We love all of Kipling West’s creations, but our very favorite is still the Halloween Tarot deck she created for US Games. Spread the cards out in front of you, and you are looking into your trick-or-treat bag after a splendid night’s adventure in a long-ago October. Colors - deep, jewel-like, enchanted, full of wild promise. Colors from a time when candy was eatable magic.

The deck’s imagery is as rich as its palette, and just as likely to inspire a Halloween reverie. To begin with, for the standard tarot suits of coins, cups, staves, and swords, West substitutes pumpkins, ghosts, imps, and bats. And she continues from there, calling forth a full cast of Halloween archetypes to populate the cards and act out their scenes. Black cats, grinning skeletons, watchful moons and costumed children, witches and scarecrows and vegetable men straight from victorian greeting cards, all do their part. The monsters and madmen from the classic pre-color horror movies show up as well. You’ll find the bride of Frankenstein on card three of the Major Arcana, taking on the role of the Empress, and her monstrous husband enthroned as the Emperor on card four. On card nine, the couple’s creator, Dr. Frankenstein, shows up as the Hermit. On card six, the Lovers, the role of the couple goes to Dracula and Mina Harker, while the Mummy plays the Hierophant on card five, and on card eighteen, the Moon, the wolfman looks skyward and howls. Every card is a pleasure to look at, and many reward a viewer’s careful inspection with the discovery of intriguing or comical hidden details.


The useful little booklet that comes with the deck not only offers concise interpretations for each card and instructions for several possible layouts to be used for a reading, but also includes an amusing mini-essay by the artist, describing her lifelong passion for Halloween. In it, she remarks that the holiday’s traditional status as the boundary marking the end of the light half of the year and the beginning of the dark made it a natural occasion for people to attempt a little fortunetelling - “the perfect time-between-times to engage in a slightly spooky peek into the future.” We couldn’t agree more. Only one detail remains to be added - for those today who want to give this time-honored custom a try, the perfect means is right at hand in Kipling West’s delightful Halloween Tarot.

Price:  $18.00