Halloween Tarot

Following the invention of playing cards, with their four suites, around the 14th century came the first known usage of cards for fortune telling. Created in Northern Italy, fragmented cards known as "triumph cards" were used for divination. These were the first models for what modern Tarot decks were based on.

Tarot readings became extremely popular in the late 18th/early 19th centuries. With the printing of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck in 1910, Tarot was more readily available to the masses. A resurgence in popularity brought Tarot back into vogue during the later half of the 20th century. Today hundreds of different decks exist.

Tarot cards have 22 Major Arcana cards without suits and 56 Minor Arcana cards made up of four suits: coins, wands cups, and swords.

Based on the imagery of the Rider-Waite deck, Kipling West recreated the Major and Minor Arcana with a Halloween flare. Filled with traditional Halloween images of pumpkins, bats, witches, and monster, every card includes a single black cat who is your guide through-out the deck.

Coins, representative of earth, have been replaced by Pumpkins. Cups, the element representing water, is replaced by Ghosts. Fiery wands are replaced by Imps. Bats replace the swords, element of air.

The imagery has a child-like cartoon-ish quality, almost like Halloween items of the late 19th/early 20th century. The cards are packed with symbolism, bright colours, and truly celebrate Halloween!

The Halloween Tarot deck is my first personal deck. Relatively new to the use of Tarot cards but not to the concept, I've found this to be the first deck to actually 'speak' to me. This might be because of its imagery and association with my favorite holiday Halloween.

To date I have done single, three-card, and Celtic Cross readings with this deck and had excellent results. The deck seems to have denoted my personal card to be the Page of Bats, which is all-too amusing.

The imagery isn't scary, more fanciful and most detailed. All the classic Halloween monsters are included; vampires, Frankenstein, werewolves. As well as traditional images of Fall and Halloween, pumpkins, bats, ghosts, imps, spooky castles. And the Black Cat guide that follows you through all 78 cards is adorable!

Shuffling a deck, cutting, and drawing a single card is a popular way to gain insight or give the reader something to think on.

Some draw a card at the end of the day to gain reflection, others draw in the morning to gain insight about the coming day. This reading can be used by anyone.

Three card spreads can give insight to a problem or delima. They are just as the name implies: three cards drawn from a deck that has been shuffled while thinking of a question.

Possible variants of this spread include:

Problem, Choice 1, Choice 2
Hope, Fear, Opposition
Beginning, Middle, End
Idea, Manifestation, Process

The possibilities are pretty much endless and up to the reader!

One of the most popular 10-card spreads is known as the Celtic Cross. While variations are up to the reader, the general layout remains unchanged.

This reading is good for questions requiring deeper insight. With conscious and unconscious influences, outside influence, and past & present situations revealed, one can get a wider picture about your query.