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Author: Nancy Hendrickson and Carrie Paris
Artwork: Angelica Castro
Publisher: Weiser Books
Number of cards: 60
Card size: 3.75 x 2.5 in (approx.)
Box size: 7.5 x 5.25 x 1.75 in (approx.)
Guidebook pages: 136
Purchased or gifted?: review copy provided by Weiser Books

Absolute favorite card: the Storyteller (El Cuentacuentos) and the Sun (El Sol)
Other favorites: the Bouquet (El Ramo), Lady (La Dama), Gentlemen (El Caballero), the Cross (La Cruz), the Clover (El Trébol), the Whip (El Látigo), the Offering (La Ofrenda), the Garden (El Jardín), the Tree ( El Árbol), the Cat (El Gato), the House (La Casa), the Stork (La Cigüeña)
Notable detail: english and spanish interpretations
Season: Fall
Sabbat: Samhain
Sign: Scorpio
Element: Aether

First Impressions

The presentation is pretty good overall. Weiser has been turning out some rather nice decks this past year. You can tell they’ve put a lot of effort into stepping up their game and I love that. I’m also just really happy to see more Halloween adjacent decks. Halloween and Samhain are great but there are celebrations all around the world that deserve a deck too. There’s a few Dia De Los Muertos decks but I really would like to see more so I was eager to get this one. However, I didn’t realize it was Lenormand. I kind of wondered because the Mexican divination cards I’ve seen are so similar to Lenormand but I was also kind of hoping that wasn’t the case here. Mostly because me and Lenormand are not friends. But more on that later. Let’s dive in.

The Packaging

The box is pretty nice. It's a sturdy two piece box with a lid that lifts off the bottom. You can tell it's solid because it's pretty loud when you knock on it like it's a piece of wood. It is printed in full color both inside and out with images inside the top and bottom covers. You have a little platform to hold the cards and that would be my only complaint. Mine is ripped inside which is a shame. Very nice other than that though.

The cards are small which I actually appreciate. 60 cards can be a lot to shuffle when the cards themselves are too big. I have several oracle sized tarot cards that I can’t shuffle at all because they don’t fit my hands. That isn’t a problem here at all. I found them very easy to shuffle, easy to hold in my hands and easy to work with. The cards themselves are just a slight bit thin I would say but not too bad. They don’t have gilded edges and I would have liked to see them here just because Dia de Los Muertos is so vibrant. I think a pop of gold or a bright blue would have been an excellent touch.

The Guidebook

I love the guidebook. Its full color which is already a luxury. It's becoming more common to see full color guide books but I would say it's still the exception and not the rule. What’s truly impressive is not only is it full color but it has english and spanish interpretations. I find this to be very thoughtful. All of the cards have keywords, a message from the Storyteller (El Cuentacuentos) and the card’s meaning. Cards 1-36 have Lenormand meanings and you can separate the cards and read them strictly as Lenormand if you desire but you don’t have to. In fact, the authors encourage you to read both sections together as a way of honoring different cultures or systems coming together to form a whole.

You’ll find four spreads to get you started, a small section on how to use the cards, a lovely foreward by Laura Davila, and what it means to work with the ‘beloved dead’ and some information about the Ofrenda Oracle. I really appreciate that last one. Sometimes I get decks that have such a unique concept but then there’s no information about how the concept came to be and I always see that as a missed opportunity. Even a short paragraph about why you created the deck or what its intention is can really deepen your understanding of how to work with it or spark new ways to work with it. It may seem small but when I see something like this, I get a small smile on my face. I think these things matter.

The Artwork

I really like the artwork. Growing up in Los Angeles, you see plenty of Dia de Los Muertos celebrations and all of the beauty and color that comes along with it. The cards instantly reminded me of a lot of those celebrations and of the Mexican culture heavily present around my hometown. I love Mexico. It was my first international trip and I’ve been there many, many times over the years. I’m not Mexican but again growing up in Los Angeles, you can’t help but to be influenced by Mexican culture and fall in love with it.

Which is why I was so excited about this deck. There are so few Dia de Los Muertos decks and what a pity. I think there are so many people, not just in Los Angeles but all over the country who are surrounded by this vibe during the Halloween season and it's nice to have that represented in ritual tools. I love seeing sugar skulls because it really paints death in a different way. It makes me feel happy and something to celebrate rather than dwell in sadness. I think watching Dia de Los Muertos celebrations growing up were the first times I saw an alternative to the more depressing version of death.

“As you conduct your readings you may find corresponding shifts of energy in your body, in how you are breathing and how you are feeling”

My favorite cards are the Storyteller (El Cuentacuentos) and the Sun (El Sol). I’ll start with the sun. I feel like the sun gets overlooked when it comes to the fall. We tend to think about it only during spring and summer and I don’t think that’s fair. I’ve never been a big fan of sun magic until this year and now, I just resonate with it so deeply. I think it's because I have truly ended my dark night of the souls that much to my dismay, lasted for years. Now I crave light energy and positivity. All this to say, I think this card represents the energy of Dia De Los Muertos well in the sense that this is a celebration. Yes there’s death and grief but also joy among the darkness.

I honestly love the Storyteller card because of the little poem inside of the box which set the tone in my opinion. I have always said reading tarot is like being a storyteller. You have the meaning but what makes it a reading is how you bring separate cards together to tell a story. That’s what makes you a good reader; not memorizing the meanings or having 100 decks but being able to uncover the deeper layers and to find the hidden patterns. Sometimes I don’t resonate with an image so much as the idea of an image: this is one of those times. I just like the inclusion of the storyteller. Be sure to see all of my favorite cards below.

Purchase The Ofrenda Oracle

Reading With this Deck

I have to be honest with you, Leonormand really doesn’t feel like it's meant for me. I’ve tried to read with several different Lenormand decks this year and I just can’t seem to get the hang of it. Obviously this is user error and I don’t think my lack of experience with Lenormand has anything to do with how well the decks are made. I’m just a little frustrated mostly because I took to tarot and oracle like I was born with a deck in my hands. Reading cards for the first time felt like coming home versus trying to read with Lenormand feels like a constant struggle. I’m being honest about this because I think there’s a lesson here. I always talk about how you don’t have to do all the things. You don’t have to do moon rituals and zodiac rituals, read cards, use crystals, work with herbs and animals and numbers and deities. If only doing one thing feels good to you then let that be enough. And for me, I’m realizing I love the Rider Waite Smith system and I love working with Oracle cards but I don’t enjoy working with Lenormand and that’s ok. I’m giving myself permission to let go of thinking I need to. And for that reason, I’ve decided not to do a collective pull this week.

Season, Sign and Sabbat

It feels almost sacrilegious to assign this deck to anything other than Scorpio, Samhain and fall. In observance of Dia de Los Muertos, it seems appropriate that this deck’s energy will be most apparent around Halloween. However, such is the case with the Seasons of the Witch decks, there really is no wrong time to work with ancestral energy.

However, the colors, theme and overall mood of the cards really lend themselves to fall especially. The bright yellow really reminds me of fall leaves. Often you hear about ambers, golds and oranges but many trees turn a stunning yellow such as the aspens in Colorado. Or the brightly colored wildflowers in their last blooms here in California.

I have assigned each month a color for years and I always base it on the sky. November is almost always purple, the same color of the cards. So when I saw that, I immediately felt like it's the perfect deck for November first which is of course Dia de Los Muertos. Obviously Samhain, Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos are closely related so that was a no brainer for the sabbat.

I chose the aether for the element though. The connection to ancestors could've gone into the earth realm but the aether felt more appropriate to honor the thinning of the veil.

Who is this deck for?

I think if you’re a fan of Lenormand and looking for one to use during the Halloween season, then give this deck a try for sure. I don’t want to tell anyone how to express their heritage but if you feel connected to this deck, especially from a cultural perspective, then why not give it a try? It's been slow to see more cultures in tarot and oracle but it's becoming more common and I believe it will be the norm rather than the exception in five to ten years.

Thanks for reading all the way through. If you found this review to be helpful, informative or entertaining in any way, please be sure to leave a comment down below. It really helps me know what you’re enjoying so that I can provide more content based on what you love. In the meantime, please enjoy a variety of photos from this deck.

And of course, if there is something you’d like me to consider reviewing, please comment below or email me at hello@spiritelement.co