A Sneak Preview of The Wizards Tarot Minor Arcana

Illustrator John Blumen has finished all the Minor Arcana cards for the Wizards Tarot. I saw them for the first time about two hours ago — and they’re amazing!

Here’s a sneak preview of four of the cards: the Four of Wands, Five of Cups, Seven of Swords, and Two of Pentacles.

You might remember from my earlier posts that this deck is based on a fictional school of magic, in which the Major Arcana cards depict teachers, and the Minor Arcana cards show students. (You can see a sideshow of the Majors over at wizardstarot.com.) The Majors are based on myth and legend, while the Minors are based on traditional Rider-Waite-Smith imagery with a magical twist. Each suit represents a different form of elemental magic — fire, water, air, and earth — and the Minor Arcana cards show students practicing their lessons through the course of the four seasons.

I designed the cards, but John has definitely gone above and beyond anything I could have imagined in my written descriptions. I almost feel intimidated! I hope I can do them justice in the guidebook.

The book is going to be pretty neat, though.

The Major Arcana section, which focuses on the professors, will include magic lessons that correspond to each card. The Star card, for example, depicts the professor of astrology, so I’m writing brief course on basic astrology. Meanwhile, the Minor Arcana portion of the book will read like a grimoire of magic spells, which also correspond to the imagery and the significance each card.

I could ramble on … but I shouldn’t, because now that I have all of the cards in my hot little hands, I have to finish the book!

While I work, feel free to leave admiring remarks for John in the comments section.

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