Fiery Wands Tarot
by
Sushila Burgess

A full Tarot deck of 78 cards, with a “Four Elements” theme, and with the traditional correspondences of Wands to Fire, Cups to Water, Swords to Air, and Pentacles to Earth. The pip cards are all fully illustrated, with designs loosely based on the classic Rider-Waite deck, but aiming at a less sexist approach. I do not like A.E. Waite's blindfolded and helpless women. The Major Arcana has these variations from the Rider-Waite deck:

• Instead of the High Priestess, Juno with dagger, spear and peacock — but you could see her as a high priestess
• Instead of the Hierophant, Jupiter with thunderbolt and eagle

These variations are inspired by the old medieval deck, the Tarot of Besançon, which has “The Juggler”, “Juno” and “Jupiter” as the first, second and fifth cards. I chose that deck as a model because Besançon is a special place for me — it was the destination of my very first ever journey to a foreign country at the age of 17 — and it seemed as if it was meant to be. The earlier versions of the Fiery Wands Tarot also had “The Juggler” as the first card, but all new decks made to order will now have “The Magician” as standard or as an option.

You might also like the Airy Wands Tarot, where Swords mean Fire and Wands mean Air, or the original “unillustrated” but very decorative pip cards from the first version of the deck.