Tarot Deck Review: The Yukika Tarot
- Jack Greenwood
- Jun 20
- 6 min read
The Yukika Tarot is a deck created and illustrated by Japanese-American artist Stasia Burrington from original ink and watercolour paintings. She also wrote the 100-page accompanying guidebook.
See below for links to find out more about her and her work.
She states:
‘This deck is for the big-hearted. For the depressed and anxious artist, the beginner, and the burnt-out.
For those in the middle, those mixed, those born into and raised in cults.
This deck is meant to be a healing potion. A fat, juicy restorative elixir to fortify your heart and bring you back into a safe, grounded body, in times of apocalypse.
I love you and I believe you.’
It’s up there with the most beautiful decks I have ever seen.
You know the Yukika tarot is a very special deck the moment the box is in your hands. It feels like a gorgeous gift.
The box is a beautiful thing itself with the card back displayed on the top along with foil embellishments. Landscapes adorn the sides along with more holographic foil accents. The words ‘A Magic Machine for the In-between’ are on either side along with a small foil numbered sticker of authenticity, mine is 0902. Inside the lid is an illustration of the sky and in the base, the ground, this is a nice touch.
The cards are edged in a pink and blue holographic gilding. The backs have holographic foil accents which also add a lovely tactile feel to the cards.
The card stock is a beautiful quality, a kind of goldilocks cardstock, not too thick, not too thin, just right. The edging makes them slightly rigid for shuffling, but I imagine will break in with use, they shuffle fine though.
The fronts of the cards have a white border, with quite a large white bottom border for the titles. This isn’t as intrusive as some white bordered decks, having said that, I would love a borderless edition and if I had a back up copy, I’d be trimming the borders off this, even though it would mean sacrificing the lush edging and ending up with quite a small set of cards. They are just lovely as they are though, each card is an incredible work of art that feels like a privilege to hold in your hands. The images dreamy and otherworldly while still managing to feel believable.
The guidebook is small and simple. It has a short history of the deck, a how-to section and three, three card spreads. It comes into its own though with the descriptions. Each card has three keywords and a page or so of text. Although short, these descriptions are poetic and deep and set the scene for the whole deck. It’s a complete joy to spend time going through the cards slowly, savouring them and reading each guidebook entry for the cards. This itself is an immersive experience which bonds you with the cards. It takes you into another world without ever feeling contrived.
While the structure of the deck follows the RWS system, the depictions often stray from the traditional. This to me is a good thing, it comes across authentic and modern and the essence of each card comes through strong like an intuitive transmission.
The deck will appeal to real tarot readers who aren’t preoccupied with traditional symbolism or antiquated tarot imagery. The deck feels timeless but completely relevant, and puts you very much in the moment. That is why I enjoy decks like this, it’s just my opinion but for me, traditional or older leaning imagery in decks, often feels rigid and static, reading feels more like a study rather than a genuine present moment experience. That’s just me though. I like a deck I can instantly connect with that speaks to me on a different level.
There are some name changes is the Major Arcana. Even though, as stated, I’m not a traditionalist, I don’t usually like name changes as it messes with my flow, having to think of a new idea rather than just reading, but for some reason, these ones don’t bother me, I rather enjoy them. This also makes it more of an enjoyable experience going to the guidebook.
The suits are the same except Pentacles/coins are changed to stones.
The courts stick to the traditional Page, Knight, King, Queen. Note the order, the Queens are the top rank, this is how the deck was ordered and how they appear in the book. I like this as the King energy always seemed a little less mature and knowing than the Queen.
There are two extra cards, Wonder and Wild. Wonder has a guidebook entry but for Wild, the entry is left blank for you to interpret how you will.
Laying out the Majors, you instantly drawn into a world which is beautiful, deep, but also a little dangerous. This is not a ‘love and light’ deck, it doesn’t shy away from mirroring life and it’s struggles. It also elevates though and has a wonderful hopeful vibe that shines through the cracks.
The people that inhabit the cards are warm but complicated, unlike some traditional imagery, no card feels static, it’s not hard to imagine a whole world and timeline extending out from the moment or character caught in each depiction.
It’s difficult to pick favourites in the Majors. There are very few cards that aren’t astonishing to me. If I had to pick one card that I don’t quite like as much as the rest, it would be judgement. It was giving me a Peter Pan type of vibe, but once I read the guidebook entry it made perfect sense and I could forgive it.
The Wands are rich, inspirational, powerful and brimming with life. There isn’t a card I don’t love. The whole range of human experience flows through the suit in an entrancing and engaging way. The cards are otherworldly but at the same time, very real. They somehow manage to convey an essence which encapsulates both light and dark, which adds to the depth and authenticity. I will come onto the courts shortly.
Having the cups laid out in front of me is a suitably emotional affair. They are touching, they get inside you. Not many decks manage to live in my experience like this deck does. The cups feel elevating and almost restore your faith in humanity, even with the usual troubling ups and downs along the way. You start to realise this is a deck you want to deepen your relationship with; it’s like a living entity.
The Stones, traditionally Coins or Pentacles, exude earthiness as they should. They kind of make you feel grateful to be alive in this earthly realm, they really bring you to your senses. The reality of living in a physical plain and how we interact with what’s around us really shines throughout the suit.
The Swords are suitably spikey. Dramatic and to the point but without ever feeling forced, they come across, like all the cards, as having the ability to be very readable for day-to-day use but also having extra layers and depth which makes them intriguing and mysterious. Again, I’m hooked into wanting to spend more time than I have with the cards.
The Courts are ‘make or break’ cards for me in a deck. I must get on with these folks, and on top of that, and it may sound rather shallow of me but I have to like the look of them. Some decks which I find beautiful have been left behind because I didn’t like the faces of the courts. It’s a rare bonus if the Courts are convincingly alive and convey their essence, forcing me to feel who they are. The Yukika delivers on all fronts. They are some of the best court cards I’ve ever seen. Some of them are believable as people, others come across as mystical beings or pure energies, either way, they add to the immersive experience of the deck and increase its natural readability. Out of all the cards I often find the traditional courts quite closed, leaving you no choice but to turn to reciting traditional meanings. These courts, however, invite you to know them, whether they come up as a person, an aspect of yourself or an energy to avoid or inspire, they speak to your intuition, which is where a lot of other decks let me down.
As you can probably tell, I’m in love with the Yukika Tarot. Granted, we are still in the honeymoon stage, but I don’t review decks until I’ve spent hours, days, weeks in their company, and I only see this relationship getting better and stronger. Aswell as the artwork, concept and feel of the deck being spot on for my taste, It is incredibly readable. I fear it will take a lot for future decks to live up to this one.
Stasia's instagram https://www.instagram.com/stasiaburrington/
Stasia's website https://www.stasiaburringtonart.com/
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