen to represent the signifier) is that most of the decks I have encountered so far have been either completely white in the ethnicity of the figures portrayed or else use animals etc. In the booklet for the Rider-Waite deck it says that the difference suits represent people with different appearances/complexions (e.g. Pentacles beings used for "very dark people") ... is there a deck that actually depicts them thus?

Or is this not a thing outside the Rider-Waite guidebook? I do a lot of readings for African people and the decks I've stumbled upon that speak to me feel very racially non-inclusive ...

I'm really not looking for cliché Native American imagery drawn by white people and I do prioritize sophisticated art ...

Suggestions for nice world mythology inspired decks would be brilliant but the original question is what I'm mostly looking for ...

I appreciate that "very dark" people are easy to depict as African or of African heritage but the other suits might be a lot trickier to manage, given how many different ethnicities exist ... so please tell me if I'm barking up a problematic tree!

posted by an opinicus to Society & Culture (18 answers total)

There are tons of inclusive decks out there! Little Red Tarot specializes in a shop with LGBTQ/Black/unusual decks so I have linked to their page. This will give you an idea of what you are looking for, that way you can look for a local retailer for you.

Inclusive decks I like:
Hoodoo Tarot
The Modern Witch
Next World Tarot
posted by Kitteh at 4:36 AM on August 21 [4 favorites]

Check out Aeclectic.net for reviews of decks. Here's a list of some that may be up your alley.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:57 AM on August 21 [1 favorite]

Oh I forgot about the This Might Hurt deck! It's really good.
posted by Kitteh at 5:04 AM on August 21 [3 favorites]

Seconding the Next World Tarot, really good art
posted by Jon_Evil at 5:15 AM on August 21

I have a Luna Sol tarot deck and one thing I like about it is that humans have a wide range of skin tones, from very pale to very dark. It's not by suit though, just semi-randomly. In my limited experience this seems preferable, so that ethnicity is not coupled to meanings of a suit. It also aims to be sort of calm/gentle/healing in tone, and has nice art with a muted but colorful palette.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:19 AM on August 21

This is a little outside what you are asking, but you can find Oracle decks in many forms, and I recently found one for Orixas. Orixas are divine entities from a West African tradition that also finds itself a following in Brazil. And there are a number of decks that draw from that origin with African imagery.

I've seen people do tarot readings with mixed decks ( I've especially seen this in Turkey).

So maybe there's something in there for you
posted by jander03 at 5:31 AM on August 21

There's a stunning deck called Dust II Onyx: A Melanated Tarot by the artist Courtney Alexander (link to Instagram) that you might like.

From her artist bio: "she developed her series of paintings, Dust II Onyx, which she crowdfunded over $30,000 to self-produce and publish as a tarot deck (and later raised $50,000 for a second printing)—making history as the first black person to create a widely distributed deck and selling 3000 copies to date. The series is made up of 78 mixed media paintings depicting the complexities of blackness as humanity, as a race, and as a color story. It also includes a hard-cover 200 page monograph that serves as a catalogue as well as guidebook."
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 6:04 AM on August 21 [3 favorites]

Oh I just read more closely and realized that you want decks that represent many different racial identities. The deck I linked to might work as part of a mixed deck as suggested above if you can't find one totally inclusive deck.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 6:07 AM on August 21 [1 favorite]

Artist Yoshi Yoshitani's Tarot of the Divine pulls inspiration from folklore from all over the world. The art is really beautiful, a little reminiscent of classic early 20thC fairy tale illustration with a modern maximalist palette; and I can vouch that the quality is good.
posted by radiogreentea at 7:50 AM on August 21 [1 favorite]

In the booklet for the Rider-Waite deck it says that the difference suits represent people with different appearances/complexions (e.g. Pentacles beings used for "very dark people") ... is there a deck that actually depicts them thus? Or is this not a thing outside the Rider-Waite guidebook? I do a lot of readings for African people and the decks I've stumbled upon that speak to me feel very racially non-inclusive ...

I'll admit that my experience with Tarot guidebooks is limited, but this is literally the first time I've ever heard any notion that the different suits stand for people of different complexions. My understanding has always been that the suits often stand more for different aspects of your life (i.e., cups for the emotional side of things, pentacles for financial, etc.). Things are pretty loosey-goosey in terms of what the "real meaning" is, anyway, so I'd maybe take that with a grain of salt.

In terms of finding a deck that actually does depict people of different skin tones - I would be very surprised if you weren't able to find something that would suit. Tarot is enjoying a bit of a surge in popularity right now (going by what I've started seeing in gift shops in Brooklyn, anyway) and there are umpty-billion different designs. There are tarot cards with a New York theme, a movie actor theme, a retro-50's kitsch theme, a Lisa Frank cats theme...I'd browse on the Aeclectic.net site mentioned above and pick something with an art style you especially like. I have three decks myself - one that I use most and two I got just for the art (the retro one and the movie one).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:55 AM on August 21 [1 favorite]

Oh, here's another tarot deck site to browse possible decks.

And I'm not kidding about the Lisa Frank tarot (although I see I was mistaken about it being all cats, it's actually just cute animals in general).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:53 AM on August 21

different appearances/complexions
some have blue skin, others cats, w/ a botanical search [etsy]
posted by HearHere at 9:49 AM on August 21

I like True Heart tarot for range of skin tones and genders (and other reasons, but those are some of them!).

And I have never heard the idea that pentacles are supposed to represent dark-skinned people, or any connection between suits and skin tones. I appreciate having decks that aren't all White, but I've never seen one where it's skin-color-coded by suit.
posted by lapis at 10:46 AM on August 21 [2 favorites]

If you like the RWS there is the Classic Melanated Tarot. I have one and I use it from time to time, although if you like to read reversals, it's not the best deck, because the back of the cards has the 8 of wands on them so you can tell whether the card is reversed or not as you pull it. Not sure if that's an issue for you but it is a little bit of a bummer for how I like to read them.

My favorite deck of all is the Fifth Spirit Tarot. Beautiful, modern depictions of the card's energies with wonderfully diverse representation of gender, culture, sexuality, ability, etc.

It's not directly multi-ethnic, per se, but I also really like The Wanderer's Tarot. The cards are black and white, and while the drawings seem a bit crude, it's part of the aesthetic. I'm not sure if this runs counter to your preference for sophisticated artwork, but I really love the way the energies are depicted in this deck as well, it's a bit different and feels very focused on grounded humanity in a way that other decks don't do as well.

I've never heard of the suits depicting different skin tones, I have definitely read some wild things in random RWS guidebooks though...
posted by pazazygeek at 12:02 PM on August 21 [2 favorites]

The Wild Unknown tarot by Kim Krans has no humans in it, maybe an option?
posted by Riverine at 1:36 PM on August 21 [1 favorite]

The World Spirit Tarot.

Not super well known, because it was out of print for about 20 years, but the artist sells their second edition on etsy.

It's mostly rider-waite symbolism, but people from everywhere.

https://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/world-spirit/
posted by Elysum at 1:25 AM on August 22

Looks like folks have got you covered for amazing Black decks, so, in addition, here are a few POC decks for other ethnicities. Also, these are all drawn by creators who come from the ethnicity they're representing!

The Future Ancestor Tarot: Filipina-American creator. Her drawing style is very fluid and simple (in a good way) and even though I'm Chinese, not Filipino, I felt like I could see myself and my family in these drawings' faces and bodies. I think many East Asian people would feel the same!

The Gentle Tarot: Indigenous deck, with a focus on ecology, environmentalism, and nature — brings out those themes beautifully.

The Sasuraibito Tarot: Japanese-American, with both traditional and modern influences. From the creator's website: "This 78 card deck is inspired loosely by the Raider-Waite deck, contemporary living in the Western world, and Japanese and Buddhist concepts and ideals."
posted by fire, water, earth, air at 3:59 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Sorry for a late response but thanks all, this is a lot of exciting stuff for me to take a look at!
posted by an opinicus at 2:45 PM on September 23