The Tarot de St. Croix by Lisa de St. Croix
The Tarot de St. Croix was first published in 2014, distributed by Devera Publishing, and a second edition has just come out this year, which you can now order direct from the artist and creator, here.
The deck pictured in these photographs is the 2014 version produced by Devera Publishing. It comes in a beautiful full-lid lift top glossy box of high quality and the cardstock quality is great. Love that the accompanying guidebook fits inside the box and contains a wealth of tarot card meaning insights, many that would add to your compendium of tarot knowledge. The guidebook here is not just a rehash of the same old card meanings. There is a lot here specific to the symbolism on the deck and how that symbolism and manifestation exemplifies the traditional card meaning.
When left to my own devices, I’m not a very colorful person. Orange is usually too bright for me. However, the color orange stimulates the sacral chakra, the source of your personal vitality. A strong sacral chakra means strong personal vitality, which can be used to heal yourself and to heal others. I also tend to associate the sacral chakra with shamanic journeying. These themes come together harmoniously in the Tarot de St. Croix, and enables the deck for powerful healing work. When using tarot for healing, both emotional and psychic healing, reach for the Tarot de St. Croix.
The Hermit with its Virgo correspondence has always had a soft, feminine, wise-woman vibe to me, and I love that the imagery for Key IX in this deck captures that imagining perfectly. I love the mermaid and angel coming together in the Wheel of Fortune, or how the Death card is a skeleton floating toward the Light, through the spiritual tunnel.
Earlier I remarked how the companion guidebook for this deck isn’t just a rehash of trite tarot card meanings. Here I’ll give you an example. The Sun card in the deck is dominant with sunflower symbolism. Per the companion guidebook, sunflower symbolism is about receiving light, growing, and then manifesting fruition, to in turn give life back and nourish future life. You take from the light to nourish yourself so that you can grow and later return the favor and nourish others, to continue that cycle of life. Thus, The Sun card is about radiating our self-confidence and talents out into the world at large. I love that meaning for The Sun.
The card imagery feels like channeled visions. You get the sense that while the work is that of the artist, the idea was implanted into her from the great beyond. You feel as if you are catching glimpses into other worlds and multiverses, and given universal depictions for each of the 78 ideas revealed by the tarot.
I love the inclusion of all cultures, the mysticism from many heritages, and how easily and effortlessly you can tell stories as divination to a seeker when using the Tarot de St. Croix. If you are visual-oriented or right-brained, creative or artsy, you are going to love reading with this deck.
It also feels like an incredible deck for pathworking. You get the sense of astral travel here, where the deck creator has gone beyond, observed what is reality but not reality, and has come back to reveal to us those observations, through her incredible art.
By the way, I love the tea leaf reading metaphor for the Seven of Cups. Or the mime juggling the swords under a waning crescent moon for the Seven of Swords. For those familiar with the 78 card meanings in the Rider-Waite-Smith system, take your time to go through each card imagery and study this artist’s interpretation of that card. It’s just incredible. Card after card, you accumulate this realization that you’re looking at brilliance. There is a deeply spiritual and mystical dimension to the Tarot de St. Croix that I, sadly, find lacking in so many contemporary decks.
The card backs are reversible, again with the orange border, and here we see just this incredible glimpse into a different dimension or galaxy, slightly reminiscent of the dark and light pillars you find in the classic High Priestess card.
The Tarot de St. Croix is a brilliant blend of old world and modern mythology, seamlessly weaving together the many cultures and heritages of our world, to present a united mosaic of spirituality that transcends both time and space. It’s an ideal deck for personal healing and for readers to use in psychic healing or energy clearings for their clients. If you’re working through shamanic journeying practices with the tarot from my Tarot as a Tool for Craft online course, I’d say the Tarot de St. Croix is one of those perfect decks to use for that particular practice.
