Starlore Arcana

Starlore Arcana
Nitasia Roland
ISBN 978-1-57863-848-2
Weiser Books
$29.95

To gaze at the stars is to wonder at what meaning they might be whispering for you. Offering divinatory meanings for the constellations visible in the night sky, the new Starlore Arcana deck from Weiser is based on John Lenthall’s 1717 deck Astronomical Playing Cards. It features 56 full color cards redrawn for the modern reader and expanded to include all court cards and better align with tarot systems. Each card depicts a constellation with an image of the constellation’s imagined form overlaid on the arrangement of the actual stars of the constellation, helpful for anyone who wants to connect stargazing with divination more directly. For example, the five of hearts bears both a drawing of the stars of the constellation Canis Major as well as an image of a dog. Each card also includes a translation of the constellation’s name or a description if it is a proper name, e.g., Cygnus is labelled the swan while Orion is labelled the hunter.

As a pip deck (there are no trump cards,) Starlore Arcana uses the playing card suits of hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. For those who have struggled in the past with correlating systems, the cards are helpfully labelled with both the playing card suit and the associated tarot suit. There is additional support for understanding the meaning of each card in both playing card cartomancy and tarot in the included guidebook.

The full color, 119 page book is where the brilliance of the deck shines most clearly. It offers the reader detailed information about the physical location of each constellation, its folklore and several different ways to read the card depending on the reader’s system. It would be worth the price of the deck by itself. Each entry opens with a retelling of the constellation’s mythology, followed by distinct meanings for cartomancy, tarot and divination. This allows a reader to simultaneously gain deeper insight into the constellations and the messages the stars can share while also connecting the mythology to traditional meanings in playing card reading as well as meanings typical in Rider-Waite derived decks.

The edges of the cards are gilded and the back of each card shows a night sky scattered with constellations. The deck and book are packaged in a sturdy, matching cardboard box for ease of storage. The quality of the cards, beautiful full color illustrations and thoughtful and thorough guidebook make this one of a kind system worthy of a place on every diviner’s card table.