Playing Cards Drawn from Authentic Celtic Myth
This is the official Deck of Celtic myth playing cards branded under the ‘an Coire’ name, the cauldron of authentic Celtic culture and tradition. Including informational cards on the source material for the images, this deck presents two figures from early Irish mythology on each face card and the Celtic Cosmology glyph as the artwork on the cards’ backs.
Connection Across the Ages
Every element of the cards’ iconography is hand-drawn from medieval Irish literature and classical Celtic traditions, from the style of decoration on Earnmbás’ headpiece to the knot work around Lugh. The traditional suits have been transformed into the four magic items of the Tuatha Dé Danann: club, spade, diamond and heart corresponding to the magical spear, sword, stone and cauldron that the Irish faeries brought from the magical cities of the North.
Celtic Cosmology
The Cosmological glyph on the back of each card shows the cauldron of poetic inspiration and sovereignty hearthed on the Newgrange front-stone at the base of a sacred otherworldly tree. In its four spiraled branches, each of which represents a different sacred tree and season — flowering rowan from the Spring, oak under mast for the Summer, ripened hazel for Autumn, and fruiting holly for Winter — are the three primary otherworldly birds significant to Celtic myth: ravens, eagles and swans. Around the cauldron and enfolded by its otherworldly flow are four animals, their otherworldly character indicated by their white coats and red ears and representing the different aspects of society: the wild, prophetic boar, the warrior-hound, the noble, kingly horse, and the bull of abundant wealth.
About the Art
The artwork for the Celtic deck is designed to build a continuity with the past without losing the benefit of our modern sensibilities. Laid out and embellished with designs drawn from the Book of Kells, La Téne artefacts, and other early sources, the Celtic Deck also looks to more modern styles like Art Nouveau during the Celtic Renaissance.
Supported by Genuine Tradition
Each of the depictions of the different figures on the cards is drawn directly from descriptions in stories found in manuscripts like the Leabhar Uí Mhaine and the Book of Ballymote. In this blown-up image of the Queen of Spades we find Tailtiu, mother of Lugh, and Earnmbas as they are described in the famed Leabhar Gabhála hÉreann (the Book of the Invasions of Ireland).