THE TRIBUTE TAROT

Introduction

an artist-made tarot deck.

"Neither speaks nor conceals,

but gives signs."

Heraclitus

The Tribute Tarot is a full tarot deck created from a deep engagement with the imagery, atmosphere, and archetypal structure of the traditional tarot. It is both a homage and an independent work: a deck shaped by visual art, mythology, psychology, and the long human need to read meaning through images.

Created by artist Sand Laurenson, the deck keeps close faith with the emotional force of the original tarot tradition while bringing each card into a darker, more detailed, and psychologically charged visual world.

The Tribute Tarot is designed for readers, collectors, artists, and anyone drawn to tarot as a mirror of thought, fate, choice, and shadow.

Rooted in the visual and symbolic foundation established by Pamela Colman Smith and Arthur Edward Waite, the deck does not seek to replace the Rider–Waite–Smith tradition, but to return attention to its structure, atmosphere, and psychological depth.

Developed over five years through drawing, painting, material experimentation, layered image construction, and contemporary digital processes, each card emerged through sustained attention and revision rather than automation or imitation.

This is not reinvention, but restitution — a conversation between artists across time, held in image. Explore the deck, request a reading, or begin with the cards themselves.

what it is

The II WANDS The Tribute Tarot Sand Laurenson

The Tribute Tarot is a complete 78-card artist’s tarot deck created in homage to Pamela Colman Smith and the Rider–Waite–Smith tradition. It is a working deck, a visual archive, and a symbolic system designed to be read slowly, where image, pattern, choice, consequence, and shadow each have their place.

THE DECK

an invitation

Whether you are new to tarot or have read for years, these images invite reflection without superstition and meaning without pretence. The deck moves through history, myth, psychology, and tradition, allowing clarity and reason to sit beside mystery without either having to apologise for being there.

THE ARCHITECTURE

where to go next

Explore the structure of the deck and move through the seventy-eight cards: the 22 Major Arcana and the 56 Minor cards of Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles. Each page opens part of the whole, forming a dialogue between image, meaning, time, shadow, and the inner life.

EXPLORE THE CARDS

the tribute

Pamela Colman Smith photographed by Gertrude Kasebier 1909

Pamela Colman Smith’s images gave tarot its enduring visual language. Her figures do not simply illustrate the cards; they embody them, where posture, costume, colour, and setting become part of the meaning itself. This deck stands in dialogue with that achievement, recognising the artist whose vision made modern tarot possible.

honouring pamela

the visual lineage

The Tribute Tarot belongs to a wider visual inheritance shaped by symbolism, myth, religious art, Romanticism and the illustrated imagination. From William Blake and Gustave Doré to medieval and visionary traditions, these influences inform the deck’s atmosphere, theatricality and psychological depth.

artistic influences

the making

The making of this deck unfolded slowly through drawing, revision, study, and construction. Each card passed through long cycles of adjustment, where symbolism, proportion, colour, and structure were refined by hand. This section traces the quiet labour through which a coherent symbolic language gradually took form.

making this deck

reading the cards

Example of page from a Dark Glass online reading from The Tribute TarotDark Glass Reading

The Dark Glass readings are created through reflection, interpretation, and careful attention to the cards. Each question is approached through a structured sequence where symbolism, context, and psychological insight are examined with precision. The reading is not fortune-telling, but a serious encounter with image, pattern, shadow, and response.

dark glass readings