The Illuminated Tarot Deck Guide: Illuminating the Divine

The Illuminated Tarot Deck is a wonderfully colorful 53-card deck that illuminates the answers you seek. The definition of illuminate is to shine a light on something to make it more visible. Tarot decks are used to find answers to complicated questions and guidance before an uncertain venture.

Although traditional decks like the Hermetic Tarot Deck are based on secret societies, this one has nothing to do with the old Bavarian Illuminati. It’s a serious deck beautifully designed by a seasoned tarot reader. It’s newer than the Rider Waite-Smith Deck but has divine possibilities if you know how to use it.

This deck is about modern reading and divination. Don’t worry; you won’t need to know the laws of secret societies or partake in strange rituals. However, it’s a complicated deck due to the limited number of cards, making it a better choice for seasoned readers. Intuition plays a role, but patience is required.

This Illuminated Tarot Deck Guide will share my experience with the cards, differences, and the many opportunities of this beautiful deck.

Illuminated Beginnings

Creator Caitlin Keegan is the woman who shone a light on this beautiful deck in 2017. It was published by Clarkson Potter and came with a simple guidebook for readers to follow their intuition. The same publisher and creator also released Keegan’s Illuminated Playing Cards in 2019.

Keegan was intrigued by tarot cards since she was a teenager. Her mother used Morgan’s Tarot Cards, a simple but modern take on divination and solutions. Keegan’s artistic mind was deeply fascinated by the beautiful illustrations of tarot cards as she expanded her experience with numerous decks.

Keegan also became curious about the varying interpretations, card archetypes, and symbolism hidden within tarot decks. She saw each card’s deeper, universal meanings and how they moved from the beginning to the end through the middle of a story.

Keegan’s main takeaway as an artist and avid tarot reader was that her intuition allowed her to follow the fine details and symbols found in each card. Her story is one reason I love the deck. She created a deck that allows for personalized illumination and divination.

Oracle Versus Tarot

The Illuminated Tarot Deck has 53 cards, making it an oracle deck, which isn’t the same as a tarot deck. Both decks are used for perspective, personal growth, inspiration, spiritual guidance, insight, clarity, divination, and motivation; however, an oracle deck is more complicated.

Tarot decks have 78 cards, allowing detailed guidance from archetypes in specific scenarios, whereas oracle decks have combined archetypes, making it harder to prioritize archetypes. Tarot deck archetypes have straightforward interpretations, but oracle cards can mean multiple things.

Oracle decks are best used in self-reflection or self-readings. They rely heavily on intuition because fewer rules are guiding the cards. A new reader might be confused by flipping a card that represents two archetypes. Although Keegan is careful to use numerology to combine archetypes, it’s still confusing.

I’ll admit that Keegan’s deck is less complicated than oracle decks containing fan-fiction and self-care cues. She uses numerology to determine which Major and Minor Arcana archetypes correspond. She bases her combinations on strict universal numerical laws, similarly used to create mathematical astrology.

I don’t often use oracle decks, but the Illuminated Tarot Deck is one I can use as a seasoned reader. The interpretations are vast, but I use my intuition to interpret the cards. Once you bond with the deck and feel the connection to each card, you’ll be interpreting them with greater ease.