It did not fit in with the rest of the plants in our southwest Missouri home, but there was absolutely no killing it.

We are living in abundant times when it comes to tarot decks and many feature botanical imagery, but the connection between tarot and the plant world is nothing new as the cards have long been connected to plant lore, healing, and magick.

The four suits of the Minor Arcana are named after the four elements–Wands renamed to Fire, Cups renamed to Water, Swords renamed to Air, and Pentacles renamed to Earth.

The suit of Fire highlights the alchemy of herbcraft, with Fire cards showing busy scenes of making tinctures, oils, and potions. The deck and book set explores the relationship between herbs and how people use them for medicine, creativity, delight, tools, ritual, and spiritual guidance. We live in the world filling in stories with subconscious archetypal assumptions on a daily basis, but most of us only are aware of it as it relates to human beings. While the absence of human figures doing things in most of the cards might feel intimidating to read to some, the cards are so beautifully thought out in their composition that the plants are alive and singing with story.The Herbcrafter’s Tarot transforms the suits into their elements: Air (Swords), Fire (Wands), Water (Cups), and Earth (Pentacles). When I was gifted a copy of The Herbcrafter's Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbert and Latisha Guthrie out of the blue (not by the creators themselves, but a friend of a friend), I felt such expansive joy. The People cards for each suit, depicting the hands of women healers at work, have been titled according to the archetypes each woman embodies as she “matures into her craft from wonderer to warrior to midwife to teacher. Etsy’s 100% renewable electricity commitment includes the electricity used by the data centres that host Etsy. Finally, these cards are not just about the plants – they’re about the magic and medicines of the plants and most importantly, the people (and practices) that work with them.

It is often tempting to ignore the roots of grief and sadness, just pretending that everything is OK or curling in a ball and hiding away. It's a deck that is meant to be journeyed with, displayed on your altar, and included in acts of magick. If you’ve already done that, your item hasn’t arrived, or it’s not as described, you can report that to Etsy by opening a case. The Minors flourish with depth of meaning, weaving tarot numerology and herbalism as well as inviting us to think about our relationship to the earth and its bounty as both dependents and caretakers, reciprocity the primary lesson.It does have things very different from a normal tarot but I’d certainly recommend it highly even for your own learning and support to your connection with the earth, plants , herbs and yourself. As such, this card also represents activism, passion, and creativity – and fighting for what is right even if it’s controversial. I looked for quite a while for a deck of tarot cards with a tie to plant magic and nature – and I’m so glad this is the one I went with. Don’t know about you all, but I am definitely feeling the fiery energy of ginger to work on things today (and hope it continues through the weekend)! At a time when people are coming together to protect reproductive and other rights that are being taken away, this is the time for women of all kinds to come together and show their power.