Welcome to the Tarot Muertos. This book explores ways to use this particular deck for your divinity needs, allowing you to more fully develop your possibilities and potential. The Tarot Muertos has been organized around the classic Tarot principles established by the Rider-Waite-Smith deck. The images of the Tarot Muertos are based on traditional Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrations, with added zodiac and elemental concepts. These fine art images are heavily rooted by a strong, female influence.
A classic Tarot deck consists of 2 sets of cards: the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana. The Majors represent the overarching concepts and turning points of life, such as The World, Justice, Judgement, and Death. There are 22 Majors cards. The Minors grant more reflection and detail when used alongside the Majors. The Minors are comprised of four suits of 14 cards each, equaling 56 cards. The Minors are the basis for the common playing card deck (court cards and number cards). Used together, the Major Arcana and Minor Arcana make up a 78 card Tarot deck.
In the Tarot Muertos, the four suits are Pentacles (resources/money), Swords (intellect/intuition), Scepters (inspiration/spark of life) and Grails (spiritual love/purity of emotion). For each suit, there are four court cards: King (father), Queen (mother), Warrior (Knight/son), and Daughter (young female), as well as the number (also known as pip) cards (Ace-10). The suits use the four Elements (earth, air, fire, and water) as well as color association (Pentacles/green, Swords/white, Scepters/red, Grails/blue) in their conceptual imagery.
The Tarot Muertos uses various concepts and imagery from Dia de los Muertos celebrations to put new interpretations onto the classic Tarot. Dia de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday derived from spiritual commemoration of one's ancestors. This holiday has spread to much of Central and South America, as well as the southwestern United States. Dia de los Muertos is often confused with Halloween, since both holidays are around the same time of the year and based in the spirits of the dead. However, Dia de los Muertos is a colorful, more complex, and ancient multi-day celebration with connections to Aztec, Mayan, and Toltec civilizations.
The Tarot Muertos was created as a collaboration between artist/illustrator, Laurel Thorndike, and Rich Roth, a technical developer with an interest in art and the arcane. The deck interprets Dia de los Muertos celebrations to focus on the gathering of friends and family to pray for and remember family and friends who have died and to support their spiritual journey. The wide audience this imagery speaks to and the spiritual potency of the images (connecting life and death, love and loss, the passage of time and spiritual growth) make the Tarot Muertos a unique and engaging addition for the beginner and experienced Tarot reader alike.