Deck Review: Patch Tarot: The Spirit Science Deck
- Author and illustrator: Jordan River, creator of Patch Tarot and Spirit Science
- Publisher: REDFeather Mind, Body, Spirit
- Publishing Date: 28 April 2026
- RRP: GB £22.99 (Amazon UK) / US $24.99 (REDFeather)
- ISBN:978-0-7643-7089-2
- Reviewed by: Beth Rees (@neurodivergenttarot on Instagram)
When I first saw whisperings of this deck online, I was quite excited and intrigued by it. I can’t tell you why – it might have been the bright colours, the interesting characters, or that I’m AuDHD and love a unique deck. Its uniqueness is something that was intended from the outset by its creator, Jordan River.
After a spiritual awakening at the age of 19, Jordan River created Spirit Science, a platform where science and spirituality come together in a light-hearted and accessible way. As part of this, Jordan wanted to fuse his passion for spirituality with his love of animation so created a character called Patchman to help explore ‘profound concepts of consciousness, spirituality, and the nature of reality’.
From there, Jordan went on to write ‘The Book of Spirit’ and ‘The Book of Patch’ before releasing the first edition of Patch Tarot in 2018. The deck is now on its third edition.
I have to admit, when I started Googling the deck to understand a bit more, I was very overwhelmed by the amount of information available. There was the Spirit Science platform, the Patch Tarot website which has videos, visuals and interactive elements, and Patch Tarot 3, specifically for the deck I’m reviewing. So, to stop any further overwhelm, I closed the Safari app, stepped away from my phone and sat with the deck itself.
The deck comes in a beautiful, sturdy box with a magnetic clasp and purple ribbon inside, to help nudge the cards from their comfortable resting place. I felt a little intimidated by how much content was said to be included within the cards – Qabalah, alchemy, universal wisdom, symbolism and astrology. Many of these are areas I don’t know a lot about which is why I was curious to see if the 192-page, full colour guidebook would be able to help me.
On first look, the guidebook was chunky and seemed to have so much rich information included. From a deck introduction, we move to a breakdown of the card categories (Major Arcana, Minor Arcana and Royal Arcana), to how to do a reading and suggested spreads, card descriptions and an ‘Index of signs’ which I thought would be very helpful. For each card entry, we have both the upright and reversed meanings to guide us along the way.
In the guidebook, the creator explains that Patch Tarot fuses ‘two distinct [tarot] systems that have existed across time: Rider Waite Smith Tarot and Thoth Tarot…[in] an attempt at reconciling the differences between these traditions.’ If you’re interested in both systems or use one and want to explore another, this deck might be a great way of doing it.
From reading the information and background, I then moved onto the 78-cards themselves. As I said, I was drawn to this deck because of the vibrant illustrations and artwork, and it didn’t disappoint. The creator’s art style is modern digital and playful which makes it feel more approachable, all while capturing so many prominent and hidden symbols.
They have ‘rainbow’ gilded edging (which seems more gold) and the Qabalistic ‘Tree of Life’ merged with chakra colours on the card backs. The cards are 5.38 x 3.38 inches (or about 86 x 137 mm), making them slightly larger and wider than a traditional tarot deck. I did have to carefully separate them before using because they were stuck together (due to the gilding) and I did find shuffling to be a bit problematic because of the matte finish/gilding. I would imagine the more you use the deck, the less these things would be a problem.
I enjoyed the cards themselves which are stunning. The artwork just pops and it feels like each card has its own personality. There is no uniformity in the suit colours like many other decks have (which might have helped me to differentiate them), but this is just a personal opinion. The card interpretations were helpful and seemed to adhere more to the Rider Waite Smith system, but that’s the system I’m more familiar with. I think if you use Thoth more, you may see and understand the interpretations differently. I thought the keywords in the card corners were great and really made me think and question my existing associations. The astrological references in the card corners were also interesting and might be useful when doing a Decan Walk in the future.
Even after doing a 3-card reading with the deck, I still felt that I wasn’t ‘qualified enough’ to use it as there seemed to be so much information contained I couldn’t pick up on. I also thought that some of the more subtle symbology might have been explained in the guidebook to bring me into that sense of deeper knowing, but sadly, it wasn’t. I would have enjoyed a little ‘Did you know?’ or ‘Symbol fact’ for each card just to learn more about what the creator discovered during their learnings.
I would recommend this deck to readers with a keen and vested interest in the Qabalah, alchemy, and astrology due to the amount of symbolism in the cards. I felt that because I didn’t understand or know those areas well, that I missed the nuances and knowledge buried within. I think it would be great to use if you study the Thoth or any of the areas above to see how these systems can be applied and utilised when reading with the cards. It would also be a great deck to do a ‘Deck Study’ due to the amount of information available online and how much there is to discover about Patchman and his Spiritverse journey.
About the Creators:
Jordan River is the creator of Patch Tarot and Spirit Science, a globally recognized platform that has taught millions about spirituality, Tarot, and esoteric wisdom. With over 14 years of teaching experience, Jordan blends ancient wisdom with modern insights, making deep knowledge accessible and transformative. He lives in British Columbia, Canada.
Patch Tarot is now available for purchase from all good online bookstores.
