Tarot Fellow
Fairy Tale Tarot by Lisa Hunt — 78-Card Deck
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$23.95 - Regular price
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$23.95
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Fairy Tale Tarot by Lisa Hunt — a full 78-card RWS-tradition deck where each card’s imagery draws from a beloved fairy tale, weaving classic story archetypes with traditional tarot meaning. Lisa Hunt’s distinctive watercolor illustration style makes this deck equally beloved by fairy tale enthusiasts and serious tarot students seeking a fresh lens on the Major and Minor Arcana.
Description:Quick Specs
- Brand: Lisa Hunt / U.S. Games Systems
- Type: 78-card tarot deck with 156-page guidebook
- Size/Quantity: Standard tarot card size, rigid two-part box
- Best for: Readers who love myth, fairy tales, and Jungian depth
Fairy Tale Tarot and the World Heritage of Stories
Lisa Hunt's Fairy Tale Tarot originally appeared in 2009 through Llewellyn Publications, went out of print, and commanded extraordinary prices on the secondary market. U.S. Games Systems re-released it in late 2024, making this beloved deck accessible again. Hunt holds an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis on Jungian psychology, and that background shapes every card, treating fairy tales not as light entertainment but as the deep symbolic language of the psyche.
The deck pairs each of its 78 cards with a specific fairy tale drawn from cultures across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the Americas, and Africa. Little Red Riding Hood opens the journey as the Fool, renamed Innocence; Puss in Boots takes the Hierophant slot as the Mentor; Rapunzel becomes the Hanged Man, now called Entrapment. Hunt deliberately chose obscure oral traditions alongside familiar titles so that even experienced readers encounter stories they have never seen mapped onto tarot before.
Artwork, Card Stock, and Practical Use
Hunt's illustrations are hand-drawn in pencil and finished in watercolor, a fully analog process that produces soft, layered imagery with faces hidden in tree roots, smoke, and moonlit pools. The palette leans cool, with blues and grays giving the cards a dreamy winter quality, though warmer cards offer welcome contrast. The 2024 edition prints on the standard U.S. Games cardstock with a satin finish that shuffles smoothly and fans evenly, housed in a sturdy two-part box.
This deck follows the Rider-Waite-Smith structure without cloning it. The suits are Cups, Wands, Swords, and Pentacles; court cards use Princess, Prince, Queen, and King, though Hunt reverses the traditional correspondence between Princess and Prince. Beginners can navigate the deck with the guidebook, which provides the fairy tale source, cultural origin, and symbolic breakdown for every card. Experienced readers will find the non-traditional title reassignments, such as Deception for the Tower and Redemption for Judgement, open fresh interpretive angles. Pair it with my tarot decks collection to explore decks with unique artistic visions.
How to Use Fairy Tale Tarot
Three approaches to working with the fairy tale structure built into this deck.
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Read the Story First
Before interpreting a card in a reading, turn to its guidebook entry and read the fairy tale. Hunt gives the story's cultural origin and keywords. Knowing the tale makes the imagery click and reveals layers you would otherwise miss.
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Apply the Narrative Spread
Use Hunt's nine-card Motif of Three spread to mirror the three-act structure of fairy tales. Position one covers the beginning situation, positions four through six the crisis, and positions seven through nine the resolution or lesson learned.
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Explore Reversals Through Story Logic
When a card appears reversed, consider where in the fairy tale the protagonist erred. Hunt's narrative framing makes reversals intuitive: a reversed Courage suggests avoiding the trial that leads to growth, not simply weakened Strength.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I stocked this deck because Lisa Hunt's combination of scholarly research and hand-crafted watercolor illustration is genuinely rare. The guidebook alone, with its cultural sourcing for every card, is worth having on the shelf. The 2024 U.S. Games reprint corrects the scarcity problem that kept this deck out of reach for years, and the card stock is up to the quality the art deserves. If you want fairy tale mythology alongside solid reading structure, this deck delivers both. Browse my tarot and divination books for companions that deepen the symbolic work.
Frequently Asked Questions
The guidebook provides the fairy tale source, cultural origin, keywords, and symbolism for each card, making it navigable for beginners. That said, the non-traditional Major Arcana titles and reversed court card roles add a small learning curve.
The deck contains 78 cards, following the standard structure of 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana across four suits. Courts are Princess, Prince, Queen, and King, with Princess and Prince reversed from traditional Rider-Waite correspondence.
U.S. Games Systems published the 2024 edition. The original 2009 Llewellyn edition went out of print and became scarce and expensive on resale markets. The new edition restores the deck to catalog availability with updated packaging.
Hunt works in pencil and watercolor, producing hand-drawn analog art with soft blues, layered detail, and faces hidden in natural elements like tree roots and moonlit water. The style is fantasy-influenced and deeply intricate throughout.
