The Witches Tarot is a 91 card deck by photographer and mixed media artist Chris Madsen.
My first impressions upon unboxing this deck were that the packaging is phenomenal. The deck comes in a hard cover box with a magnetic closure that is large enough for both the cards and the guidebook. I don't typically keep my cards in their boxes as I like to display the boxes in my sacred space as a visual representation of my practice, but I do appreciate a well-packaged deck. For those who do keep their cards in the original box, it is solid enough to keep your cards protected when not in use even if you're traveling with them.
The guidebook is a bound, full color book with 100 pages which includes keywords for both upright and reversed cards as well as directions for doing a three card spread representing the past, present, and future. After reading and referencing this guidebook for about a month, the front cover of my guidebook did come unglued, but it was bound to happen at some point so I'm not too concerned with it myself. I only mention it for posterity.
The cards are printed on 350gsm paper with a soft touch coating (this coating is also on the box and guidebook) giving them an excellent hand feel. The edges are sprayed black which brings me so much joy! I love a black deck. They are about the size of a standard deck, but the additional cards make the deck a bit thicker making them difficult to shuffle for the less practiced reader. I prefer to shuffle my cards hand-over-hand, but some may find it easier to shuffle these using what I call the card soup method - lay all the cards out on a flat surface and mix them together until they are thoroughly shuffled. The additional cards are made up of 13 different archetypes: the maiden, the mother, the crone, ritual magick, burn at the stake, wax, wane, the druid, Hekate, Lilith, Hel, and Selene. These add a unique element to the deck that makes it stand out from any other deck I've used in the past.
Each image is a photograph of a woman (the deck is entirely female excluding the Madsen's self-portraits on the Fool and the Druid cards.) The images are non-traditional and don't align with any of the traditional symbolism.
Working with the cards may not be easy for everyone. The best way to read these cards is to feel the general vibe of the image. Each one expresses the overall meaning of the cards well, but it's definitely not the deck for beginners who don't have a basic foundational knowledge of the card meanings. While the guidebook does provide keywords to help out, it doesn't give a full on description of the cards which may be problematic for readers who are dependent on the guidebooks for information.
Overall, I feel that this deck is incredibly useful. It is accurate and insightful, something that is often lacking in other decks. If you're interested in purchasing this deck for yourself, visit burningpaperhearts.com (this is an affiliate link and I do make a small commission from each purchase.) This is an honest review and all opinions are my own.