The Celtic Wisdom Tarot

This is an extremely off-beat deck, drawn in a smudgy, "primitive" style using soft but jewel-like colours. Although the drawing of the figures is (intentionally) a bit crude it was hard to pick cards to use in the sample-set as they were nearly all so attractive, and so different from each other.

The images and interpretations follow genuine ancient Celtic beliefs, as far as we understand them from what little literature has survived from the Romano-British period. Although this deck is a real 78-card Tarot, not just an oracle, the parts of the deck have been re-named and re-arranged.

            

            

Traditional

            

Celtic Wisdom

 

Major Arcana

Wisdom Cards

Minor Arcana

Story Cards

 

Swords

Battle

Cups

Art

Wands

Skill

Pentacles

Knowledge

 

0

The Fool

The Soul

I

The Magician

The Decider

II

The High Priestess

The Guardian

III

The Empress

The Shaper

IV

The Emperor

The Keeper

V

The Heirophant

The Rememberer

VI

The Lovers

The Lover

VII

The Chariot

The Mover

VIII

Strength

The Empowerer

IX

The Hermit

The Counselor

X

The Wheel of Fortune

The Spinner

XI

Justice

The Balancer

XII

The Hanged Man

The Dedicator

XIII

Death

The Liberator

XIV

Temperance

The Mingler

XV

The Devil

The Challenger

XVI

The Tower

The Changer

XVII

The Star

The Dreamer

XVIII

The Moon

The Imaginer

XIX

The Sun

The Protector

XX

Judgement

The Renewer

XXI

The World

The Perfecter

 

1

Ace

Augury

2

Dialogue

3

Courtship

4

Judgment

5

Combat

6

Foundation

7

Adventure

8

Elopement

9

Revelation

10

Quest

Page

Woman

Knight

Warrior

Queen

Queen

King

King

My only quibble with this deck is that the book includes a list of precepts for the diviner which, while mostly very sensible, includes a pledge to acknowledge that the source of the divination is external spirits and not one's own psychic power - which is highly debatable, unproven and probably unproveable - and a pledge not to manipulate the workings of the universe by performing any spells/magic.

This last seems to me to be a) religiously bigoted; b) preachy and c) silly. Yes, one shouldn't mess about with things unneccessarily - but taking any action whatsoever is manipulating the course of fate away from where it would have been if one hadn't taken the action, and I personally can't see any huge philosophical or moral difference between performing a healing spell and performing surgery.