The Wildwood Tarot

The forest remembers what we have forgotten. These cards help you remember too.

The Wildwood Tarot is a mystical journey into the heart of a primeval forest — a tarot system rooted not in the Hermetic or RWS tradition, but in the far older landscape of pre-Celtic mythology, shamanic mystery, and the sacred seasonal wheel. Written by Mark Ryan and John Matthews, with powerfully atmospheric painterly illustrations by Will Worthington, this is a deck for those who feel the pull of the land beneath modern life, who sense wisdom in ancient places, who hear something in the turning of the year.

The archetypes here are forest archetypes: the Green Man and the Green Woman, the Archer, the Blasted Oak, the Hooded Man, the Ancestor. The suits follow the seasons. The Major Arcana maps the Wheel of the Year. Every card connects the reader to a long-lost world that is, paradoxically, closer to the bone than anything modern — the ancestral knowing that lives beneath the surface of everyday awareness.

Worthington's illustrations are in a class of their own: deeply painterly, naturalistic, and mythically resonant — in the tradition of the great British illustrators, each image feels simultaneously ancient and immediate. This is a deck that rewards long relationship. It grows with the reader.

The 160-page companion book provides comprehensive guidance on the Wildwood system — how to use the deck as a meditation system, divinatory oracle, and seasonal reference. This is not a quick-read booklet; it is a genuine guide to a complete symbolic world.

What's Included:

• Full Wildwood Tarot card deck with original illustrations by Will Worthington (6 x 8.25 inches)
• 160-page companion guidebook by Mark Ryan and John Matthews
• Boxed gift set | Published by Sterling Ethos / Hachette

Why This Deck:

• Pre-Celtic and shamanic mythology — a complete alternative system rooted in ancient British earth wisdom
• Seasonal Wheel of the Year structure — Major Arcana mapped to sacred seasonal cycles
• Will Worthington's painterly illustrations — among the most atmospheric and beautifully rendered in tarot
• Forest archetypes throughout — Green Man, Archer, Hooded Man, Blasted Oak, Ancestor
• 160-page companion book — a genuine, comprehensive guide to the Wildwood system
• Mark Ryan and John Matthews — respected authors in Celtic mythology and earth-based spirituality

Deck Details:

• Full card deck + 160-page guidebook | Publisher: Sterling Ethos / Hachette Book Group
• Authors: Mark Ryan & John Matthews | Illustrations: Will Worthington
• ISBN: 9781402781063

For practitioners of earth-based spirituality, Celtic and shamanic path walkers, Wheel of the Year observers, nature mystics, and anyone who has ever felt that the oldest wisdom is still alive somewhere in the deep forest, waiting.