So I’ve been looking for tarot decks that actually show different kinds of people? Not just the same thin white figures in every card. Different body types, skin tones, gender expression stuff.
Pulled a card the other day and realized I’ve never really seen anyone who looks like me in any of my decks. Now I can’t stop noticing it
If anyone has recs, even just one deck that felt different to you, that’s enough for me. 
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I really like this trend and we’ve had plenty of inclusive decks come out. Depending on what you’re looking for, you might find some good decks on this thread:
With this being one of the more common picks:
They’re obviously not entirely safe for work, but there are also the sexual/erotic Tarot decks and a lot of the popular ones there are very inclusive but again - depends on the kind of imagery you are looking for and what kind of readings you watn to do.
There are more diverse decks than ever… but still not enough. Probably the most common is the Light Seer:
Or Modern Goddess:
Most decks from people with real-life experience and experience with the Tarot, not just a corporation printing cards for profit, are usually pretty diverse and inclusive.
So the one that genuinely surprised me was This Might Hurt Tarot by Isabella Rotman. She’s a cartoonist from Maine, and she based a lot of the court cards and some minor arcana on real people in her life - friends, community, people she knows. You get this natural mix of skin tones, body types, gender expression, hairstyles, and none of it feels forced.
But that’s maybe not the kind of inclusive you are thinking of.
Still in the RWS tradition, so it’s readable if you know the classic system, but the medieval stuff is gone. Knights on motorcycles instead of horses, that kind of thing. Each suit has its own color palette. She originally Kickstarted it in 2019 and it sold out through something like six print runs before Liminal 11 picked it up for a proper release.
The other one worth looking at is the Queer Tarot by Ash + Chess (Ashley Molesso and Chess Needham). Every single card was based on real LGBTQ+ people they commissioned specifically for the project, so the representation across races, body sizes, gender identities, abilities… It’s all coming from actual humans. Comes as a whole set with a 168-page guidebook in a magnetic closure box.
Anyway, hope one of these works for you.
YES this matters so much. Glad you brought it up.
The deck I keep coming back to for this conversation is Next World Tarot by Cristy C. Road. Cuban-American punk artist and musician, grew up in Miami, now based in Brooklyn, and she literally drew from her own community - friends, acquaintances, people she actually knows. The New York Times described it as featuring gay couples, people in wheelchairs, women in hijabs, people of different ages and body sizes. Can’t believe it wasn’t the first suggestion.
The King of Cups is in a wheelchair. The Hierophant got replaced with The Messenger, which is a woman at a podium rallying people, and the whole thing is RWS-based but completely reimagined from the ground up. I saw someone on Brown Girl Tarot say they opened the box, saw the King of Cups, and cried because it was the first time they had seen wheelchair representation in any deck. That tells you something.
The cards are BIG too - 4x6 inches, full size. Not for everyone. But the detail in the artwork really benefits from it.
Another one worth looking at is Modern Witch Tarot by Lisa Sterle. It keeps the classic RWS look and symbolism, but the cast is pretty much all on the female spectrum - women, femme, gender-fluid folks, different shapes and ethnicities. Good option if you want something that still feels like a ‘regular’ tarot deck but with better representation.
When clients, mostly people of color, see court cards that look like people in their actual lives, they get more open and relaxed during readings. It changes how the cards work for people, which makes sense if you think about how much of reading is about that initial gut connection to the imagery.
Next World Tarot is the most QTPoC deck I could find and has all different body shapes and sizes too:
Comes with a very inclusive guidebook too.
Honestly, that’s my one and done. True Heart Tarot - Rachel True from The Craft created it and the diversity looks incredible.
Only deck on my radar right now.
Oh, making your own deck is really satisfying. Fair warning though - finding diverse public domain images from the early 20th century is… tricky. Most historical images with POC end up feeling kind of… inappropriate for a tarot context? It’s a whole thing.
For ready-made options, Miss Cleo’s Tarot and Hoodoo Tarot both have great representation. Star Spinner Tarot is another good one.
Years of reading with a deck and then one morning you just… notice. Nobody in it looks like you. Nobody looks like anyone you’ve ever met. It’s jarring once you see it.
My picks:
The Unfolding Path Tarot. It includes people with different abilities alongside a range of skin tones, and the art style is so intimate and close-up. Really beautiful work.
Hip Chick Tarot by Maria Storm - she depicts people with disabilities, different religions, there’s a card with a woman wearing a hijab. She renamed the suits too: wands became ‘create,’ cups became ‘feel,’ swords became ‘think,’ pentacles became ‘earth.’
The Neo Tarot illustrated by Daianna Ruiz is worth looking at. Wide range of gender expression - some figures androgynous, some leaning more feminine or masculine, lots of variety in hairstyles.
Black Queer Tarot. He photographed 78 real subjects and used collage to place them in these wild fantastical landscapes. He was deliberate about representing different body types, skin tones, sexualities, and genders within the Black community, and it feels genuine rather than performative.
The four different Lovers cards in Star Spinner Tarot by Trungles feels like planned, thoughtful queer representation. The deck has mermaids, fairies, and various humanoid figures, and the inclusivity with the Lovers specifically feels intentional.
Most characters read as pretty white-appearing though (even the non-human ones), so it’s more queer-inclusive than racially diverse. Just worth knowing if that distinction matters for what you’re looking for.
Clear quartz and The Star card from the Fifth Spirit Tarot. Such a good pairing.
The amplifying energy of the quartz with that affirming non-binary artwork creates something in a reading that’s hard to explain exactly, but you feel it. Charlie Claire Burgess really understood what those of us existing beyond gender binaries needed when they made this deck.
The Numinous Tarot might be worth exploring for your shadow work. There’s something about pulling cards where the figures actually reflect a wider range of human experience.
Cedar McCloud created it with diversity across ethnicity, body type, gender, and age - it comes through in the art without feeling forced. The colors are pretty vibrant too, gives it a lively feel.
Fyodor Pavlov Tarot, hands down. That monochrome with splashes of bright color looks great, and the diversity in it is great. I brought it to a friend’s birthday party last month and everyone wanted to hold it, wanted to know where I got it. That kind of reaction from non-tarot people says something.
