Designed and created by Wren McMurdo Brignac, The Dark Days Tarot was inspired by cycles in nature and the shadowy final days of the lunar cycle, a time for retrospective reflection.
Wren Mcmurdo Brignac
Wren McMurdo Brignac is an illustrator, artist, creator, and self-confessed witch from Pacific Northwest. Inspired most by the moon, Earth, botanical world, animal kingdom, nudity and bodies, queerness, and psychology, Wren lives in Seattle with her wife Schquay, puppy Bonni and her parakeets Julia Roberts and RuPaul.
The Dark Days Tarot was first released as a Kickstarter project in 2017. Based upon the last shadowy days of the lunar cycle, Wren designed the Dark Days Tarot for those with wide emotional ranges wishing to make a strong connection to the moon and tides – this deck is a tribute to the wisdom and healing inherent in shadow and darkness.
When then spent a further three years designing and creating her second deck, the Mother Tarot after pondering the idea of becoming a parent. Wren aims to aid readers to tap into their parasympathetic nervous system, see things intuitively, dive into reflection, spark creativity, enlighten psychic gifts, and adapt to the ever-changing world in which they live.
The Dark Days Tarot
Packaging & Presentation
The Dark Days Tarot arrives presented in a beautiful black and white square-shaped, sturdy pull-to-open cardboard box featuring intricate imagery both inside and outside of the packaging.
The Guidebook
Wren worked alongside Emily Mundy to co-write the guidebook which accompanies the Dark Days Tarot. Emily’s writing practice orbits around a reverence for the odd and uncanny, investigating the intricacy of connection, the idiosyncrasy of thought, and the invigoration of spirit.
The square-shaped, 180-page guidebook fits perfectly into the packaging alongside the deck and features a dedication, acknowledgements, an introduction, a cutesy-guide to getting started as well as tips on how to read the Tarot, a guide to the minor arcana suits, information on the numbers and card orientation of Tarot cards, and a double-page spread upon each of the major and minor arcana cards featuring black and white imagery of each of the cards on the left side and information upon the card meanings on the right.
The Cards
Designed for those who have an appreciation of the moon and tides, the Dark Days Tarot is unlike traditional rectangular Tarot decks.
Printed on 350 gsm, FSC-certified art paper with soy-based ink, this modern, monochrome seventy-eight card deck is square in shape and features the most stunning moonlit silver foil edging.
Though working with square-shaped Tarot cards can feel a little different when shuffling, this deck shuffles very smoothly and the cards can be read not only upright and reversed but also from a Northern, Eastern, Southern and Western position.
The Major Arcana
Whilst the major arcana of the Dark Days Tarot follows the traditional Rider Waite Smith Tarot in terms of titling, the imagery is much more modern and alternative to the long-established figures and characters featured in the traditional RWS. The major arcana cards are easy to identify as they all feature a white background with monochrome imagery and titling, whereas the minor arcana is opposite to this.
The Minor Arcana
Opposite to the major arcana, the minor arcana of the Dark Days Tarot all feature white images and titling printed onto a black background, this makes the cards easy to separate and identify.
Though the Dark Days Tarot uses the traditional RWS figures and suits of Staves, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles, this deck makes use of nature-inspired imagery rather than the conventional figures and scenes from the traditional RWS.
The Suit of Staves
The Suit of Cups
The Suit of Swords
The Suit of Pentacles
Walking Through The Dark Days Tarot
In order to further illustrate and explain the Dark Days Tarot, I have put together a detailed walkthrough of both the guidebook and each of the cards within the deck.
Reading and Working With The Dark Days Tarot
I’ve forged a real affinity with the Dark Days Tarot having spent the past week or so working and reading with this deck. I’ve found myself pairing the cards with other moon-based decks and together they produce some stunning and immensely informative spreads.
Though I wouldn’t particularly recommend this deck to novice readers purely as it isn’t the traditional RWS that many first-time readers tend to begin working with, I must say that the imagery featured throughout this deck is rich in design and easy to interpret.
Purchasing & Pricing Information
The Dark Days Tarot is available to purchase directly via Wren’s website www.darkdaystarot.com retailing at $69. If like me, you should happen to live in the UK then postage is a further $23, taking the total price to $92 total (£70.15)
Should you fancy treating yourself to not one but both of Wren’s beautiful Tarot decks (The Dark Days Tarot and Wren’s second deck, the Mother Tarot) then you can purchase these as a combination for $118, making a saving of $20!
To Summarise
Featuring stunning silhouette-style imagery which may be read from a number of angles and orientations, the Dark Days Tarot is a marvellously modern and delightfully designed Tarot deck ideal for those, such as myself, who appreciate modern, moon-based divination decks with a difference.
For further information on the Dark Days Tarot or further publications from Dark Days Tarot visit www.darkdaystarot.com
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Product Rating
Disclosure: I was sent the above product for the purpose of this post however all opinions are my own.