I am a huge collector of cartomancy decks. I mostly collect tarot decks, but I’ve also expanded my oracle deck collection quite a bit. I’ve been into this scene for about a decade now, and I love it more today than when I impulsively bought my first deck while in line at a Barnes & Noble. Only a few years later, in late 2019, I picked up Llewellyn Publications’ then-new release, the Forest of Enchantment Tarot kit.

This deck instantly spoke to my Celtic-Germanic roots with its detailed, expansive illustrations featuring all sorts of characters and symbolism from Germanic folk and fairy tales. Aside from a few small flaws, I adore this deck so much, I own a backup copy, and I’ve recommended and gifted it to a number of family and friends over the years. Maybe it’ll spark your imagination, too!

The Kit

The Forest of Enchantment Tarot is only available as a kit, with a long-form book accompanying the 78-card deck. Both are packed in a chipboard box with a magnetic flap closure.

I really like these boxes – they hold up well over time as storage containers for all sorts of bits and scraps. I reuse all my tarot kit boxes, mostly for organizing my extensive assortment of crafting materials and supplies.

The Deck

As noted, I really love this deck’s entire aesthetic. The artist, Meraylah Allwood, discussed the creative process behind the Forest of Enchantment Tarot in a Llewellyn article in 2019, in which she revealed the original artwork was composed in miniature, at only 15% larger than the final cards!

Every illustration features scenery, symbolism, and characters found in classic Germanic folk tales – a familiarity with the lore put to paper by the Brothers Grimm will help you intuitively read with this deck.

Nearly every card in the Major Arcana has been renamed to fit the Forest of Enchantment Tarot‘s theme. This can make reading with this deck difficult for those who read by rote memorization, but it can make intuitive reading easier, because the reader won’t be as inclined to assign memorized meanings to the cards.

0. 0. The White Hart (The Fool)
   1. The Enchanter (The Magician)
   2. The Wisewoman (The High Priestess)
   3. The Green Mother (The Empress)
   4. The Forest Lord (The Emperor)
   5. The Oldest One (The Hierophant)
   6. The Lovers
   7. The Faery Wind (The Chariot)
   8. Strength
   9. The Hermit
   10. The Enchanter’s Wheel (The Wheel of Fortune)
   11. The Huntsman (Justice)
   12. Suspension (The Hanged Man)
   13. Black Shuck (Death)
   14. The Forge (Temperance)
   15. The Liar (The Devil)
   16. The Folly (The Tower)
   17. Starlight (The Star)
   18. Moonlight (The Moon)
   19. Sunlight (The Sun)
   20. The Council of Animals (Judgement)
   21. The Wide World (The World)

Tarot isn’t merely a tool for divination. In fact, you don’t even have to be into divination at all to get some use out of a good tarot deck! My husband is a creative writer, and we’ve often used highly illustrative decks to flesh out character backstories, mostly with a spread originally created as a past-life reading.

The familiar imagery in the Forest of Enchantment Tarot makes this kit an excellent storytelling tool. In the hands of an imaginative narrator, this deck can provide hours of entertainment. I certainly would have loved these cards in my formative years, largely because the illustrations are so clearly inspired by Germanic folk tales.

Unlike the traditional Smith-Waite tarot deck’s highly religious symbolism, especially in the Major Arcana (the twenty-two trump cards), the Forest of Enchantment Tarot stays true to its folklore theme. The illustrations are kid-friendly, making this a good choice for the teen in your life who’s interested in the world of cartomancy.

None of the illustrations are scary, violent, or explicit. There are witches, fairies, elves, and gnomes, along with a number of cute animals – even the wyvern in the suit of Spells is adorable!

Like the Major Arcana, the traditional suit and court names have been reworked to fit the Forest of Enchantment Tarot theme. The suits have been renamed to:

• Visions (Cups)
• Boons (Pentacles)
• Challenges (Swords)
• Spells (Wands)

The courts have been renamed to:

• Child (Page)
• Seeker (Knight)
• Weaver (Queen)
• Keeper (King)

The card back is ambidextrous, so you can shuffle your deck with reversals without knowing which face-down cards are reversed.

The cards are made from 300 gsm cardstock cut to exactly 2.75 x 4.625″ (corners are rounded by a quarter inch) with a full-bleed illustration, both front and back. They’re finished with a semigloss lamination, so they aren’t overly reflective when reading under direct light, but they are a bit reflective when photographing spreads from overhead.

While I do love the Forest of Enchantment Tarot, it has its flaws. My biggest complaint about this deck is the same as with all Llewellyn decks: the overall materials quality is just not very high. This is largely to keep the kit’s wholesale cost low, so Llewellyn can keep retail pricing as low as possible.

At a current suggested retail price of $32.99, this complete book-and-deck kit is affordable. This makes it accessible to far more consumers; the trade-off is in the overall physical quality of the product. Premium indie decks priced at $60 and higher are considerably higher quality

The full-bleed cards are beautiful, but they aren’t very durable, and any real riffle shuffling will quickly wear the edges. Some readers really prefer this worn effect over time. I personally don’t – I’m an art collector as much as I am a tarot reader, and I like to keep my decks in as pristine condition as I can.

I sleeved my Forest of Enchantment Tarot deck with a pack of these Sleeve Kings WOTR Tarot card sleeves. This makes for a fat deck, and it’s not at all easy to shuffle in my (very) small hands, but sleeving has kept my cards in excellent condition over the last seven years.

If you choose to sleeve your cards of any size, Sleeve Kings is top-notch. I’ve used less expensive sleeve options in the past and have found these are much more durable and optically clear. At about $7 for a pack of 110, they’re affordable and will preserve your deck’s appearance for years to come.

I store my sleeved decks in polyurethane tarot boxes of various sorts. I’ve found these on both Amazon and AliExpress; prices start at about $8. These boxes are durable (I’ve dropped mine too many times to count), and the pleather outer shell accepts UV ink very nicely…but that’s another show.

Note: when you’re shopping for boxes, you should check the listed interior dimensions against your deck. If you prefer to sleeve your decks, as I do, many of the premium PU boxes found online aren’t deep enough. If you don’t sleeve your deck, however, any of the fancy boxes should work great!

This brings me to my other criticism of the Forest of Enchantment Tarot kit, and it isn’t targeted at this product. This is a general criticism of decks packaged with large-format books. Most of these kits do not include a tuck box for the deck, and this compels the reader to find some other means of compact storage. While it’s certainly possible to just keep the deck and book in the storage box, this isn’t always viable, especially when storage is limited.

A basic printed tuck box shouldn’t add much to deck production costs, and it would be an excellent addition to all deck kits published by Llewellyn (and Lo Scarabeo).

The Book

The Forest of Enchantment Tarot kit features a beautiful, full-color paperback book, written by seasoned tarot expert and long-time Llewellyn partner, Lunaea Weatherstone. She is a prolific author, having written the accompanying books for several dozen tarot and oracle decks, published by both Llewellyn and Lo Scarabeo.

Most Llewellyn kits include a long-form book printed in a single color, with grayscale card images accompanying each card description. For this book, the creators and Llewellyn chose to print in full color on medium-weight glossy paper, similar in feel to a premium fashion or art magazine. The card illustrations are full-bleed, which means the book is useful for finding the more detailed elements of each card – and there are many!

If you’re entirely new to tarot, never fear! Weatherstone’s introduction covers the essentials, including answers to some common questions and suggestions for new readers. This makes the Forest of Enchantment Tarot kit a great choice for new and inexperienced readers.

Every card gets equal attention, with each illustration fully detailed and key phrases in the Meaning at a Glance section. Finally, A Closer Look offers a little extra insight on the card’s divinatory meaning.

The card descriptions are not organized in the typical fashion, with the Minor Arcana (the suits) grouped by suit. Instead, the Forest of Enchantment Tarot book organizes the Minor Arcana by number (and court rank), with a short description for each.

Weatherstone includes six spreads handcrafted for the Forest of Enchantment Tarot. Most are creative and unique to this deck, along with new takes on interpreting your one- and two-card daily pull.

The Forest of Enchantment Tarot book’s inner margin is very wide, which makes it an excellent candidate for rebinding. This is time-consuming when done properly, but the result is a lay-flat book that can’t be beat for tarot reading.

Side Quest: Rebinding Cartomancy Books

If you’re interested in trying this with your own cartomancy books, I use this 16″ HFS 400-sheet stack cutter to cut the spine off my dismantled books (the 12″ model works just as well!), along with the We R Memory Keepers Cinch, which is a 12-hole heavy-duty manual paper punch and coil binding machine.

Book dismantling is tedious, but worth doing. If you don’t, cutting the spine off a glue-bound paperback will chamfer a slant into the cut edge, no matter how tightly you secure the book in your stack cutter. For the best cut:

1. Carefully remove the book’s cover so you can trim and punch it separately from the stack.
2. Separate the individual booklets from the glue binding.
3. Use a fine razor blade to carefully split the sewn binding of each booklet.
4. Optional (use your best judgment here): Cut the booklets at the fold – you can do this quickly with a paper trimmer.
5. Align and straighten the stack for your stack cutter.

I punched a piece of transparent plastic report cover to keep on hand, which makes it easy to determine if a book has a wide enough inner margin for punching. A narrow inner margin – common with shorter books – is often unsuitable, and you’re better off checking before you cut anything!

Final Thoughts

The Forest of Enchantment Tarot kit is an excellent choice for teens, creative storytellers, and any tarot novice. The familiar imagery appeals to anyone who enjoys the folklore of the Brothers Grimm, and the expansive book covers all the bases for inexperienced and expert tarot readers alike. This kit is also a great option for those who want to explore tarot as a creative tool for character development and storyboarding.

I wish the print on the cards wasn’t so susceptible to edge chipping, but it’s reasonable for the suggested retail price. If you love this deck’s aesthetic, Llewellyn released a companion oracle deck this year, so keep an eye out for a review!

The Forest of Enchantment Tarot kit retails for $32.99; it is available directly from the publisher and through other retailers, including Amazon.

What I Like: Beautiful illustrations; Expansive book content; Reusable storage box

What Needs Improvement: Card edges wear too easily; Deck needs a tuck box