Tarot of the Sorceress: A witch's wheel of the year by Bérengère Demoncy

Discover the hidden messages of the tarot and learn more about yourself with the Tarot of the Sorceress.

Inspired by a pagan seasonal spirituality, this striking tarot deck is a based on the Tarot de Marseille and is designed around the Wheel of the Year, the seasons and the festivals that punctuate it. Each card is presented in intricate detail – not just the majors. There is a companion book that provides samples readings and a decryption of each card.

Drawn in beautifully in black and white and printed with metallic highlights, the 78 cards include: 22 Major Arcana representing allegories of the seasons and the 8 Sabbaths, 56 minor arcana based on the 4 elements present in magical rituals: Air (Sword suite) / Fire (Staff suite) / Earth (Coins suite) / Water (Cup suite). The different messages of the cards refer to, and are organized around, the magical rituals of Wicca; Sabbaths (wheel of the year), the seasons, the phases of the moon, the stars, and implements and the elements (crystals, plants, flowers, shells, constellations, cauldrons, etc.).

Perfect for anyone interested in tarot and the wicca traditions, as well as being a beautiful gift for any tarot user, both beginners and more advanced users.

Product Details

• Cards: 78 (22 Major Arcana, 56 Minor Arcana)
• Companion booklet: 128 pages
• Box dimensions: approximately 6.5" x 4.5" x 2.1"
• Card finish: Black and white with metallic highlights; gilt edges
• Publisher: Rockpool Publishing
• Publication year: 2022
• Author/Illustrator: Bérengère Demoncy
• Language: English
• ISBN-13: 978-1-922785-05-3
• ISBN-10: 1-922785-05-9
• Weight: 18.4 oz

The Spiritual Significance

The Wheel of the Year is the organizing spiritual framework of contemporary Wicca and much of modern Paganism, marking eight sacred turning points: the four solar festivals (solstices and equinoxes) and the four cross-quarter days (Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasadh). You can use this deck in direct relationship with that cycle by choosing your reading spread or card focus intentionally based on the Sabbath closest to you. Pulling cards at Samhain with attention to the death-and-rebirth imagery in the Major Arcana, or doing a Beltane spread focused on the Cups and the element of Water, deepens the practice of both the tarot and the Sabbath celebration simultaneously.

In Wiccan ritual practice, the four elements are central to circle casting, and each is assigned a direction, a tool, and a dimension of experience. Because this deck organizes its Minor Arcana explicitly around those four elements (Air for Swords, Fire for Staves, Earth for Coins, Water for Cups), you can use it in elemental workings and not just readings. Drawing a card from a single suit as part of an elemental ritual or meditation, placing the relevant cards on your altar to represent elemental energies, or using individual cards as focal points for visualization during sabbat rites are all genuine ritual uses this deck supports with its design.

How To Use

Before your first reading, take time to move through all 78 cards slowly and get acquainted with the visual world Demoncy has built. Note the seasonal imagery, the Sabbath symbols, the elemental correspondences. The companion booklet will give you the explicit meanings, but your own visual intuition is a valid starting point too.

For a Wheel of the Year spread, one approach is to draw eight cards and assign each to a Sabbath, reading the sequence as a forecast for the full year's turning. You might choose to do this at Samhain, which is the traditional Wiccan new year, or at the winter solstice if that feels more resonant for you.

For everyday readings, the deck works with any spread you already know. The Rich imagery on all 78 cards makes it particularly well suited to intuitive reading, where you trust what you see before you consult the booklet. The metallic highlights tend to draw the eye to specific elements of a card, which can be a useful signal when a particular symbol feels unusually charged in a reading.

You might also consider using this deck seasonally: keeping it as your working deck during a particular season, letting its imagery steep into your daily practice as the wheel turns, and then returning to another deck when you feel called to shift.

However you work with it, approach this deck with the same attentiveness you'd bring to any ritual tool. Cleanse it when it arrives, introduce yourself to it with an intention, and let your practice with it deepen over time.

History & Occult Background

Tarot as we recognize it today emerged in 15th-century northern Italy, where card games known as tarocchi were played by the aristocracy. The decks included a standard suit structure plus a set of illustrated trump cards, which are the ancestors of today's Major Arcana. The Tarot de Marseille, which Demoncy cites as one of her structural inspirations, became the dominant visual tradition across France and much of Europe from the 17th century onward and remains a major reference for card readers and deck creators today.

The explicit connection between tarot and esoteric spiritual systems developed more fully in the late 18th and 19th centuries, when occultists including Antoine Court de Gébelin, Etteilla, and later Eliphas Lévi began writing about the cards in relation to Kabbalistic, astrological, and Hermetic frameworks. The Rider-Waite-Smith deck of 1909, which Demoncy also names as an influence, was the first major deck to fully illustrate all 78 cards scenically and to build a coherent esoteric system into the imagery. It remains the most influential tarot deck in the world.

The Wheel of the Year as a formalized eight-festival cycle was codified within Wicca largely by Gerald Gardner and Doreen Valiente in the mid-20th century, drawing on existing seasonal folk customs, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon calendar observances, and the emerging Pagan revival. Demoncy's choice to structure her tarot entirely around this framework is a genuine act of synthesis: bringing together the centuries-old language of tarot with the living ritual calendar of contemporary witchcraft in a way that serves both fluently.

Pairs Well With

1. Sacred Circle Celtic Pagan Journey Tarot by Franklin & Mason — For practitioners drawn to Celtic and Pagan imagery, this deck makes a natural companion to the Sorceress. Reading the two in tandem, one for the question and one for deeper context, can open up a richer dialogue with the cards and with the seasonal tradition both decks honor.
2. Hedgewitch Botanical Oracle by Siolo Thompson — The plant-based imagery of this botanical oracle works beautifully alongside the Sorceress's seasonal framework. Use the oracle for elemental or plant ally guidance and the tarot for broader narrative context, or draw from both in a single spread for a layered, nature-rooted reading.
3. Malachite Pendulum — After a tarot reading raises a question that needs a direct yes or no, a pendulum is the natural next step. Malachite's associations with heart energy, transformation, and clarity make it a fitting companion for readings done with this particular deck.
4. Tiger Eye Pendulum — Tiger Eye is a stone of focus, discernment, and grounded psychic work, qualities that support intuitive tarot reading directly. Keeping it on your reading cloth or holding it before a session can help you settle into a clearer receptive state.
5. Llewellyn's 2026 Witches' Calendar — Since the Sorceress is built entirely around the Wheel of the Year, having a Sabbath and moon-phase calendar alongside it is genuinely practical. You can plan seasonal readings, track the correspondences between what the cards are saying and where you are in the cycle, and let the two tools inform each other across the year.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this deck suitable for beginners? Yes, with some caveats. The imagery is fully illustrated on all 78 cards, which supports intuitive reading from the start, and the 128-page booklet provides clear guidance. The deck's Wiccan and Wheel of the Year framework is most meaningful to practitioners already familiar with that tradition. Complete newcomers to both tarot and Wicca may find it easier to start with a more general introductory deck, though there is no rule against starting here.

Is this a Marseille-style deck or a Rider-Waite-Smith style deck? It is influenced by both. Demoncy names the Tarot de Marseille as one structural reference and the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition as another, particularly for its approach to fully illustrated minor cards. The result is its own visual system: not a strict reproduction of either tradition, but clearly in dialogue with both.

Does the deck come with a guidebook? Yes. The set includes a 128-page companion booklet with card meanings, sample reading spreads, and an explanation of the deck's symbolic framework tied to the Wheel of the Year and the Wiccan seasonal system.

Do I need to practice Wicca to use this deck? No. The deck is deeply informed by Wiccan symbolism and the Wheel of the Year, and practitioners in that tradition will find it especially resonant. But anyone drawn to seasonal, nature-based, or elemental imagery can use it meaningfully. The cards work for anyone willing to engage with their visual language.

How are the Minor Arcana organized? The four suits correspond to the four elements: Swords to Air, Staves to Fire, Coins to Earth, and Cups to Water. This is consistent with the broader Western esoteric tarot tradition, though the specific imagery of each card is Demoncy's own and draws on seasonal and Sabbath symbolism throughout.

What language is the guidebook in? The edition sold here is in English. The deck was originally created in French by a French author and artist, and the English edition is a translation by Rockpool Publishing.

What does "gilt edges" mean for the cards? The edges of the cards are finished with a gold gilt coating, which gives them a polished, book-like appearance and helps protect the card edges from wear. It also makes the deck visually striking when the box is opened or when the cards are held fanned out.