IKONOLOGY Poker Tarot

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Tarot deck, poker deck and solitaire game, all in one.

Ikonology is a 78-card tarot deck designed to double as a four-color poker deck. It is cut to standard poker size, so it shuffles like any regular deck and fits comfortably in the hand. One deck, three ways to enjoy it: read it, play poker or other card games with it, or play a solitaire game written just for this deck.

What Is Ikonology?

We live surrounded by icons. A tiny picture on a button tells you what it does before you have read a word. Traditional tarot works the other way. A classic card is dense with symbols, and that density is the point: you contemplate a card and build your own meaning from it. What does tarot look like when it is translated into the most modern visual language we have?

The answer is a deck drawn entirely as icons. Every Major Arcana card is a single, bold, circular icon. The Fool is a jester's cap, Justice is a sword and a pair of scales, Death is a skull and Judgement is a gavel. Every card was drawn as vector artwork and printed in flat color, with no gradients, no shading and no photographic elements, so each card is clear at a glance.

The Minor Arcana are built like playing cards, with large suit symbols and the rank in the corners. The court cards have their own icons: crowns for the Kings and Queens, a shield for the Page and a helmet for the Jack, which is the tarot Knight.

Application 1: A Four-Color Poker Deck

Remove the 22 Major Arcana and the four Pages and you have a complete 52-card poker deck. The tarot Knights are marked J and play as Jacks. Every Minor Arcana card shows three things in its corner: the rank, the poker suit and the tarot suit. The suits are color-coded, a system that is standard in online play, so you can tell them apart across the table instead of squinting at a pip:

• Clubs (Wands) are green
• Hearts (Cups) are red
• Spades (Swords) are black
• Diamonds (Pentacles) are blue

Any game that uses a standard 52-card deck works.

Application 2: Ikonology Solitaire

Tarot has never had a solitaire game of its own (as far as I know), so I designed one for this deck. Ikonology Solitaire uses all 78 cards and plays like Klondike, with the Major Arcana as a fifth suit. You deal seven columns and build five foundations, one for each suit and one for the trumps, which run from the Fool (0) up to the World (XXI). In the tableau you build down on any card of a different suit, and the Major Arcana are wild there. You turn three cards at a time and get three passes through the stock. It is a challenging game, and winning is a real accomplishment. The full rules are in the booklet, along with a diagram of the layout.

Application 3: An Oracle for Everyday Questions

Keep all 78 cards together and use Ikonology as an oracle. Ask an open question, draw a three-card spread (past, present, future) or lay out the ten-card Celtic Cross, and read what the icons suggest. No tarot experience is needed. The booklet gives keywords for every card, upright and reversed, and explains the basics: the Major Arcana carry the large themes of a reading, and each suit governs its own territory. Wands are will and creation, Cups are feeling and relationship, Swords are thought and conflict, and Pentacles are body, money and craft.

The Card Back

The back of every card is built on a clock face: sixty lines radiating from the center, with twelve drawn heavier to mark the hours. Tarot has always doubled as an oracle, and an oracle is about time, a question asked now and an answer that means something because of when it is drawn.

What's Included

• 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana (Ace through Ten, Page, Jack, Queen and King in four suits)
• A 40-page companion booklet with card keywords, spreads, solitaire rules and the 52-card poker deck
• A custom tuck box

The deck does not include jokers. If a game calls for them, two Major Arcana make good substitutes, and the Fool is the traditional choice.

About the Designer

Ikonology was designed by Jesse Sloan (FatMunkey). Complete details about the design of the deck are available here.

Full meanings for all 78 cards are also available on the website. Start reading about the Major Arcana cards here.