Steampunk Tarot ─ Wisdom from the Gods of the Machine

Imagine a time when vast helium-fueled airships took the place of aircraft, and where the hunger for adventure and exploration took the human race into stranger places than we ever imagined. The Steampunk Tarot imagines this in an alternate-reality tarot where The Technomage is king and the Punk Diva is queen.

Tumble down the rabbit hole into a construction of technology, machines, retro-art and culture, full of fantastic visions in a time and place that realizes an alternate world to our own. The world of steampunk combines Victoriana, the Gothic, and early invention with a huge dash of imagination and a tremendous sense of style. The Steampunk Tarot is a world apart: a nexus of opulence, innovation and alternate world-views that is reflected in 78 scenes. More utopian than dystopian, it breeds its own thrilling archetypes. The 22 major arcana cards are the actors at the heart of the machine, the deos macninae or "the gods of the machine." Here their primal impulses beat out the determining rhythm that courses through every artery of the Imperium. Each of the actors in the steampunk mysteries are like performers on the stage, their archetypes spot-lit. Acting as mediators of the Gods of the Machine are the 16 court cards who are the Legates of the Omniverse, or ambassadorial representatives of the Four Leagues, comprising all the skills that maintain the Imperium: they are the movers and shakers—the Commander, Lady, Navigator, and Messenger, or King, Queen, Knight and Page. They oversee the other 40 cards of the minor arcana, who are the elemental worlds of Airships, Engines, Submersibles and Gears, or Swords, Wands, Cups and Coins.

There are still things to discover and uncover in the Steampunk Imperium. Many new methods of spreading and playing with tarot cards are included, as well as methods of life-navigation by the use of skillful questions. The Steampunk Tarot is an adventurous tarot for the discerning diviner, to be appreciated both by tarot-users and steampunk fans the world over.

John Matthews has produced a number of successful divinatory systems based on early spiritual beliefs—including the best selling Arthurian Tarot, The Wildwood Tarot, The Green Man Tree Oracle, The Celtic Animal Oracle and the recent, highly successful Grail Tarot. He is widely known as the author of numerous books in The Grail and Arthurian legends genre. His book Pirates was No 1 in the New York Times Review of Books and a best seller for 22 weeks in 2007. He has acted as an advisor on several motion pictures, including Jerry Bruckheimer's King Arthur, and is currently engaged on several movie projects of his own.

Caitlin Matthews is the author of many successful tarots and oracles including The Arthurian Tarot, The Da Vinci Enigma Tarot, The Celtic Wisdom Tarot, The Celtic Book of the Dead and The Celtic Wisdom Oracle. With John Matthews, Caitlin is the creator of the Storyworld Cards series, enabling families to return to the art of storytelling around the hearth. She is acknowledged worldwide as a leading teacher in the Western esoteric traditions. She lives in Oxford. HallowQuest.org.uk

Wil Kinghan is a writer, artist and explorer of the Hermetic and Celtic traditions. He studied Archeology at University College Dublin, and Environmental Design at NCAD in the 1980s. He then worked in advertising and commercial art as an Art Director, winning awards for various campaigns such as for Guinness in the 1990s. He recently completed work on several writing and illustration projects including The Shaman's Oracle and The Ancestor Oracle. He is the author of Where the Hazel Falls.