How to Interview a Tarot or Oracle Deck: Getting to Know The Herbcrafter’s Tarot

Blessings, beautiful souls —

Back in the day, during my reawakening in 2015, I used to do a deck interview with every new deck I got. It was a way for me to understand the energies of the deck, form my energetic relationship with it, and understand what purpose this particular tool would play in my spiritual practice. It’s something I haven’t sat down and done in a while, but yesterday I received a new (well, used!) deck called The Herbcrafter’s Tarot and decided to sit down with it for a deck interview.

Boy, I’m glad I did!

I knew this wouldn’t be a deck that I used in the same way as a regular tarot; I knew it would be so much more than that and would truly amplify my ongoing connection to nature and earth-work. First, it immediately created a link between me and the deck where it felt integral to my journey, my practice, and my shelf of tarot tools. It also made me excited about working with the deck more. Here are the questions I asked and what the deck revealed to me in the process…

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Tell me about yourself and what I need to know about you – For this one, I took a peek at the teacher card – bottom of the pile – and it was Adelita of Air (Oregano), with the deck telling me that they’re a champion for truth and removing shame around womanhood; an embodiment of the Divine Feminine. This deck is feminine in essence and empowers the throat and the sacral (two primary focuses of healing in the last six months).

The deck embodies truth and feminine strength, and welcomes me into that space – a space where creativity is unlocked, and truth is spoken. I am also an air sign (Aquarius), which feels a little like this deck is offering to be a mirror to the parts of myself I am perhaps too shy to reveal.

Why have you come into my life at this point? – Ten of Fire (Comfrey) – The deck tells me that they are the peace that follows overwhelm, which is very fitting. That they are going to help me replenish myself and rest so that my experiences, my crafting, my work can take root. They will help fan the fires of my creativity. When I am depleted, this deck says, come to me. The deck is a place of restoration, where I am invited to carefully stoke the fires within myself rather than allowing them to consume me.

How will we work together? – Four of Earth (Willow) – The hilarious, ever-present card lately, and I never seem to be able to figure it out. Willow is my favourite tree, and this already indicates to me that the deck wants to be a favourite for me, as well. With this card, the deck tells me that they will be the tool for today that creates the medicine for tomorrow.

Showing me the Willow for this bond is a beautiful gift, especially since the Four of Pentacles (which is the Four of Earth) was showing up endlessly in July and I couldn’t quite connect to it. Here, the connection is established through that symbolism alone.

How will you challenge me? – The Empress (Rose) – I have been told that this is the card that shows up in people’s minds’ eye when they connect with my energy. This deck will teach me to be more vulnerable, because vulnerability can be strength. It will force me to heal my heart, because healing my heart heals the world. It will also invite me into play – something I do not make enough time for, so that is certainly a challenge for me.

The Empress doesn’t ask you to prove your worth through output. She asks you to experience yourself as alive – and this is, quite literally, an ongoing challenge for me! The deck is telling me exactly what I am but that my embodiment of it is all wrong – and that needs to change.

What do you think about me? – The Moon (Datura) – The deck feels that, in meeting me, intuitive awakening awaits them. It calls me a “witch,” and a “cunning folk,” which is fitting for my healing and reimagining of my identity, lately. The deck finds me mysterious and curious, and that, “I am the magic that dwells in darkness.” It almost reads like the deck wants to unravel and discover me just as much as I wish to do the same with it.

How will our journey begin with one another? – Three of Air (Echinacea) – Again, heartache is mentioned, and the deck tells me that heartache leads to self-knowledge. Our journey together begins with the revelation that I have begun to see things as they truly are and I must accept where there is loss in that recognition. The deck tells me that healing lies in my ability to learn from devastation and that embracing painful truths leads to resilience.

In a regular tarot deck, the Three of Air (3 of Swords) is a painful card – because, quite frankly, the truth hurts. Slicing through illusion to step into a lived reality hurts. I am being asked to make space for the grief that brings and allow this deck to be a balm to that grief – as it continues to reveal so much more to me.

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There is a clear narrative running through almost every answer: truth → depletion → replenishment → cultivation → vulnerability → intuitive reawakening → painful clarity → healing. The deck introduces itself as a feminine truth-teller, which is absolutely the kind of community I seek in a deck right now. It arrives when I’m depleted, becomes a tool for cultivation, challenges me to open my heart and play, recognises my intuitive and connected nature, and then tells me: your journey with it begins through radical honesty about what has been lost. Considering the theme for my life lately has been healing what has been spiritually lost and uncovering who I am once I set that part of myself free, this is very fitting.

While I already loved the imagery of this deck, which is what kept it on my wishlist for so long, where I watched it from afar (I’ve been watching videos about it on YouTube and then a deck showed up on a resell website for half the cost!), I now love this deck so much more.

I forgot how valuable a deck interview can be and how it can shift and expand the bond between a deck and a reader. This deck already feels a little personal and private, like it’s my tool and my tool only. She speaks to me in a way that seems to whisper, I’m going to be your right-hand woman in your practice, and I will help you uncover, heal, and transform with my Earth truths. It already feels a little like coming back into myself just through this very first reading.

A deck interview helps you establish a shared language with that deck, and I forgot how valuable it truly is. And so, this post is not just about discovering a new tarot deck: it’s about rediscovering a practice that I had almost forgotten. I am returning to me – except anew. I am on a pivotal precipice of my present identity, and I was brought full-circle to discover it. This awoke within me a very important question:

What happens when we return to an old spiritual practice with a completely different version of ourselves?

I knew this deck would be important, but it became the vehicle that allowed me to explore this and I am so grateful. I started going through my old blog posts from 2015 and discovered that I asked the exact same questions to my new decks eleven years ago.

What surprised me wasn’t simply how accurately the cards seemed to reflect where I am now, it was how familiar the practice itself felt. In 2015, I was using deck interviews as a way of discovering who I was becoming. In 2026, I seem to be using the same practice to discover who I am after everything I’ve already become. Looking back at my old readings, I find it fascinating that truth was already such a recurring theme in the language of my decks.

So, why should you interview a tarot or oracle deck? Well, it allows you to:
1. Discover the deck’s personality
2. Develop your own symbolic language
3. Learn what the deck is especially good at
4. Establish a relationship rather than just learn meanings

Not only will I be reintroducing this practice with new decks I invite into my home and life, but I think I might meet some of my old decks again for the first time through a deck interview. Being at a new stage in my life – both material and spiritual – I know the dialogue with my old decks will change, and perhaps it will allow me to solidify their purpose in my life at this particular stage. I might find myself quite surprised at what they have to say to me.

Post Scriptum: It seems that history does have a habit of repeating itself. On August 18th 2016, I posted this image and just this image with the blog post title of Awakening. And on August 19th 2026, following an August 18th situation, I wrote this blog post. I see myself mirrored in my past self; ten years later, a new Awakening arises.

If you wish to support my work further, have a look at all my books, journals, and decks, available here. If you want to work with me as a spiritual healer, check out my services through Seeking Celestial Grace and Awakened Little Souls. And: What if the wisdom you need could be found in the spirit of flowers – in a 78-card oracle deck? Have a look at fleurs célestes – a Flower Essence Oracle & Tarot Deck created by yours truly.

xx C