Tarot Del Toro

A tarot deck that’s designed using Guillermo Del Toro’s movies as inspiration? Yes, please.

Insight Editions, the publishing company behind the “Ghostbusters Artbook,” sent me a set of their newly released, “Tarot Del Toro,” cards for free to review. I am not sponsored by them, but I am incredibly excited to review this deck.

I will review this deck from a few different points of view, as an artist, as an amateur tarot reader (very amateur), and as a fan of Del Toro’s work.

From the View of an Artist

This deck is beautifully and thoughtfully designed. From the cards, to the guidebook, to the box itself, everything has a very classic textured feel all inspired by the creative works of Guillermo Del Toro. And there’s a good reason for that textured feel as each card design was hand carved like you would see for block printing. But instead of getting that 70’s block printed aesthetic, the cards were scanned or photographed so that the face of each carving is the card itself. This adds such unique dimension to the illustrations that I’ve genuinely never seen in a tarot deck before. I love the textured finish this gives the cards as it adds a sense of history and weight.

The guidebook that comes with the deck is a great read as well and offers a lot of insight into the design and creation of the cards. One of the stories I really enjoyed reading was about why the artist, Tomás Hijo carved all of the designs. The reason behind the decision Hijo could share his designs with Don Miguel, his blind friend and mentor in learning about Tarot. He carved them so that Miguel could, “see,” his designs by feeling the three dimensional cards. The story behind how these cards were designed shows such a passion and love for both Guillermo Del Toro’s work and for the art of tarot.

From the View of an Amateur Tarot Reader

I will preface this section by saying I have only dabbled in reading tarot and have a very basic of knowledge to guide my opinions of this section. But even as an amateur, there was one important detail I thought needed to be mentioned about the deck as it pertains to tarot specifically. The Major Arcana are perfect, I have no criticism to share there, but it is in the design of the numbered cards in the Minor Arcana that I noticed a bit of a problem.

For those who do not know, when doing tarot readings you lay out a series of cards as a way to answer a specific question. When reading the meanings of the cards, the orientation- whether the card is upright or reversed matters massively. A card in a upright position means something entirely different when it’s reversed.

For example, let’s look at the ten of discs, shown here.

As you can see, the discs are arranged in a very balanced way, where which direction is up is not immediately discernible. This balanced card design works well with playing cards but not with tarot. In our example of the ten of discs the upright position means, “Wealth, financial security, family, long-term success, or contribution.” In it’s reversed position the same card means, “The dark side of wealth, financial failure or loss.” [BiddyTarot.com]

Thankfully, this design choice does not make the deck unusable for tarot readings because the design on the back of the card does have a clear upright position. So, as long as you note the position before you flip the card, you can still use this deck for readings.

From the View of a Del Toro Fan

That being said, I don’t think this deck is best suited for practitioners of tarot- I think this deck is best suited to lovers of Del Toro’s creative worlds. Del Toro’s work feels like a slice of mysterious fantasy found in real life and this deck is like being able to hold it in one hand. His characters feel like real people, even if they’re covered in scales or were born with a stone fist and red skin. In that way, the Tarot Del Toro deck is a perfect experience for a fan of his work. Hijo, the artist, put so much thought into the characters and symbols he chose for each card’s design. He pulled not just the best looking concepts for the deck, but the ones that most closely tied to the meaning of the cards themselves.

Each card has something to enjoy artistically speaking, but it’s the Major Arcana and the “face cards” of the minor Arcana that Del Toro fans will find the most joy in. All of these cards feature a character from Del Toro’s films and you could practically play an entire trivia game just naming the characters and discussing why they were chosen to represent a specific card. The movies (and show) represented in the deck are:

• Pan’s Labyrinth
• Hellboy
• Hellboy II
• The Strain
• The Shape of Water
• Crimson Peak
• The Devil’s Backbone
• Pacific Rim
• Mimic

One of my favorites out of the whole deck is VI- The Lovers. This card features Elisa and the Amphibian Man from, The Shape of Water. This card generally means, “UPRIGHT: Love, harmony, relationships, values alignment, choices. REVERSED: Self-love, disharmony, imbalance, misalignment of values.” [biddytarot.com]

This card is one of my favorites for a couple of reasons. 1st, just from an artistic standpoint, it’s gorgeous. The earthy colors and gentle ombre paired with the bold line work gives the card an antique feel. While the characters are still easily recognizable and add to the fun and novelty of it. The 2nd reason I love this card comes from the guidebook and the details Hijo goes into about his thought process behind the card’s design.

The Lovers’ meaning has to do with choice, especially emotional choice. In many contexts, it can be even more focused and refer to crossroads of passion of any kind. […] In Tarot Del Toro, this duality is depicted by the characters from The Shape of Water , with their double nature, both human and aquatic. It is interesting to note the Mantegna deck illustrates this card with a figure of Venus in a marine environment.”

Tomás Hijo “A Tarot Deck and Guidebook inspired by the world of Guillermo Del Toro.” Page 26

What I enjoy so much about this excerpt from the guidebook is that it shows how much thought and research went into the making of this deck. Hijo researched different card decks and the symbolism used in their designs and found ways to parallel the meaning he found in his own card designs. Pair that with his masterful artistry and you have something incredibly special to enjoy.

Rating

All in all, I think the deck is absolutely beautiful and despite the balanced designs in the numbered Minor Arcana I still think you can enjoy this deck both as a Guillermo Del Toro collector’s item and as a tarot deck. Though, I would argue an experienced practitioner would be able to work with these cards more easily than an amateur like myself.

I’m thrilled to have such a beautiful deck in my possession and am happy to recommend it to any fan of Del Toro. 5 out of 5 stars for me.

If you are interested in purchasing a deck of your own or for a Del Toro fan in your life, you can find it via my affiliate link on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3odTC7U or wherever novelty books are sold.

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