I am in love with the Numinous Tarot by Cedar McCloud. I received it shortly after Noel started shipping out the Kickstarter rewards. And I am so excited to present to you my Numinous Tarot Review! We’ll be going over appearance, usability, content, and packaging to really dig into this new deck!

The Numinous Tarot Review

I backed this deck on kickstarter sometime last year. And I am so excited that it is finally out. I have just been waiting for this deck. So excited in fact, that I almost forgot to make an unboxing video, but I remembered just in time! The video is on Youtube, and if you want to give it a thumbs up, I would totally appreciate it!

In this blog post, I’ll be going more in depth to review this deck. Areas of review will include things such as appearance, usability, content, packaging, and miscellaneous. I repeat some information from the unboxing, but much of it will be new.

Appearance.

I love the look of this deck. Everything about the art I just love. The vibrant colors. The details. The gold on the sides of the cards. Love it!

The titles are all at the bottom of the cards. This consistency makes it easy to find them and identify if a card is upright or reversed. Speaking of upright vs. reversed, the backs of the cards are mirrored. So you can’t tell while shuffling them which way the cards are facing.

Usability.

This covers a pretty wide range of things. Let’s dive in!

The cards themselves are slightly more on the thin side. This makes them really easy to shuffle. And for people with smaller hands like myself, they are not difficult to shuffle. If I remember correctly, the cards stuck together a tiny bit right out of the box, but obviously, I don’t really remember. So it wasn’t that big of a deal.

The cards are fairly easy to look up in the guidebook. Which is good, because even though I have a fairly solid tarot foundation, I definitely recommend learning this deck. Noel included meanings in the details, and they just really add to the story of each card.

I’ve been using these cards regularly, and I love them! They are easy to understand. I’m having fun merging my own understanding of Tarot with the specifics of this deck that Noel included in the guidebook.

Content.

I haven’t found anything in this deck that makes me go “Hmmmm. Really?” I haven’t seen any appropriation. And actually, there is a lot of diversity in the content of this deck. As you can see in the photos above, the Creator of Vials card has vitiligo, a condition that causes loss of skin color. But there is so much more diversity in this deck too – race, ability, age, sexual orientation, gender, etc. I love it! It really reflects the world around me.

Going back just a bit to the title of the card I mentioned, the Creator of Vials. This deck uses different titles than you may be used to in typical Tarot decks. The suits are called Vials (Cups), Candles (Wands), Bells (Swords), and Tomes (Pentacles). I love the suits. I think swords were always difficult for me to connect with because the image of swords didn’t totally match with the understanding I had been given on the suit. These suits make sense to me but are also reflective of the traditional titles.

Further, the court cards are called Dreamers (Pages), Explorer (Knights), Creator (Queens), and Mystic (Kings). Which, this, I absolutely love! They are gender-neutral. Which I have been dying for. As a woman, I always felt sort of locked into the Queen role. And this felt very limiting. I can’t imagine how people who do not fit neatly into the gender binary felt. These cards allow me to easily see myself and others reflected in them.

Additionally, a couple of the titles of the Major Arcana are also different. I remember Noel talking about potential options on Twitter while they were creating this deck. So I know, this is all very intentional. Every change in this deck was done very purposefully. These titles include: The Diviner (High Priestess), The Nurturer (Empress), The Founder (Emperor), The Visionary (Hierophant), The Shadow (Devil), and Awakening (Judgment).

ALSO! There is a bonus card in this deck. An un-numbered Major Arcana card – The Numinous. I LOVE the addition of this card. It reflects the title of the deck itself, and adds an additional layer to this deck.

I just, LOVE, everything!

Packaging.

As you may have seen in the unpackaging video, the deck comes in a large cardboard box. The thickness is very similar to that of other tuck boxes. Inside the box is the guidebook and the deck. The deck sits in a plastic holder. I will probably be figuring out a bag for this deck, mainly because the box is big and I don’t really care for carrying around the plastic tray.

Otherwise, the packaging really stands out. And it looks really nice on a shelf with other tarot and oracle decks.

Miscellaneous.

I really again, just want to highlight the diversity in this deck. This is something that I believe, Cedar’s deck, the Numinous Tarot, does really well. It really reflects the world around us.

Overall, I adore this deck. And I have been somewhat unpatiently waiting for it to come out for some time. It not only adds something special to my collection, but it also is a joy to read with for myself so far. I’m excited to be using it and so happy it is finally in my hands.

Here is where you can get the deck for yourself at Numinous Spirit Press, as well as other decks and novels by Cedar!

And here is another review from my friend Allec if you want to check out this deck even more!
Check out my other deck review on the Connected and Free Oracle review.

Do you have the Numinous Tarot? Are you going to get it? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!