The Wooden Tarot, created by illustrator Andrew Swartz, represents a distinctive approach to tarot divination that merges traditional symbolism with natural elements and artistic innovation. This unique deck stands apart from conventional tarot cards through its medium of creation—original graphite, color pencil, and acrylic illustrations on wood board—where the wood grain itself serves as an integral backdrop for the imagery. The deck draws inspiration from nature, death, and psychedelia, offering a grounding energy that resonates with both seasoned readers and newcomers to tarot practice.
The deck follows the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith structure, maintaining the 78-card composition with 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana cards. However, it introduces significant creative reinterpretations within this framework. The Major Arcana features subtle yet meaningful deviations from traditional symbolism, such as the Magician card reimagined as a lunar moth with eyes veiled behind its wings—a nocturnal imagery that hints at hidden actions, sly behaviors, and the transformative powers associated with the Magician archetype. The Minor Arcana undergoes a complete suit transformation, replacing traditional names with natural elements: Blooms (Cups/Water), Bones (Pentacles/Earth), Stones (Wands/Fire), and Plumes (Swords/Air). This elemental reassociation invites readers to engage with the cards through a more primal, nature-connected lens.
The deck's physical characteristics include standard card dimensions of 2.75" x 4.75", matte card stock, and a traditional card back design featuring symmetrical eyes and crescent moons painted in the same media as the card images. The packaging incorporates thoughtful design elements, including a scored crease across the back of the box that allows for easy access to the cards. While the deck does not include a companion guidebook, it is designed to be interpreted using any Rider-Waite-Smith-based tarot book, though many practitioners find that the deck's unique imagery calls for a more intuitive, personalized approach to interpretation.
Understanding the Major Arcana in the Wooden Tarot
The Major Arcana of the Wooden Tarot follows the traditional numbering and order of the Rider-Waite-Smith system, providing a familiar structure for experienced tarot readers. However, the artistic interpretation introduces new layers of meaning through its nature-inspired and surrealist imagery. Each card in the Major Arcana maintains the essential archetypal energy while expressing it through the lens of flora, fauna, and the wood medium itself.
The Fool card exemplifies this approach with its depiction of a figure walking near a cliff, accompanied by a small bird perched on a tree branch. This imagery symbolizes innocence, the willingness to take risks, and openness to new possibilities—core attributes of the Fool archetype. The presence of the bird adds a layer of natural guidance and the potential for flight or elevation beyond earthly concerns.
The Magician, as mentioned, transforms into a lunar moth, a creature of the night that embodies transformation, hidden knowledge, and the ability to navigate between worlds. The moth's veiled eyes suggest the magician's capacity for seeing beyond the surface and accessing hidden dimensions of reality. This interpretation aligns with traditional Magician meanings of manifestation and personal power while adding the moth's unique symbolism of attraction to light and metamorphosis.
The deck's artistic approach emphasizes the esoteric dimension of flora and fauna, merging realism with surrealism to create images that speak directly to the subconscious. This method allows readers to access traditional tarot meanings while engaging with a visual language that feels more immediate and organic. The wood grain visible beneath the illustrations serves as a constant reminder of the deck's connection to natural cycles of growth, decay, and renewal.
The Minor Arcana: Elemental Suits and Symbolism
The Wooden Tarot's Minor Arcana represents one of its most distinctive features—the complete reimagining of suit names and their elemental associations. This transformation creates a more direct connection between the cards and natural elements, potentially enhancing intuitive interpretation for readers who resonate with elemental wisdom.
Blooms (Cups/Water)
Blooms replace the traditional Cups suit, maintaining the element of Water and the domain of emotions, relationships, intuition, and the subconscious. The term "Blooms" suggests flowering, opening, and the natural cycles of emotional growth and expression. Cards in this suit would carry the same emotional and relational meanings as traditional Cups but are likely expressed through imagery of aquatic plants, flowers, or blooming creatures that embody the fluid, receptive nature of Water energy.
Bones (Pentacles/Earth)
Bones replace Pentacles, keeping the Earth element associated with material world matters, finances, physical health, and grounded concerns. The association with Bones evokes themes of structure, foundation, mortality, and the essential framework of existence. This suit addresses practical matters, career, property, and physical well-being, but through imagery that emphasizes the skeletal structure underlying all material forms—the essential support system of life.
Stones (Wands/Fire)
Stones replace Wands, maintaining the Fire element of creativity, ambition, passion, and action. While Fire is traditionally associated with the energetic, expansive quality of Wands, Stones introduce an interesting duality—earthly solidity combined with the potential for sparks when struck. This suit likely represents the crystallization of creative energy, the foundation of projects and ventures, and the enduring power of will and determination.
Plumes (Swords/Air)
Plumes replace Swords, preserving the Air element of intellect, communication, challenges, and mental clarity. The image of a plume suggests lightness, flight, and the capacity for swift movement through thought and communication. This suit addresses the mental realm, decision-making, and the challenges that arise from thought patterns and beliefs, expressed through imagery that emphasizes the ethereal nature of Air and the precision of a feather's edge.
This elemental reorganization creates a more cohesive natural symbolism system, where readers can connect the suit meanings directly to their elemental correspondences without the metaphorical leap required by traditional suit names. The wood medium itself reinforces these elemental associations—Bones (Earth), Stones (Fire through friction), Plumes (Air through wood's connection to trees), and Blooms (Water through the life-giving properties of trees).
Approaches to Reading the Wooden Tarot
Reading the Wooden Tarot requires a balance of traditional tarot knowledge and openness to the deck's unique symbolic language. The deck is designed to be intuitive, encouraging readers to develop personal connections with the imagery rather than relying solely on memorized meanings.
Getting Started with the Deck
Begin by spending time with the cards individually. The deck's rich symbolism and wood-grain backdrop invite contemplation. Look for recurring themes, patterns, and personal resonances. Because the deck deviates from traditional tarot symbolism, approaching each card with an open mind is essential. The wood medium itself provides a grounding energy that can help readers connect with their own intuition.
Familiarization with the suits and their elemental associations is a crucial first step. Understanding that Bones represent Earth (material concerns), Stones represent Fire (creativity and action), Plumes represent Air (intellect and communication), and Blooms represent Water (emotions and intuition) provides a framework for interpretation. This elemental knowledge adds depth to readings, allowing for cross-references between suit elements and the situations being explored.
Developing Intuitive Interpretation
The Wooden Tarot is specifically designed to work with intuition. The deck's creator emphasizes that readers should trust their inner voice when interpreting the cards. This approach involves:
Observing Initial Impressions: When a card is drawn, note the first thoughts, feelings, or sensations that arise. The wood grain and natural imagery often trigger intuitive responses that may reveal more than traditional book meanings.
Engaging with Symbolism: Each card contains multiple symbols carved or painted with detail. Pay attention to which elements draw the eye or create emotional responses. These personal connections often provide the most relevant insights.
Journaling Practice: Recording readings, card positions, interpretations, and outcomes creates a personal reference system. Over time, patterns emerge that help develop a unique reading style tailored to this specific deck.
Meditative Connection: Spending time in contemplation with individual cards allows the wood medium's grounding energy to facilitate deeper intuitive access. The tactile nature of the deck (when physically handling the cards) can enhance this connection.
Working with Traditional Tarot Knowledge
While the Wooden Tarot encourages intuitive reading, it remains fundamentally based on the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition. The deck's Major Arcana follows traditional numbering and archetypal order, and the Minor Arcana maintains the core meanings of their corresponding suits. Therefore, familiarity with RWS symbolism provides a valuable foundation.
Readers can use traditional RWS-based tarot books as reference tools, translating the familiar meanings through the Wooden Tarot's unique imagery. For example, when the traditional Magician's meaning of manifestation and personal power is understood, the lunar moth imagery becomes a fresh expression of these same concepts. This method bridges traditional knowledge with innovative visualization.
Using the Guidebook Approach
Although the Wooden Tarot does not include a companion guidebook, the deck is designed to work with any RWS-based tarot resource. However, many practitioners find that the deck's distinctiveness creates a desire for interpretations specifically keyed to its unique imagery. When such resources are unavailable, readers can create their own guidebook through journaling and systematic study of how traditional meanings express through the Wooden Tarot's visual language.
Symbolic Interpretation Techniques
The Wooden Tarot's artwork, rich with esoteric flora and fauna symbolism, invites multiple layers of interpretation. The deck's creator, Andrew Swartz, draws heavily from the concept of memento mori—the reminder of mortality—and expresses this through the merging of realism and surrealism in the illustrations.
Memento Mori and Natural Cycles
The memento mori influence throughout the deck creates a framework for understanding transformation, endings, and beginnings. This perspective encourages readers to consider cards in the context of life's impermanence and the natural cycles of growth, decay, and renewal. The wood medium itself embodies this concept—trees live, die, and become the canvas for new expression.
Animal and Plant Symbolism
The deck's emphasis on animal and plant imagery provides a rich symbolic dictionary. Each creature or plant carries its own traditional and cultural meanings that layer with the tarot archetypes. For instance, nocturnal animals like moths may represent hidden knowledge or transformation, while birds could symbolize perspective, freedom, or messages from higher realms.
The Wood Grain as Active Symbol
Unlike paper or plastic cards, the Wooden Tarot's wood grain is not merely a background but an active participant in the card's meaning. The grain patterns create natural "landscapes" within each card, suggesting that the material world itself has agency and voice in divination. This feature encourages readers to consider the physical context of situations—the underlying structures and natural laws that shape events.
Practical Reading Methods
Single Card Draw
For daily guidance or specific questions, drawing a single card allows for deep contemplation of one energy or message. The wood medium's grounding quality makes this practice particularly effective for centering and clarity.
Three-Card Spreads
Classic spreads like Past-Present-Future, Situation-Action-Outcome, or Mind-Body-Spirit work well with the Wooden Tarot. The elemental associations of the suits can add additional layers to these spreads—for example, a Bones card in the "Action" position might suggest practical, material steps to take.
Traditional Spreads
The deck is compatible with any spread traditionally used with Rider-Waite-Smith decks. The Celtic Cross, Star Spread, or Horseshoe spread all function effectively, with the Wooden Tarot's imagery providing fresh perspectives on familiar layouts.
Elemental Cross-Reference
When reading, consider both the card's traditional meaning and its elemental association. A Stones (Fire) card in a traditionally Earthy position might indicate that creative passion needs to be grounded into practical reality, or that material concerns require energetic action.
Deepening Your Practice
Journaling and Pattern Recognition
Systematic journaling of readings creates a personal database of how the Wooden Tarot communicates with each individual reader. Recording the date, question, cards drawn, spread used, initial impressions, and eventual outcomes builds a body of experience that reveals personal symbolic language and reading accuracy patterns.
Meditation with Cards
Spending time in meditation with individual cards, particularly those that resonate strongly or appear frequently in readings, can unlock deeper layers of meaning. The wood medium's natural energy supports meditative practices and can facilitate connection with the card's essence.
Experimentation and Flexibility
The Wooden Tarot rewards experimentation. Trying different spreads, interpretation methods, and approaches to shuffling and card selection helps develop a reading style that honors both the deck's unique qualities and the reader's intuitive gifts. The deck's earthy, grounding energy makes it an excellent tool for exploring new divination techniques.
Patience and Progression
Mastery of any tarot deck requires time and practice. The Wooden Tarot, with its departure from traditional symbolism, may require additional patience as readers develop fluency in its visual language. However, this process itself becomes a journey of self-discovery and deepening intuitive capacity.
Conclusion
The Wooden Tarot represents a significant innovation within the tarot tradition, offering a unique synthesis of classical structure and naturalistic reinterpretation. By maintaining the Rider-Waite-Smith framework while introducing wood-based artwork, elemental suit reorganization, and nature-inspired symbolism, it creates a bridge between traditional divination practice and contemporary ecological consciousness.
The deck's strength lies in its ability to ground spiritual insight in natural forms—literally in the wood medium and figuratively through its emphasis on flora and fauna symbolism. This grounding does not diminish the deck's capacity for profound spiritual insight but rather anchors esoteric wisdom in the tangible world of growth, decay, and renewal.
For practitioners, the Wooden Tarot offers both challenge and opportunity. It challenges readers to move beyond rote memorization and develop genuine intuitive fluency. It offers the opportunity to work with a divination tool that honors the interconnectedness of all living things and the wisdom inherent in natural cycles. Whether used for personal reflection, professional divination, or spiritual development, the Wooden Tarot provides a unique pathway to insight that is both ancient in its tarot foundations and refreshingly contemporary in its artistic vision.
The deck's emphasis on trusting intuition, combined with its grounding wood medium and nature-based symbolism, makes it particularly suitable for practitioners seeking to deepen their connection with natural wisdom and develop their intuitive gifts. Through consistent practice, journaling, and contemplation, readers can develop a rich, personal relationship with this distinctive deck that honors both traditional tarot wisdom and the innovative expression of natural esotericism.