The Magic Pantry Tarot

COMING TO KICKSTARTER MAY 23, 2024!

A Tarot deck themed around food, for the home cook or anyone who loves to eat! Food is a powerful force in our world, a necessity for life which is also a major basis for culture and community. The Magic Pantry Tarot will combine Cedar’s personal experience as a home cook who loves to eat with their signature brightly hued watercolor paintings and thoughtful, multicultural approach to Tarot symbolism.

This deck focuses largely on single ingredients and is vegan/vegetarian friendly, as well as containing no depictions of alcohol. Cedar hopes to write the guidebook to be friendly to those in recovery from disordered eating and people who may have allergies, intolerances, or medical restrictions, though of course covering every single one is not possible. This deck is fat-positive; there will be no imagery or guidebook language centered around weight or weight-loss dieting, no judgment of food as morally “bad” or “good” as much as is possible. The focus will be instead on the flavors, physical characteristics, and modern/traditional uses of each ingredient.

Perspective

Cedar is a white American from a lower-class background who grew up on the mid-Atlantic coast of the US, without a lot of family influence from one particular European tradition or another. They were raised to eat a lot of fresh and frozen produce and taught basic cookery from a young age, but they also love snacks, desserts, and candy. They have at times struggled with the impacts of low energy due to disability on their ability to cook and have had several periods of food insecurity over their lifetime, eating from food banks and/or with government assistance.

Cedar has more recently struggled with limitations due to IBS, GERD, and autistic sensory sensitivities. They have been vegan or vegetarian for most of their adult life but have resorted back to eating animal products sometimes due to the aforementioned medical limitations. Nonetheless, food and cooking have always been important to them! This is the perspective the deck and guidebook come from; food is such a vast topic that there is no way a single deck could cover all angles of culture and tradition, so Cedar is relying on their own experience for the Magic Pantry Tarot.

Structure

In this deck, which is RWS-based, the original suit names have been retained (Cups, Swords, Wands, Pentacles), but each suit does have its own associations. Specifically: