The Lubanko Tarot is a masterpiece of queer tarot which reminds me why I love indie tarot decks so much. The first edition, second print run will be arriving in the store soon. Here is a brief note from the creator, Emily Lubanko about the differences in the deck. "In the second print run: The box art shows more of the white horse as well as the dark! Due to the imperfect nature of offset printing, the saturation and color levels of the cards will naturally vary between print runs. I have found the colors of the second print run to run on the cool side, while the first print run ran on the warm side! The cards are approximately 1mm smaller in the second than the first—a barely noticeable difference, but one hopes for easier removal from the box and ease of holding. Thank you very much for supporting small business and small print runs!"
Meanwhile, get the beautiful limited edition altar cloth while you still can!
The Deck
The Lubanko Tarot is a richly illustrated 78 card tarot deck exploring the surreal, the intense, the queer, and the divine. A high-intensity deck that explores the range of life in a mythical, sensuous, colourful, and unapologetic lens.
Every suit is a full journey, lushly-illustrated and packed full of metaphor, story, and the full range of the elements. The cards show beings of different walks of life, some closer to human and some far beyond, dipping into the diversity of life on earth and the divine of when we transcend our expected forms.
The Creator
Emily Lubanko says: "As a queer artist with a lens of the vivid-surreal, the sensual, and the pain-and-catharsis of life, I will be sharing that intensity, that queerness, those shocks of color with you. Where you take that is in your hands, and it is given gladly. A good tarot deck has lots of metaphor to chew on, so that each card can be a moment of self-contained meditation. With this in mind, each card was heavily considered for readability, trueness to the intention I had for the card, and how I wished to diverge or converge with common meanings. Though many of these cards will have a familiarity to those who are experienced readers, some diverge for the sake of the clarity and honesty of message. For those who are familiar with tarot, there is some similarity to the Rider-Waite method of storytelling, but with some divergences as well."
Read our interview with Emily. You can find Emily on their website or Instagram
The Specs
- 78 fully illustrated traditional-sized tarot cards 2.75"x 4.75"
- Holographic silver-edges on the cards
- Labeled with the title on each card ease of use
- Artfully-decorated book-shaped box that closes magnetically and securely, allowing for both display and transportation, with soft-touch matte velvet-feel and silver foil printing on the title.
- Each deck includes a pocket-sized 110 page guidebook with both upright and reversed meanings for each card.
- For those buying gifts, this deck is recommended for perhaps ages 16+, due to typical themes one would find in an art museum—think of Perseus slaying Medusa, the arrows in St. Sebastian, and mythological violence/eros.
- Companion limited edition altar cloth available separately