- Desert Illuminations Tarot
- Creator Lindsay D. Williams
- Published by U S Games Systems
- Internet price for Deck and Guidebook Box Set: UK £21.30 / US $17.50
- UK Release Date: 1 May 2025
- US Release Date: December 31, 2024
- ISBN-10 1646712420
- ISBN-13 978-1646712427
- Reviewed by Jason C Dean
Desert Illuminations Tarot by Lindsay D. Williams, is a stunning deck with a Desert Codex guidebook. Without knowing much about the deck, after just a flip through the cards looking at the amazing imagery, I felt that this deck was about the stories and spirit of the peoples that occupy the American Southwest and the lifestyles and mythology that is borne out of those experiences. Some of the cards are depictions of real historical figures such as Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Calamity Jane, Stagecoach Mary, and Mother Mary. Whereas others show us typical scenes from yesteryear that still permeate our culture today. From Aliens, bovine abductions, local native peoples and their spirits, to black, brown, and white folk. Lindsay D. Williams has encapsulated the myths, folk stories, legends, and spiritual essence that underpins the blurred lines of reality that emanate like rippling heat waves across the desert of the Southwest.
Desert Illuminations Tarot deck comes in a beautifully presented sturdy slip on/off box that contains the 78 Cards of the deck and its guide book, which Lindsay refers to as a ‘Desert Codex’. The cover of the box has the ‘The Star’ from the Majors, showing a beautiful native American woman pouring water into a desert watering hole under a big starry night sky. The whole deck is a kind of nostalgic psychedelic trip into the larger-than-life stories that make up the wild west, and popularised by Buffalo Bill and his travelling Wild West Show when touring the US and Europe in the late 1800s, early 1900s. Buffalo Bill himself is depicted on The Chariot steering two white horses under a starry sky.
The Majors all have traditional titles, however the content is anything but. In Judgement it shows a group of Aliens piloting a UFO and beaming up a bovine from a field, where the outcome will indeed be the final judgement. Temperance shows Mother Mary as Our Lady of Guadalupe, her surrounding aura radiating out in a riot of colours while she is being lifted into the heavens by Angels. The Fool turns up as The Trickster a coyote dancing precariously at the edge of the abyss in a swarm of iridescent butterflies. The Trickster is derived from the Hano clown of the Hopi tribe folk legends. The Hierophant shows Sitting Bull seated between two pillars while an eagle spirit flies over head. His serious expression indicates the importance he places on the preservation and continuation of Native American culture. The card Strength shows a traditionally dressed woman travelling alone at night, who through the strength of her spirit is able to tame the wild red wolf. In the Magician we see a cloaked green alien illuminated by their dense rainbow aura standing in the desert framed by a canyon of mesa like structures while a squadron of UFOs hover in the sky against a setting sun. Each of the Majors has attributes of the Zodiac, Planets, Element, and Chakra listed in their description in the Codex.
The Minors in this truly startling deck are in the four suits we all know, however the names of the suits have morphed to reflect the spirit of the deck and the places it depicts. Swords are now curvy bladed Daggers, Cups are now Jugs filled with ‘mystic whiskey’. Pentacles are circular Cactus (referred to in the singular throughout the deck) and of the Earth, but the suit has green aliens as the main archetype who show us familiar but highly stylized scenes in which their benevolent wisdom is shared. Wands is a slight departure by being depicted as bunches of chiles where the connection, of course, is the element of Fire. The Three of Pentacles has three aliens conferring, one holding a scope device and the other two, a chart of the stars, while a flying saucer hovers overhead. In the Ace of Daggers, a hand with a rose tattoo holds a dagger while an all-seeing eye oversees the whole scene in the desert landscape. The Nine of Jugs has a handsome cowboy seated confidently surrounded by his Jugs, and seems defiantly content with himself in this moment of existence.
Similarly, the Court Cards are equated with traditional Court personalities or attributes within their suits of Cactus, Chiles, Daggers, and Jugs. The Page of Chiles does not necessarily depict a young person, but a bearded adult looking down at the bouquet of chiles they hold, harnessing the strength and energetic fire to pursue their chosen course of vision. The Queen of Daggers looks somewhat like a threatening bandita wearing an eye patch. She stares straight at you offering and challenging you to take her Dagger and prosecute your life’s battles. The King of Chiles stands strong, dressed in a poncho and crown decorated in geometric motifs and patterns. His eyes are averted to the heavens as he is connected to the knowledge of the ancestral spirits while taking responsibility for their connected vision quest.
Desert Codex, the Desert Illuminations name for its guidebook, is aimed at the beginner and experienced reader alike. On the cover is the image from the Two of Daggers, which shows a blind folded woman wearing a sombrero. In her gloved hands she holds two crossed daggers, which indicates the inner knowledge the reader is about to absorb as they open up and explore the contents of the Codex. In its 120 pages the Codex gives thoughtful and relevant descriptions of interpretations of the art in the cards and how they apply in a reading. Each of the cards is shown in a postage stamp sized graphic image in various shades of grey beside the description. Interestingly the Codex is also a little instruction manual as it gives some simple lessons on how to read tarot, journal a card of the day, and how to read one and three card spreads. At the back of the Codex is a 10 card ‘Cactus Spread’ that seems to follow the Celtic Cross positions but with a saguaro cactus layout shape. There is also a nice ‘Desert Prayer’, a kind of poetic statement of intent that connects the reader to the stars, earth, spirit, and life. There is also a nice bio of the creator, Lindsay D. Williams, on the last two pages, where she studied, her artistic influences, and that she lives in Truth and Consequences, New Mexico with her family and two rescue dogs, Nova and Jupiter.
Prior to writing this review I attended my regular Monday night Tarot Readers studio which is run by a professional reader from LA via Zoom. We each in turn give all attendees three card readings back to back for three hours. In order to get to know the deck better and to write this review, I read all night using Desert Illuminations Tarot. I had only unwrapped it a few hours earlier, flipped through all the cards thoroughly, laid them out in suit order etc, and then read bits and pieces out of the Desert Codex … even so I felt comfortable enough to read with it amongst my professional Tarot peers in the class. Initially I was translating in my mind a bit from traditional Tarot, but as I warmed up with Desert Illuminations, I found that my readings flowed well, and despite not ‘studying’ the guidebook in detail or practicing beforehand, I was able to easily work with the deck and my readings were well received. The group were interested in the deck, wanted to see their favourite cards and were asking enthusiastically about some of the imagery. It was lots of fun!
In my view Desert Illuminations Tarot is an outstanding deck, and quite the psychedelic experience. It has many elements of fantastical stories that form the mythology of the cultures of the desert regions of the South West. It seems that Tarot was the perfect vehicle for Lindsay D. Williams to give us all a glimpse into the fluid reality of existence of life in the desert via her amazing art. As an immigrant myself to the US, I was excited to be able to review this deck, because it ‘is’ about a special place in the USA, the people, their connection to land, sky, spirit and all the mystical traditions new and old. In this sense it is a true representative of the spiritual sojourn that so many have experienced while travelling in America. Although psychedelia entered modern popular culture in the 1960’s, six decades have passed and its legends are now entering the mystical past, and so, are looming larger. I also feel that it was no accident that flying saucers entered our current consciousness in 1948 at Roswell in New Mexico. Therefore, it’s perhaps fitting that Tarot too, finds a home among friends of the vastly shifting shape of reality of the Southwest, and that Desert Illuminations Tarot is now part of that expansive landscape of mystical America.
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