Skip to Content

Akashic Tarot Review – Love and Shadow Work Deck

If you’re looking for a tarot deck that is not at all based on the Rider-Waite system, then the Akashic Tarot deck by Sharon Anne Klingler and Sandra Anne Taylor might be exactly what you’re looking for. I bought this deck after watching a tarot reader on YouTube use it, and I was very interested in the beautiful artwork and different concepts.

After having used this deck for several months, I now feel I’m ready to write a full Akashic Tarot review. In this article, I’ll cover the basic things like card quality, the artwork, diversity of the characters, suits and new structure, and more. Let’s go!

Akashic Tarot review feature image

*This post may contain affiliate links. Read our full disclosure policy, click here.

What is Tarot?

Tarot is a system of divination and energy reading using cards. Tarot first came about in the late 1300s, but the origin is unknown. The original purpose was more for entertainment than for divination.

In 1909, Arthur Waite and Pamela Colman Smith published the Rider-Waite (or sometimes called Waite-Smith) deck on which most tarot decks are based today.

Make sure you check out my top 20 Tarot Decks for beginners. This one is on the list!

What is the Akashic Tarot?

The Akashic Tarot by Sharon Anne Klingler and Sandra Anne Taylor is specifically taylored to the concepts of the Akashic Records, which (as described on the back of the box) “…are great fields of wisdom and power that transcend time and space and are immediately available to all.”

In this post from Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E., the Akashic records are described as the “universe’s super-computer system.”

If you’re not someone who works with the Akashic records or has a lot of experience with this concept, it might seem incredibly esoteric and incomprehensible. But the more you work with the Akashic Records, either through this deck or through other sources, the more it becomes clear to you.

Akashic Tarot opening the box

RELATED TAROT DECK REVIEWS:
The Field Tarot Review (My Favorite Deck!)
The Mermaid Tarot Review (For clairaudients)
Witches Wisdom Tarot Review (For Green Witches)

Sharon Anne Klingler and Sandra Anne Taylor

Front and back of the box

Sharon and Sandra, the writers of this deck, are actually sisters! I found this out during a free 4-day workshop given by Hay House! They are both incredibly interesting, compelling people, and they have so much knowledge and wisdom to share.

Sharon has written many books, while Sandra has created many oracle card decks, including the following:

…and more. All Sandra’s cards have incredible reviews. I highly recommend the Energy Oracle deck, which I’ve included in my post on Best Oracle Cards for Beginners.

Akashic Tarot Cards and Artwork

Back of cards in rainbow arc on marble background

Who did the artwork for the Akashic Tarot, you’re wondering?

Although information on her is difficult to find, Cheri Polk, an award winning published illustrator and graphic designer did the artwork for the Akashic Tarot Deck. She combines her professional art expertise with her “lifelong studies of the healing arts, vibrational medicine, and spirit communication” in her works. (Quotation from the Akashic Tarot guidebook.)

Personally, I wish the artists of these decks got more attention. The only place I’ve ever seen Cheri Polk’s name was in a quick biography in the back of the Guidebook! It’s not even included on the Amazon page for this product!

You can find out more about Cheri on her website here.

Akashic Tarot Cards

Card Quality and Size

Unboxing this tarot deck was lovely. The box itself is shrink-wrapped to ensure product quality. Inside the box, however, was no plastic! The cards were gently wrapped with a piece of paper to hold the deck together. (The deck itself was not shrink wrapped.)

The cards are a very high quality. They are not glossy nor thin, which can make for challenges while shuffling. However, I do think it’s worth it because when cared for properly, the cards will last a long time.

The cards in the Akashic Tarot deck measure 3.5 inches by 5 inches, making them a rather large card. Again, this makes shuffling a little difficult, especially if you have small hands like I do.

Major Arcana Cards

Major arcana : Trump cards sample

The cards of the Major Arcana in this deck go through trials surrounding spiritual and life development, and focus on the path that your soul has taken through all its iterations here on earth. There are deeper and deeper levels of meaning as you travel through the major arcana in this deck.

Scrolls Suit

Scroll suit sample cards

The Scrolls suit is all about the mind, communication, and studies. There are a lot of cards in this deck with reading, writing, and intellectual pursuits.

RELATED POST: Wild Unknown Tarot Review

Roses Suit

Roses suit sample cards

The suit of Roses is all about your emotions. It helps detail aspects of your life regarding your relationships, family, home, community, and inner “environment”.

Keys Suit

Keys suit sample cards

The keys suit covers concepts that relate to more practical applications of your life, such as career, wealth, worth, achievement, and power. The keys given to you unlock various areas of your life in these aspects.

Forces Suit

Forces suit sample cards

The suit of Forces is all about energy. Energy can be both inside you as well as outside in the world around you, and the Forces suit gives you advice around both energies.

Diversity

Honestly, I was a little worried that all the characters would be white due to the blond-haired, blue-eyed Queen of Scrolls on the cover. While most of the characters in the Akashic Tarot are white or white-presenting, there is a decent amount of diversity. There could definitely be more diversity of skin-tones.

This deck is quite balanced between male and female characters as well as between masculine and feminine energies and concepts.

If you’re someone who looks for different ages of characters, you’ll find that there are older men in this deck, but not older women. The women in this deck are young or at least younger than middle-age. (A couple of the Queens look perhaps 30s or 40s.) If that offends you, you may struggle with this deck.

If you’re someone who looks for a diverse body type, you may also struggle with this deck. The people in this deck are thin, able-bodied, and conventionally beautiful. If you look for a deck with a diverse selection of body types, you might also struggle with this deck.

Doing a Reading with the Akashic Tarot

I find this deck to be incredibly deep, offering suggestions and advice that pertain to the most underlying conditions of life. For example, some decks (such as the Psychic Tarot Oracle) seem to give very face-value information and work best in practical matters and seeking out simple answers.

This is NOT one of those decks. This deck cuts straight to the heart of the matter. It is incredibly honest (in a good way) and will not sugar-coat things going on in your life. If there is energy that needs to be attended to in order to remove obstacles or help you manifest what you want, the Akashic Tarot will tell you!

The Guidebook gives you advice and suggestions for what spreads to use, but because I’m a very intuitive person, I tend to do my own thing. (It’s never failed me!)

So feel free to use whatever spread you like the best, or whatever you use most with readings using a Rider-Waite deck. This deck, although different, is similar enough that the structure carries over.

(By the way, this is a great deck to use when doing a New Year Tarot Spread!

Sample Mini Reading for Myself

In order to show this deck at work, I decided to do a little reading for myself using the Akashic Tarot. After clearing the deck, I asked for 1 card what was influencing my next/first quarter in 2023 (January, February, and March), and then for 3 cards detailing what I can expect from this first quarter.

Sample Mini Reading with the Akashic Tarot (Review)

Here were my results:

  • Influence: 5 of Keys, Wishes Fulfilled
  • What to expect: 4 of Forces, Autumn (reversed)
  • What to expect: Major Arcana Card 9, Archangel Michael
  • What to expect: Major Arcana Card 13, the Buddha Prepares (reversed)

(Out of curiosity, I peeked at the bottom of the deck to see what other energies were present. It was the King of Roses, who has frequently come up for me in representation of my husband. So he may also be influencing me a lot this quarter.)

First, my influences are “Wishes Fulfilled.” I believe this has to do with the Personal Word of the Year I’ve chosen for 2023, which is “Abundance.” Last year I chose “Without” and it bit me in the ass. So the Universe is telling me that it heard my wish.

So when we move on to the “what to expect” portion, it’s important to note that this deck does have reversed readings. There are reversed meanings for every card in the guidebook, but the 4 and 5 of Forces are specific to one side or the other.

Autumn means it is a time of harvest. I have been working steadily both on this blog and on writing novels for quite some time, and I believe that this is coming to fruition. Some of the keywords here are: abundance, harvest, completion, and gratitude. This echoes exactly what “Wishes Fulfilled” is telling me.

I also think it’s interesting that I got two major arcana cards, which means that this will be a time in my life for big transformations.

I have been calling on Archangel Michael a lot recently, so his energy is here with me. This card also means to trust your convictions and power.

The last card was “The Buddha Prepares,” reversed. First of all, 13 is a power number for me, so that is useful. In the reversed meaning, the Buddha stands up and is ready to take his next step, having acquired new wisdom from his meditation and patience. The time for action is now.

This continues to echo the rest of the reading with harvest and abundance coming in, but in order to get there, I must step up and do the work!

RELATED POST: 7 Abundance Blocks Preventing You From Accessing Abundance

My Akashic Tarot Review Conclusion

This is HANDS DOWN one of my favorite tarot decks. I love that the system it uses is completely separate from the Rider-Waite tarot or traditional tarot system. It is huge having something in my arsenal of tarot decks that I can bring out when I need non-traditional advice or if I feel that the Rider-Waite system is lacking for a particular topic or situation I need help with.

5/5 stars

Absolutely, 5/5 stars for this deck.

Have you used the Akashic Tarot before?

What are your thoughts on it?

Skip to content