Ascension Tarot

Disclaimer: Even though the artwork is from the Tarot de Marseille, the Ascension Tarot is not a traditional Marseille deck (According to The Queen's Sword Tarot site, it could probably be considered either a "Modern Merseille" or more likely an "Altered WCS with historical imagery"). I chose that artwork to use for this deck, simply because I have always liked it. Since the Ascension Tarot has multiple orientations, however, it functions very differently than any of the traditional decks, even though it is visually strongly based on them (uses the same suits, ranks, and card names).

The Ascension Tarot is a 78-card Tarot deck printed in a square format, so that each card has four possible orientations, instead of the standard two.

In addition to Upright and Reversed, Ascension Tarot cards can also be Declining or Ascending, so that each card has four variations of its basic meaning.

The Ascension Tarot can be used used in new layouts, such as the Insight Spread and Hourglass Spread, or in traditional layouts, such as the Celtic Cross, Horseshoe, or Three-Card spreads (see the "Card Layouts" booklet for details).

The card meanings (see the “Card Meanings” booklet for details) have been adapted from those of the Marseille deck. If you wish to use other meanings, such as those from a Tarot book or another deck, the Declining meaning should represent the transition from Upright to Reversed, whereas the Ascending meaning should represent the transition from Reversed to Upright.

Note: When shuffling the cards, it’s important to always rotate one of the stacks a quarter turn each time, so that the cards will come up with different orientations.

Cards are printed with smudge-resistant UV coating.

Images of Minōs the cat with the deck are courtesy of The Queen’s Sword | Tarot & Divination reviews with a sharp pen