Though I now own countless Tarot and Oracle decks, there will always be room in my heart and on my shelves for decks that speak and reach out to me on a visual, tactile, or emotional level. I’d spotted the Mother Tarot some months back whilst watching my friend Nina’s YouTube videos and was instantly drawn to these stunning square, symmetrical, cards featuring a broad spectrum of bright, bold, and beautiful colours. I knew instantly that I had to get hold of a copy of this deck as I so desperately wanted to work with these cards.
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 huswife Schquay, Maltipoo Bonni and her parakeets Julia Roberts and RuPaul.
Wren released her first Tarot deck, the Dark Days Tarot, 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.
Wren later spent a further three years designing and creating her second deck, the Mother Tarot. After pondering the idea of becoming a parent, Wren drew inspiration for this deck from the Earth, birth, creativity, and climate change. 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 we live.
Packaging & Presentation
Though the Mother Tarot was shipped all the way from the USA, it arrived fairly promptly considering its lengthy journey and was wrapped safely and securely as I’d hoped. Upon opening the Mother Tarot I found my deck was neatly shrink-wrapped, although Wren also offers customers the choice to purchase shrink-wrap free packaging should they prefer.
The Mother Tarot arrives packaged in a neat, sturdy, square, brightly coloured box featuring a lifting ribbon to make removing the cards and guidebook a little easier.
The Guidebook
The Mother Tarot comes with a 180-page, colour-printed, square-shaped guidebook that fits neatly inside the packaging. The guidebook features a dedication page, acknowledgements, an introduction, information upon getting started, tips for Tarot reading, a guide to the suits, notes upon numbers, information on card orientation, and a double-page on each of the major and minor arcana cards featuring a colour-picture of the card alongside the card meaning.
The Cards
Printed on 350 gsm FSC certified card stock using soy-based inks, the Mother Tarot is a square-shaped, 78 card Tarot deck edged in gorgeous gold gilding featuring incredibly intricate, symmetrical artwork on each of the card backs.
This particular edition of the Mother Tarot has been slightly updated following customer feedback suggesting previous editions felt a little too thin. I personally think this card stock is the perfect weight and texture for shuffling and working with – it’s so smooth and soothing to shuffle!
This square, four-sided deck incorporates the four seasons, four elements, four directions, and four phases of the lunar cycles into readings. Though Tarot cards aren’t usually square in shape, I rather prefer working with square cards as they offer a better sense of balance throughout readings.
The Major Arcana
The Minor Arcana
The Mother Tarot minor arcana cards make use of the traditional suits; wands, cups, swords, and pentacles.
The Suit of Wands
The Suit of Cups
The Suit of Swords
The Suit of Pentacles
Reading & Working With The Mother Tarot
The Mother Tarot follows the traditional Rider Waite Smith (RWS) titling and setup, though the shapes, images, and themes throughout this deck are far from the structured, stereotypical, and rather stale traditional Tarot. Wren’s work is bold, bright, broad, and divinely diverse, there is a fabulously feminine and free feel to this Tarot deck.
Having worked and read with the Mother Tarot for the past week, I’ve found myself becoming drawn to the deck on a daily basis as I feel the imagery, the colours, the shapes, and the symbology are easy to understand and interpret. I cannot get over how pretty, how feminine, how diverse, and just how lovely this deck is to read and to work with.
Walking Through The Mother Tarot
In order to further illustrate and explain the Mother Tarot, I have put together a detailed walkthrough of both the guidebook and each of the cards within the deck.
Purchasing & Pricing Information
The Mother 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)
Though I understand that this seems rather steep for a Tarot deck, I assure you, the Mother Tarot is every bit worth your money. It is an entirely different deck from any other and is most definitely worth its price tag.
To Summarise
Though I understand that the Mother Tarot is quite expensive for those outside of the USA, I would deem this as one of those decks that are most definitely worth it saving for and spending on.
Each and every detail of the Mother Tarot deck demonstrates huge amounts of consideration, thought and care. This divinely diverse deck is so intricately designed and detailed, it is one of the brightest, boldest, most diverse, and most beautifully and lovingly designed, created, and produced Tarot decks that I have had the pleasure to work and read with for some time.
For further information on the Mother 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.