Welcome to Dark Reads, today I’m coming to you with a deck review for The Young Witch Tarot by Natalie Meraki and Bob Smithies. Big thanks to Bob and Natalie for sending me a deck for review!
The Young Witch Deck is aimed at the ‘young witch’ of course but it is also aimed at the young at heart and those who are just young in their journey of learning Tarot. It’s fun, clever and totally endearing.
Let’s have a look!
Packaging
The Young Witch comes in a lovely bright sturdy box with a magnetic side flap. The box is compact and has Natalie’s beautiful art on front and back along with lovely red foiled detailing on the sides
The Book
The Young Witch comes with a beautiful guide book, the book gives really beautiful card descriptions that are easy for beginners to understand, the meanings are RWS but have been cleverly written in such a way that the traditional meanings are all there and at the same time it is teaching you how to understand the meaning. There are questions to the reader in the meanings which makes the card relatable to life and has made me think about cards differently than I may have done before. I’ll share a couple of pictures of the meanings in the book, it’s very cleverly done and I love it.
As a side note, I LOVE that the page for the Hanged Man is printed upside down!
The book also gives a beginner friendly introduction to Tarot, spreads, readings worksheets and more!
The Cards
This is where The Young Witch is different again, the cards are thin but they are plastic (PVC recycled plastic) This was designed with young witch spillages in mind.
This really is a lovely feature, they can be carried around outside, taken to the beach or even a bath time reading if you fancy it! (Yep the float on the top)
This does make the cards pretty slippery. I did initially drop a few cards but once I was used to them it’s no problem, they shuffle like a dream, both overhand and riffle.
The backs of the cards are a beautiful blue with a white rose detail – fully reversible
The art and imagery on the cards is faithful to Pamela Coleman Smith’s but has been re-imagined by Natalie and I think they are really fun and endearing. Nudity has been removed from the images.
Each card is complemented by a wonderfully written poem by Bob Smithies, they are short and give a fun condensed meaning of the card which is another really brilliant way to make the meanings memorable without having a list of key words.
Again, I’m going to share a handful of my favorite cards and poems but I won’t share all of them, I’ll leave them for you to discover!
So there we have it, I Love it.
The Young witch is clever, funny and beautifully done, aimed at the young witch or anyone who is just beginning their Tarot journey, but I think this deck would be perfect addition to anyone’s Tarot collection, this one comes highly recommended from me.
Get your copy of The Young Witch Tarot www.ywtarot.com
There are also Social media pages for the Young Witch, you can follow on Instagram and Facebook, there is also a Facebook Group which is for learning and discussing the deck. It is Fabulous, hopefully see you there!
One Last Thing
I just wanted to share my Deck interview with The Young Witch Tarot
- 1 – Describe yourself – The Sun
- 2 – What is your strength as a deck? – The High Priestess
- 3 – What is your weakness as a deck? – Ace of Swords
- 4 – Describe me – 9 of Cups
- 5 – What can you teach me? – Queen of Wands
- 6 – How can I best learn to Collaborate with you? – 4 of Swords
- What is the potential of our relationship? – Page of Pentacles
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