To be clear, this deck was not designed as an animal totem or spirit animal deck, although you can use it that way. The thought of having to research all of the totem connections gave me a headache. Instead, I decided to use the animals in the same way people are used in the Rider-Waite deck. I tried to find animals that resembled or represented the characters in the tarot card which means they needed to convey personality, feelings, and actions. This was a difficult task. After struggling to find the "right" photos, I simply used my intuition to "know" which photos to choose for each card. It wasn't until after I had the first prototype in my hands that I started to compare the totem energy of the animal to the card meanings and realized I had intuitively made some great choices.
By the way, this is not a cutesy animal deck. These are real animals in real settings doing real stuff. I used an app called Brushstroke to turn the photographs into paintings for continuity sake, but the paintings still present a realistic portrait of the animals. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention...this deck is in landscape orientation instead of the usual portrait orientation. That was simply a practical decision because most of the photos I found were in that orientation. People have said it looks quite cinematic in style. I think it gives the deck an extra uniqueness and I'm really enjoying working with the cards in this format.
This deck is now available in my Printerstudio shopspace. The cards are poker size but in landscape orientation. The deck is available in two different cardstocks: Standard smooth and Premium plastic.
Purchase The Animal Tarot
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