A gorgeous 'Game of Thrones' tarot deck can now be yours
The world of Westeros is now a bit closer to our own.
Chronicle Books is releasing a gorgeous Game of Thrones-themed tarot deck, with each card depicting a different scene or character from the show.
"Every tarot card and every scene has a connection," Liz Dean, tarot-reader and author of this deck, told Mashable. "My role was to make sure that the tarot meanings worked [with the scenes]."
Are you a big Game of Thrones fan, but a tarot card novice? That's ok. The deck comes with a guidebook, which details the meaning of each card and the symbolism behind it. It's also got tarot spreads that are adapted to the world of Westeros — the Red Keep and the Faith of Seven among them. The book gives a step-by-step guide to shuffling the deck, laying the cards out, and interpreting the meanings, making the experience more approachable for a beginner tarot reader.
There’s a reason that certain characters appear more than once throughout the deck. Reading tarot is a lot about journeys and the meanings behind them, so naturally it made sense to convey that in relation to the journeys that the characters make throughout the series. For example, Dean featured Sansa Stark on the Four of Cups card, where she looks despondent, and on the Star card, where she looks more hopeful.
"The point of tarot is empowerment in seeing our choices," said Dean.
Dean says her favorite card is The Lovers, which depicts Jon Snow and Ygritte right after climbing the wall.
"Their universe expands," said Dean. "And everything changes."
According to the set's accompanying guidebook, the Lovers card traditionally symbolizes the beginnings of a relationship, and the confidence to overcome challenges together. And in fact, another reason Dean says she's fond of this card is because the actors who play Jon and Ygritte -- Kit Harrington and Leslie Rose -- are a real life couple. ("We made this choice before their engagement announcement," she said.)
"You’ll recognize the scenes if you love the show. You can know [the card's meaning] by the characters."
If you’re the type of person who loves to look up the symbolism in your favorite shows and books, reading about the connection between the scenes and card pairings is pretty satisfying, even if you don't know much about tarot.
"You can 'know nothing'," said Dean, paraphrasing Ygritte’s oft-quoted line to Jon Snow. "You’ll recognize the scenes if you love the show. You can know [the card's meaning] by the characters."
Symbolism and storytelling aside, the deck itself is gorgeous. The artwork by Craig Coss is painted to look like woodcut blocks. The cards themselves are sturdy and easy to shuffle, but large enough to admire the details.
Dean said she wanted to create the cards to give something back to the fans, to allow them to connect with the series in a more personal way. As for her favorite character on the show?
"Tyrion Lannister! I absolutely adore him," she said. "He's so clever and witty, but so vulnerable and compassionate — that's why we had him as the Fool, the person who probably takes the greatest personal journey."
The deck will be available on March 20th, but you can preorder it now from Amazon.
Topics Game Of Thrones
Petrana Radulovic was a web culture fellow here at Mashable. She enjoys exploring the growing intersection of story-telling and digital spaces, hanging out in book shops and art museums, and the tasteful meme. Follow her on Twitter at @pet_rana for #relatable content.
