Sylph Tarot

Sylph Tarot

The Sylph Tarot is a butterfly-themed deck with beautiful, ethereal images drawn freehand in pencil. The major arcana are complete and available as a limited edition set, though the minor arcana are still being created.




This deck is rare or out of print and isn't easy to find. Search for it on eBay or Amazon.com, or browse our most popular Tarot decks.


Card Images from the Sylph Tarot


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This deck is rare or out of print and isn't easy to find. Search for it on eBay or Amazon.com, or browse our most popular Tarot decks.



Sylph Tarot Review by Dan Pelletier

I love butterflies – the vibrancy of the colors flitting through the air…and The Sylph Tarot brought a promise of butterflies, 22 of them with their Latin names scrawled across the top of each card – but the cards feature abstract gray-scale softened images.

Wait a minute – black and white and butterflies? The art is breathtaking – soft grayscale accented with stark whites and blacks. And beautiful card backs.

Each card is labeled with the card name on the bottom, and the corresponding number in the English/American school (Justice is eleven), numbered and Hebrew lettered on the top along with the Latin Butterfly name. Some cards have been renamed (Fool = The Innocent, Magician = The Mimic, High Priestess = The Pollinator), and some remain with their original names (The Empress, The Emperor, The Hierophant).

I got the feeling that some of the names may allude to that particular butterflies traits – but was confused at the inconsistency. I spent a day looking up butterflies on the net…

Death is the Nymphalis antiopa, known as the Mourning Cloak Butterfly, which makes sense. The Devil is the Aporia crataegi. I found an entry that told me ”It used to be a pest of orchards in southern England - now a fruit grower could get rich on a colony of these butterflies”, however I could find no reason why. The Tower is the araschinia levana, known as the map butterfly. The only entry I could find was that “The Map is unusual in that its two annual broods look very different.” I’m left wondering. The Moon is Luna, and all I could find was that it most likely was the Luna Moth.

The deck does not come with documentation so there is no notation of the artists thought process. And I am left feeling like I’m missing something…something about butterflies, something about the labeling process. Without documentation – the deck is like a joke with no

Or a story

And I miss the colors, the natural beauty of a butterfly resting on my roses.

Wish I knew what the artist…

Here the review trailed off. This conversation followed:
Solandia: "it seemed to end mid-sentence"
Dan said: "exactly...just like the deck"





Complete Details of Sylph Tarot

Creators: Tyran Grillo
Publisher: Adam McLean 2006
Deck Type: Tarot Deck
Cards: 22
Extra Info: The Sylph Deck is being exhibited in New York City at Kinokuniya between July 13th and December 31st, 2009. Kinokuniya is at 1073 Avenue of the Americas (between 40th and 41st St), New York, NY 10018 (phone: 212-869-1700). Store hours are 10:00am - 8:00pm (Mon-Sat) and 11:00am - 7:30pm (Sun).

This deck is rare or out of print and isn't easy to find. Search for it on eBay or Amazon.com, or browse our most popular Tarot decks.




Similar Decks to Sylph Tarot

Theme: Animal
Category: Black and White Tarot Decks





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