I am not a fan of tarot cards. Putting aside believability, the design on a traditional tarot deck is, well, rather creepy. No matter how you look at those images, they are just ominous. I mean, what’s up with the image of man’s pieced by a bunch of swords. Thankfully, though, not all tarot deck is so.
There are the minimalist ones as well as modern ones that is slightly upbeat. Slightly. The Botanica is one of those modern iteration and if I can be honest, a tarot deck about the language of flowers is a lot soothing. And that’s not to mention those artworks are fantastic.
The 78-card deck features traditional paintings rooted in classical tarot interpretations, but illustrated in the lore and mythology of the plant kingdom. Like for examples, the Queen of Swords is Red Oleander, the Hermit is a Chinese Lantern, the High Priestess is represented by the Elderflower and Nightshade is the Devil.
The illustrations are the works of illustrator Kevin Jay Stanton, presented in acrylic and ink paintings and printed on premium heavyweight card stock, emblazoned on the back with gold foil. Ohhh… snazzy.
Each deck will come with a booklet naming the plants and objects on each card, along with explanation of the symbolic meanings of each card.
There are three editions in the Botanica Tarot Deck: The Herbalist, The Alchemist, and The Enchanter. You can learn in details what each edition has to offer and also pre-order them on Kickstarter for $40 and up.
Images: Beehive Books.
