The Lubanko Tarot is a richly illustrated 78-card tarot deck exploring the surreal, the intense, the queer, and the divine. A high-intensity deck that explores the range of life in a mythical, sensuous, colorful, and unapologetic lens. It is all painted, designed, and written by E. Lubanko.
The deck contains the standard 78 cards and is fully illustrated. That means that all the Major Arcana and the Minor Arcana are full paintings— no pip cards. Every suit is a full journey, lushly illustrated and packed full of metaphor, story, and a full range of elements. The cards show beings of different walks of life, some closer to humans and some far beyond, dipping into the diversity of life on earth and the divine of when we transcend our expected forms.
These paintings have been lovingly and painstakingly perfected as both pieces of art and pieces to be used for reading. They were made to be read at both small and large sizes, with bright colors, strong values, and compositional movement—as well as minding good contrast for those who may be colorblind and wish to read as well.
-A good tarot deck has lots of metaphors to chew on so that each card can be a moment of self-contained meditation. With this in mind, each card was heavily considered for readability, trueness to the intention I had for the card, and how I wished to diverge or converge with common meanings. Though many of these cards will be familiar to those who are experienced readers, some diverge for the sake of the clarity and honesty of the message. For those who are familiar with tarot, there is some similarity to the Rider-Waite method of storytelling, but with some divergences as well.
