Grief Tarot™ is a specially designed tarot deck created to support individuals navigating loss. It offers insight, comfort, and a way to connect with departed loved ones. Beginning with the Fool, each card serves as a gentle guide through the winding path of grief, illuminating different aspects of this painful, yet transformative process. As a 28-card major arcana series, it includes multiple Lovers and Devil cards to honor diverse identities, as well as alternate Wheel and Judgment symbolism.
Beginner and advanced methods for using the cards are included in the guidebook, informed by my experience as a trained medium and tarotist. The images were produced using midjourney and photoshop, drawing inspiration from Pamela Colman Smith’s iconic deck and my own profound losses. I hope you find value in the unique blend of traditional wisdom, personal vision, and modern innovation that the Grief Tarot offers.
Grief Tarot was developed as partial fulfillment of my Master of Science degree in Thanatology from Marian University. Thanatology is a multidisciplinary field that explores death from various perspectives—physical, ethical, spiritual, medical, cultural and psychological. My scholarly research focused on after-death communication (ADC) as a grief intervention, specifically the concept of continuing bonds through Victorian and modern mediumship, as well as the utilization of tarot for narrative inquiry. Through my exploration, I discovered that tarot is a powerful and accessible tool for ADC and created the deck with imagery specifically crafted to support this practice. For those who appreciate a scientific perspective on spiritual matters, an excerpt from my academic paper is included in the guidebook.
