The Witches Tarot Ellen Cannon Reed 90%

Ellen Cannon Reed succeeded in what she set out to do: she built a bridge between the Qabalistic Tarot and the Circle of the Wiccan. When you lay a spread with these cards, you aren't just divining the future; you are mapping the sacred landscape of a witch’s soul.

The palette favors deep purples, forest greens, midnight blues, and candle-flame oranges. It feels like a grimoire you found locked in a trunk, not a mass-market product. If you strip away the pentacles and athames, is this just a standard Tarot? No. Reed made three radical departures: the witches tarot ellen cannon reed

Is it for everyone? No. The Horned God guards the gate. But for the witch who has felt that the traditional Tarot speaks about them rather than to them, The Witches Tarot offers a homecoming. Ellen Cannon Reed succeeded in what she set

Do not look for photographic realism or watercolor whimsy here. The art is scratchboard-esque: high contrast, sharp lines, and a moody, nocturnal energy. The characters are not generic models; they are archetypal witches—hooded, robed, sometimes androgynous, often shown mid-ritual. It feels like a grimoire you found locked

She didn’t want to rewrite the Tarot; she wanted to re-consecrate it. She famously felt that the traditional Rider-Waite-Smith (RWS) imagery, while useful, was drenched in Christian hermeticism and Golden Dawn ceremonialism. For a witch working at an outdoor altar under a full moon, the thrones and angelic thrones of the RWS felt foreign. Reed set out to "translate" the cards into the language of the Craft. Visually, The Witches Tarot is a product of its era (the mid-90s), yet it possesses a timeless, hand-drawn authenticity. Martin Cannon’s black-and-white illustrations (colorized in later editions) are stark, bold, and unapologetically symbolic.