The Housewives Tarot Deck Review

Featured Deck Review

Tarot lovers are you looking for something fun to jump into this summer? The Housewives Tarot: A Domestic Divination Kit is for you. It’s campy, irreverent, and has bold, eye catching illustrations

The Housewives Tarot

From the beginning, this deck, designed by Paul Keppel and Jude Buffum, isn’t your typical tarot deck. It arrives in a box that looks like a recipe box your grandma would own.  Inside there are recipe tabs holding the instruction booklet that begins with a fun “story” of how this deck came into existence, the Major Arcana, and the Minor Arcana.

The campy 1950s theme doesn’t end with the packaging. At first glance, it looks like Leave It to Beaver or The Donna Reed Show has taken over your tarot deck, but these pictures have a bite to them and an edginess that makes for some very interesting and fun images. The back of the cards have a red checked picnic pattern are a nice heavy weight. I get the feeling they’d last a while even with heavy use.

The Major Arcana is defined with a black and red border. It follows the Rider-Waite style of tarot. The illustrations will make you chuckle as you work your way through the deck. The Devil is a Chocolate Cake with legs, high heels, a martini, and a cigarette with other vices surrounding it.  The Tower is a jello mold and the Chariot is, of course, a green station wagon.

The Minor Arcana is divided up into colors and a theme for each suit:  blue and drinks or beverages for Cups, gold and cleaning instruments for Wands, red and scissors or knives for Swords and green and plates for Pentacles. With some decks the Minor Arcana can be found lacking. This isn’t the case here. The Minor Arcana also packs a punch with it’s images, including the 7 of Cups, which has 7 different alcoholic beverages, and the Eight of Wands, with a woman riding one of eight broomsticks.

The small 96-page instruction book describes how to work with the deck, some traditional and not-so-traditional layouts and descriptions for each of the Major and Minor Arcana cards. With creative names and sarcastic quips like the one card layout, The Virgin : “It is best to take it slowly if this is your first time reading the tarot.” The Martini, a 13 card spread, states: “ To enhance the effect of this reading, have two very dry Martinis prepared before starting(or just one if you’re reading your own cards). This can be performed with out the drinks, but the impact of the reading will not be as powerful.”  The seven card layout, The Clothesline of Life, quips: “ If you enjoy airing your dirty laundry in public, this is the layout for you”. Are you getting a sense of the humor these cards hold?

After using the cards for a while, I find the readings they produce have a dry, witty sense of humor. To my delight and surprise, they have given really accurate readings. I do use them for my professional readings. I find the types of readings that these cards work well for are ones of a less serious nature(think tarot party with the girls) or for clients that use humor as a way to buffer the intense issues they are dealing with. Sometimes, if you can laugh at a tough situation, it makes it more tolerable.  

Cons? They don’t really work with my Soul Journey Tarot, but that’s ok. Not everything in life has to be about your Soul Plan. Overall, these are a fun investment if you like campy 50s humor or are looking for a light-hearted deck for tarot parties or psychic fairs.

The Housewives Tarot is by Paul Keppel and Jude Buffam and is published by Quirk Books. You can purchase this deck here: http://www.housewivestarot.com/ or on Amazon.

The Housewives Tarot by Paul Keppel and Jude Buffum published by Quirk Books