Deck Review: The Relative Tarot
- Creator: Carrie Paris
- Guidebook written with: Tina Hardt
- Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser
- Publication Date: November 2021
- RRP: US $35.00 / GB £33.99
- ISBN: 978-1-57863-762-1
- Reviewed by: Amy Bowker
The Day of the Dead, celebrated on November 1st and 2nd, is an annual reminder of the enduring bond we share with our ancestors and the lessons we can learn from them when we listen. If you could package up the feeling of that spiritual connection and transfer it into a deck of cards, you would be holding the Relative Tarot by Carrie Paris. Not just any ordinary tarot deck, these cards also contain a numbering system that allows you to create a Tarot Blueprint based on your date of birth for added spiritual guidance. This extraordinary deck helps you forge an impactful ancestral bond throughout the year.
Unboxing the Relative Tarot
The deck arrives in a one-piece box that flips open from the right. The comprehensive 94-page guidebook details how to calculate your Tarot Blueprint, and the 82-card deck includes three cards for the Lovers so you can choose your own preference, and two cards each for Justice and Strength (representing the original order of the cards, as well as the standard order established by the Rider Waite Smith deck). You are intended to remove any extra cards and read with a 78-card deck.
The Relative Tarot was originally released in 2020 after a successful Kickstarter campaign and then published by Red Wheel/Weiser in 2021. Incidentally, I had the pleasure of hearing Carrie speak at the recent UK Tarot Conference on October 10 of this year (via virtual ticket) where she introduced her new deck-in-progress, the Magician’s Muse, which includes a system for predicting the timing of events. Her decks are always innovative and The Relative Tarot is no exception.
The Guidebook of the Relative Tarot
The guidebook that accompanies this deck was written by Carrie Paris with Tina Hardt and it does an excellent job of walking you through how to locate your Tarot Blueprint. You start by calculating your Birth Card(s), based on combining the values of the numbers in your birth year, month, and day. Then you calculate your Annual Card, which combines your birth month and day with the current year. The authors include an illustrated section that explains how to find the associated major and minor arcana cards for your Tarot Blueprint, along with specific meanings for the cards. (There is also a numbering system that appears on most of the cards to help you remember these associations.) The guidebook does not include a traditional section of keywords for all of the cards, so beginners may need to have another reference book on hand.
The Artwork of the Relative Tarot
The cards have a beige back with the sides dipped in stunning gold. The images are a wonderful blend of authentic ancestral photographs and overlapping Rider Waite Smith imagery. The contrast of the black and white photos works wonderfully with the bright RWS artwork. This is one of the most diverse decks I’ve seen in terms of representing a broad range of races, cultures, ages, and genders. Hopefully, nearly everyone will find themselves represented in these images.
This deck will appeal to:
This deck has a wide appeal. Even if you’re not interested in the Tarot Blueprint aspect of the card system, you can simply use the cards the same way as any other tarot deck. The inclusion of three Lovers cards so you can choose the preference that suits you, the diversity represented in the images, as well as the two Strength and Justice number options, make this deck accessible for a range of people. Of course, tastes vary and if the pictures here don’t speak to you then that’s good information to heed.
The Relative Tarot in Practice:
The cards are slightly larger than a standard RWS deck but not difficult to shuffle. The guidebook doesn’t offer card spreads so I used the Celtic Cross, one of my go-to layouts. My single birth card is 8, which I chose as the Justice card (rather than Strength), and my corresponding Minor cards are the 8s. I kept this in mind as I dealt the cards because the appearance of any 8 card would warrant extra weight. Also, I did this reading on my birthday for even more emphasis! Of course, the 8 that showed up was the 8 of Swords. (Point made, Universe!) I found this to be a vibrant deck to read with and the antique photos were a wonderful new touchpoint among all the familiar imagery. I’ll be adding this deck to my regular rotation.
More About the Creator and Author:
Carrie Paris is a renowned tarot author and creator and was in the first class to receive a Masters in the Cultural Study of Cosmology and Divination from the University of Kent, in the UK. Her other works include the Magpie Oracle, the Ofrenda Oracle (with Nancy Hendrickson, and read TABI’s review of it here), The Beloved Dead (with Tina Hardt), and the Siren’s Song oracle deck (with Toni Savory and contributor Tina Hardt).
Tina Hardt is a Canadian author, diviner, and medium. Her other works include the book Charm Casting: Divining with Trinkets, Trifles, Baubles and Bits. She collaborated with Carrie Paris for The Beloved Deck and contributed to The Siren’s Song oracle deck by authors Carrie Paris and Toni Savory.
The Relative Tarot is currently available direct from Red Wheel/Weiser here, and from all good online bookstores.
