Collage artist Amanda Lee Stilwell of LastCraft Designs and Rosebud Tarot has been reading tarot for over two decades, which is probably long enough to start wondering why the major arcana should have all the fun when an entire generation of musicians spent the 80s dressing as though they had wandered out of an occult manuscript with a synthesizer under one arm. A few years ago, Stilwell began assembling her own artisan deck, filling it with elaborate digital collages drawn from the faces, fashions, poses, and peculiar glamour of New Wave, while borrowing some of the symbolic machinery associated with Pamela Colman Smith’s Rider-Waite illustrations and the Thoth deck.
The resulting New Wave Tarot works because Stilwell clearly knows both sides of the joke. She has done her tarot homework, but she has also paid attention to the people whose records, photographs, haircuts, eyeliner, and stage personas made them such natural candidates for divination in the first place. The suit of Pentacles, or Disks, becomes gold LP records; Swords become microphones; Cups turn into teacups, an affectionate nod to the considerable British presence in the deck; and Wands are represented by eyeliner, which may be one of the few substitutions in tarot history that feels immediately self-explanatory.
Then come the casting choices, where the project begins behaving like the record collection of an especially stylish fortune teller. Siouxsie Sioux takes her rightful place as the High Priestess, while Kate Bush presides over the Moon. Fad Gadget, with almost suspicious perfection, appears as the Fool. Robert Smith assumes the King of Cups and returns alongside Mary Poole as the Lovers, a pairing that hardly requires an explanatory pamphlet. Klaus Nomi and David Bowie command the Chariot; Gary Numan becomes the Magician; Budgie and Siouxsie share the Two of Cups. Dave Gahan, Depeche Mode’s dark prince, gets the Devil, while perhaps the smartest piece of casting in the entire deck gives Genesis P-Orridge the card associated with transformation, rupture, passage, and renewal: Death.
LastCraft began in 2013 as an outlet for Stilwell’s collage work, pop-cultural fixations, and interest in witchcraft. The company first made its name with an assortment of pop-culture candles, then expanded rapidly as enamel pins, patches, and other witchy accessories joined the catalogue. Stilwell has continued developing her tarot work through projects, including the Rosebud Tarot deck with Diana Rose, which uses found and vintage photography within her recognizable collage approach.
The backs of the New Wave Tarot cards carry 80s-inspired geometric designs threaded with roses, giving the deck the look of something that might have fallen out of the sleeve of an obscure 12-inch single bought in 1983 and kept ever since for reasons nobody can adequately explain.
Each card measures just under 3 by 5 inches, comes with rounded corners, and is printed on premium thick card stock. The complete deck ships in a tuck box with a fold-out guide explaining the cards and offering instructions for readers who would like to consult your higher self with this wonderfully strange congregation.
Your order comes shipped in a tuck box that holds the entire deck and a fold-out description of cards and details on how to read the deck.
This order is a preorder. They anticipate shipping out decks by the end of October 2026.
NOTE: This will be the final printing of the New Wave Tarot, which has been out of print for several years and revived due to high demand. The deck is available for pre-sale ONLY here.
They hope to reach 150 orders minimum. Music fans, dabblers in the occult, you know what to do. Let the spirits move you.
Major Arcana cards include:
Gary Numan
Siouxsie Sioux
Nina Hagen
Peter Murphy
Nick Cave
Robert Smith/Mary Poole
Klaus Nomi/David Bowie
Frank Tovey
Andrew Eldritch
Devo
Grace Jones
Ian Curtis
Gen P-Orridge
Morrissey
Dave Gahan
Kate Bush
Marc Almond
Pete Burns
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