I encountered this deck about a year ago. Though it wasn't until now that I really had a chance to thumb through the deck and look
at the cards, perhaps because Halloween is approaching us.

Created by Kipling West, the artistry of the cards are somewhat very mild in regards to the pictures in my opinion. The colors are
very appropriate for the Holiday itself, definitely Halloween colors. How spooky and exciting.

This deck does differ in suits of the Minor Arcana. They are as follows:

Pumpkins represent the Pentacles.
Bats represent the Swords.
Ghosts represent the Cups.
Imps represent the Wands.

The backs of the cards have an orange and black border with skulls, bats, spiders, a few fish, an eye and two black cats.

When I was looking through these cards, my nephew came in and joined me. As I would put a card down, he would scoop up the pile and look at the cards. He would stare for a few seconds before he would say anything. As if he were trying to see what he could find in the cards.

As to my surprise, he did indeed relate to some of the cards in this deck. The Emperor to him was the "Hulk", the Devil was "Spiderman". A black cat shows up on every card and he related it to our black cat named Psychic. He also related the stars in some of the cards as the planet Mars- as I took him out to see the planet during the Mars Mania craze.

There are two cards in the Halloween deck that I would like to talk about in comparison to the traditional Rider-Waite deck. They are Ace of Pumpkins (pentacles) and The Chariot. I chose these two cards to compare because I absolutely enjoy the images on these cards.

ACE OF PUMPKINS/ ACE OF PENTACLES:

The Ace of Pumpkins offers the same concept of the hand extending from the clouds but in the Halloween tarot the hand is holding a pumpkin full of treats. In the Rider-Waite deck you can see a yellow pentacle. We know that this card offers good things and new beginnings but it doesn't
show much more than that in hand itself enabling the reader to get in touch with their intuition for the possible answer. Also in the Rider-Waite deck, the Ace of Pentacles offers a trellis doorway of greenery with the view of a pointed mountain in the background. Though, the doorway is small but there may be wide opened possibilities beyond the trellis.

In the Halloween deck, the Ace of Pumpkins offers a black background with nine stars on it. This may offer on a larger spectrum that there may be endless possibilities for new beginnings, and recognition.

THE CHARIOT (HEARSE) / THE CHARIOT:

The card of The Chariot in the Rider-Waite deck sometimes means to me ambulatory service. Though the figure in this card is not holding onto a steering wheel to guide himself. The Chariot is a card of movement. There are no wheels on this card or a steering wheel. Can this be considered mental movement? It sure can.

In the Halloween Tarot, The Chariot is also known as the Hearse from the little book that comes with the deck. In this card there is a pumpkin head like figure behind the steering wheel with a black cat sitting next to him. The vehicle does resemble a hearse with curtains covering the side windows which has what looks to be an eye peeking through the curtain and shows part of a wheel on the front drivers side. There is a fence along the roadside with deformed pumpkin faces as a decor. When I look into this card I see the driver of the hearse driving through what may be a cemetary.

Can we assume that someone may have passed away? Now they are being driven in a hearse? NO! I don't read any card in any deck with the physical sense of death. I don't know a reader who would.

In comparing these two cards from these two different decks I can visualize through the Rider-Waite deck that a person can be seeking help and trying to move on through a mental state of mind. Through the card in the Halloween deck, I visualize a person seeking and finding the help they may need and driving themselves away from turmoil with strength through spirituality.

In reality we would never see a pumpkin head like person driving around in a hearse unless it's on Halloween playing a practical joke. I read pumpkins as someone having potential. I also associate the color orange with vitality, strength and good energy. Pumpkins can grow to become many different shapes and sizes and there is a great potential to each one. What can become of a pumpkin? One's potential to create the perfect pumpkin carving, baking the pumpkin seeds to taste, making homemade pumpkin pies. So which one can you relate to? The pumpkin head like figure in the drivers seat? Or the eye peeking through the closed curtain?

In the Halloween deck some of the Major Arcana do differ in pictures from that of the name of the card of the traditional pictures found in the Rider-Waite deck.

In the Halloween deck they are as follows:

The Fool image of a clown
The High Priestess image of a vampiress
The Empress image of bride of Frankenstein
The Emperor image of Frankemstein's monster
The Hierophant image of a mummy
The Chariot image of a hearse
The Hermit image of a mad scientist
The Hanged Man image of a scarecrow
Death image of a skeleton
Temperance image of a witch
The Tower image of a haunted house
The Star image of a gargoyle
The Moon image of a werewolf
The Sun image of a two-headed monster

The Halloween Tarot offers a sweet image of every child's dream for the Halloween Holiday-candy stuffed inside the pumpkin! Red licorice vines, lolly-pops, pixie-sticks and some wrapped candy. This can enable the reader to get in tune with the new beginnings of a situation of how sweet it can be allowing your intuition flow freely and naturally.

I like this deck because it's a fun-loving, great entertaining and very appropriate for the Halloween Holiday. I especially like it because knowing that a two year old can relate to some of the cards in this deck for what they know and what their vocabulary is at that age, I know that anyone can relate to it. Most of all anyone can have fun with this deck.

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