Tarot of the Divine

Sinderella's note

Yoshi Yoshitani pulled the Tarot of the Divine from forty-two world mythologies, my child — Anansi for the Ten of Swords, Izanami for Death, Dionysus for The World. *Madonn',* the ambition. The art is gorgeous, the card stock substantial, and if you read mythology for sport this deck will take you a solid month to work through. For the niece who already knows who Anansi is. Saint Brigid for the mythology she keeps. Light a candle when you open it.

The long version

Yoshi Yoshitani built this deck from forty-two world mythologies — and sinner, she *did the work.* Not the mythology-sampler problem where you get one Greek goddess and two generic moon figures and call it diverse. Forty-two actual traditions. Anansi from West African and Afro-Caribbean tradition shows up at the Ten of Swords. Izanami, the Japanese death goddess, is Death. Dionysus dances across The World. The Polynesian god Maui handles The Magician. Every card is a different cultural root, a different frame on a card you thought you already knew. Here's who this deck is for: the niece who already owns a Rider-Waite and a Wild Unknown and can read both cold. This is not a beginner's deck — you need to have the card meanings in your bones before Yoshitani's mythology layer starts paying dividends. But if you can sit with The Tower and immediately feel the resonance when you see it illustrated by Loki bound under the mountain — *madonn'.* The deck opens up dimensions the standard art just doesn't have room for. Sinderella reaches for this one at the folding table when the person sitting across from her is on a spiritual journey that the Catholic-Italian framework doesn't quite cover. Some people come to the table and the Rider-Waite saints aren't their saints. Yoshitani gives everyone a door. The card stock is good — thick, square corners, a matte back design with a repeating crescent pattern. The companion book goes into the mythology for each card, which is what makes this worth having in print. You don't have to read the book; the art is strong enough to read cold. But the book will teach you something. Buy it. Work through it slowly. One card a day. Keep a yellow legal pad nearby to write down what the mythology is doing to the meaning. Saint Brigid for the mythologies she kept. Saint Anthony for the traditions that were almost lost. Light a candle when you open it.