What if one could learn the future or discover fresh insights into the self from a deck of cards? Mind-body-spirit publishers are producing dozens of deck-and-guidebook packages every year for an audience hungry for self-knowledge or a psychic sense for what’s ahead in life.
The classic tarot system—78 lavishly illustrated cards originally portraying characters and images drawn from European myths, mysticism, and magic symbols—invites users to draw unique, complex interpretations from every spread of the cards. While the best-known deck may be the 1909 Rider-Waite-Smith tarot, today’s artists and authors bring their own traditions and twists, adding contemporary imagery and
modern psychology to the mix. And now traditional tarot decks are sharing the marketplace with more flexible, less structured
oracle decks, which feature 40–60 cards along with illustrations and interpretive guides that range from the playful to the political.
At Llewellyn, which publishes numerous mind-body-spirit books in Western and Eastern traditions, acquiring editor Heather Greene describes tarot as a “spiritual tool for self-
discovery.” As an example, she cites The Psychic Art of Tarot: Opening Your Inner Eye for More Insightful Readings (out now) by occult teacher and psychic witch Mat Auryn, whose deck and guide include meditations and rituals for skills in such esoteric arts as soul alignment, auras, and more.
Findhorn Press, an imprint of Inner Traditions, has shrunk the classic Rider-Waite-Smith deck into a pocket-size deck-and-guide package dubbed Mini Tarot (out now). It’s illustrated by Nicolas Galkowski and features a booklet by psychotherapist Margot Robert-Winterhalter with thought-provoking prompts for each card.
To make tarot reading even more personalized, publishers invite readers to color their own cards. The Watkins Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot Coloring Book (Nov.) adds explanations of the iconography by tarot teacher Avril Price. Callisto Media will offer a Make Your Own Tarot Deck Coloring Book (Aug. 2025). And gamebook publisher Chooseco presents the classic tarot characters and symbols in Choose Your Own Adventure Tarot (out now), with steampunk-inspired artwork by children’s book author Brian Anderson and a guide by tarot practitioner Rana Tahir.
The Hirschfeld Broadway Tarot (RP Studio, out now), created by tarot reader and former Broadway publicist Emily McGill, casts theater stars in traditional tarot roles using the classic black-and-white caricatures sketched by the late entertainment artist Al Hirschfeld. “We love to explore popular culture,” editorial director Shannon Fabricant says, “and deliver decks and books to different enthusiasts and fan communities in a variety of formats.”
A sampling of 2025 titles from RP Studio includes the Gilmore Girls Oracle: A Stars Hollow-Inspired Deck and Guidebook (Aug. 2025); Cat Gods, Goddesses, Deities, and Demons Oracle Deck and Guidebook (Apr. 2025), and Be Not Afraid: A Deck of Biblically Accurate Angels and Celestial Magic (Apr. 2025).
Tools to dream
For an oracle deck, the theme can be whatever its creator cooks up. Literally. The Fermentation Oracle: Readings and Recipes to Take You on a Magical Culinary Journey (Storey, out now) has cards designed by food historian Julia Skinner. She writes in her guide, “To ferment food is to believe in the possibility of transformation and in the potential of wonderful outcomes.”
Oracle decks can also make social and cultural statements. The Ofrenda Oracle: Celebrating the Day of the Dead (Weiser, out now) by divination experts Nancy Hendrickson and Carrie Paris, with illustrations by Angelica Castro, features cards depicting the kinds of offerings (ofrenda in Spanish) typically seen in Mexican celebrations of Día de los Muertos.
The Afro Fantasy Walking Tree Oracle Deck (North Atlantic, July 2025) combines meditations by herbalist and medicine man Monticue Connally, an enthusiast for Afro-Caribbean folklore, with illustrations by artist and social justice activist Jonathan Stalls. Its imagery “allows you to spiritually connect to yourself and the environment in a way that isn’t defined or shaped as a response to whiteness,” according to publisher Tim McKee. “These cards are not to read the future. They’re not psychic aids. They’re more like tools to dream, to start populating, in our minds and our imaginations, where we might go as a species, as a world.”
