The Hierophanies Tarot: a new queer inclusive tarot deck

After a successful Kickstarter campaign in which the deck reached its funding target in just 36 hours, the Hierophanies Tarot Deck, a new queer tarot deck centring LGBTQ+ identities, is now available online and in selected stores. 

“The online campaign opened at 7am and the pledges started pouring in,” queer/ trans illustrator Klaus Piechocki said. “I’d just received some of the worst news a person could get a week before the launch, and after some hesitation it was easier to just let the campaign run its course. So I was in a state of shock, not knowing what I was supposed to be feeling!” 

“Being invited to take my deck to Hatchlands Park to read for members of the public and run a tarot workshop by historian Sasha Coward and the National Trust was a real highlight, despite being in a state of grief. What a gorgeous place to stretch my deck’s legs for the first time!”   

According to Klaus, the queer community and witches are natural allies. Witchcraft and tarot often appeal to marginalised identities because they focus on how individuals and communities can empower themselves, taking heteronormative and patriarchal hierarchies out of the equation. Witchcraft is about authentic self expression and finding ways to make your life magical, through ritual or prayer, and building tools for self protection and prosperity. 

The Hierophanies Tarot is an explicitly queer, inclusive deck that reimagines the white, European, and heterosexual imagery of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck for the modern reader. Containing 81 bright, colourful cards illustrated by queer trans artist and practising witch Klaus Piechocki. The cards contain a diverse cast of people of different ethnicities, body shapes and gender expressions. There are four alternative Lovers cards showing straight, gay, lesbian and polyamorous couples, that can be left in the deck if they resonate, or removed to create a personalised deck. 

Klaus adds: “This deck was born after I became burnt out at my day job during the pandemic. I loved my job but it had taken all my spare time and creativity from me- I’d all but stopped drawing and writing. Exhausted and needing a change, I quit my job, sailed my narrowboat out of London into Wales and opened a nomadic boat shop selling art and crystals.

"And moored near the Welsh town I’d been born in, I began to sketch my first tarot cards. For the next year my partner and I sailed around the UK and I kept illustrating cards until it was clear I was going to draw a full deck! During the illustration process I came to terms with my gender identity and came out as trans just as I drew the Sun card- the divine masculine, reinterpreting it as The Son, a trans man.” 

Online tarot influencer @Lumnious said of the deck: "Soft rebellion, rich symbols and unapologetic beauty."

Fashion influencer @LipstickLori said: “As a bisexual Polyamorous non-binary person, this deck really makes me feel seen, and the accompanying guidebook helps me (as a relative newbie to tarot) to do queer readings without further research.” 

Klaus says: “This deck is for queer readers who want a deck that resonates with their identity. There are many ways to interpret the tarot, and I’ve done my best to adopt a specifically queer approach, for example, not unnecessarily gendering cards and showing how cards such as the Empress can be relevant to non-cis-women.

"It may traditionally indicate a pregnancy, but it could be the birth of a novel. The Four of Wands may mean a new home, but it may not have four walls and a picket fence. Queer people often lead lives that are different from societal norms. We may still marry and have children and choose a traditional home, but our milestones are often different, and deserve celebration. 

"Many queer people find their home in esoteric spaces, so it seems right that more decks and books are created for this audience, especially in these darker times where we need to remember our power, and the strength of our communities when we hold together.”

The Hierophanies Tarot deck is currently stocked in Watkins Books, London, and is part of the Trans Pride Brighton 2025 exhibition, and in the Protest & Pride – Art as Resistance exhibition at The Mill Gallery, Leeds, in August.