THE ODYSSEUS TAROT - ARCANA MUNDI

A man on his journey to find home.

The Odyssey has been part of our collective imagination for thousands of years, but it was Christopher Nolan's recent adaptation that made me look at the story in a completely different way. When I left the cinema a few weeks ago, the movie stayed with me. The tension, the suspense, the atmosphere, and above all the characters continued to occupy my thoughts long after the credits had rolled.

Odysseus, the wandering king desperately trying to find his way home. Telemachus, the dishonored son growing up in the shadow of a father he barely knows.Penelope, stoic, intelligent and enduring, trapped in a palace surrounded by men waiting for her husband to disappear forever. 

And Agamemnon, more myth than man, towering over the story as a symbol of the cold-blooded ambition and rage of war.

The more I thought about these characters, the more I wanted to understand the mythology behind them. I began diving deeper into Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and discovered countless stories, characters and details that never made it into the versions of the myth I had encountered before.

That was when the idea for this deck began to take shape. I wanted to create a Tarot deck based on the world of the Iliad and the Odyssey, a deck that would retell the story of Odysseus' ordeal through through the language of Tarot.

THE ODYSSEE OF THE SOUL

I have always viewed Tarot less as a tool for absolute divination and more as a means of introspection, a way of looking inward through stories, symbols and archetypes. And in that sense, the story of Odysseus felt almost perfectly suited to Tarot. 

He is a man who is dragged into a war he never wanted to fight, summoned by his king Agamemnon and forced to leave his home, his wife and his young family behind.Yet Odysseus possesses an extraordinary talent for surviving the circumstances into which he is thrown. His intelligence, ambition and cunning eventually make him one of the most important figures of the Trojan War, culminating in the deception that brings Troy to its knees.

But victory does not bring him home, instead, his journey becomes even more difficult. His impatience, pride and curiosity repeatedly lead him into disastrous situations. He encounters monsters, witches, temptations, storms and the wrath of the gods. He loses his companions and is repeatedly thrown onto unknown shores, becoming more and more distant from the home he longs to see again. For more than twenty years, Odysseus wanders. And in many ways, this feels remarkably similar to the Fool's Journey through the Major Arcana.

The Fool begins as an innocent adventurer and encounters the Magician, the Empress, the Emperor, the Hierophant, the Lovers, Death, the Devil, the Tower and finally the World, passing through experiences of power, love, suffering, transformation and rebirth.

Odysseus undergoes a similar transformation: He leaves Ithaca as a king and warrior, becomes a legendary hero, loses almost everything, wanders through darkness and temptation, and eventually returns home as a changed man.

The journey is not simply about getting back to Ithaca. It is about finding himself.

MYTHS AS ARCHETYPES

The deeper I went into Homer's epics, the more I began to notice how naturally their stories seemed to fit into the symbolic structure of Tarot: The larger journey of Odysseus mirrors the Major Arcana, while countless smaller episodes from the Iliad and Odyssey lend themselves naturally to the Minor Arcana. 

The Sirens, Circe, Scylla and Charybdis, the descent into Hades, and the final return to Ithaca. These stories are separated from us by thousands of years, yet they continue to feel strangely familiar: I don't believe this is entirely accidental.

Carl Jung's ideas about archetypes have always fascinated me: the possibility that certain fundamental patterns of human experience exist within our collective unconscious and continue to appear across cultures, in mythology, religion, folklore and fairy tales.

Stories change, cultures change, and gods change, but these archetypes keep returning. And the Odyssey fits perfectly into this ancient language of symbols.

THE ODYSSEUS TAROT

The Odysseus Tarot reimagines the timeless myths of Odysseus through haunting visuals inspired by dark fantasy, mythology and surrealistic cinema.

The 78-card deck draws from both Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

Rather than focusing exclusively on Odysseus himself, the deck explores the entire mythological world surrounding the Trojan War and his journey home: from the rage and grief of Achilles to the quiet endurance of Penelope, from the battlefield of Troy to the Sirens' song and the descent into Hades.

Every card is fully illustrated and inspired by the characters, stories and symbolism of Homer's epics.

The Major Arcana follows the greater journey of transformation, while the Minor Arcana explores the countless individual moments of war, fate, love, sacrifice, conflict and adventure found throughout the myths.

Each image was developed with the intention of creating a cohesive visual narrative rather than simply depicting isolated scenes.

The result is a Tarot deck that combines the traditional structure of Tarot with the dark and timeless mythology of ancient Greece.

Printed on premium card stock and created for both Tarot readers and collectors, The Odysseus Tarot invites you to step into a world of heroes, gods, monsters and sacrifice and perhaps recognize something of yourself along the way.

ABOUT THE ART

I wanted to create something that feels less like a traditional mythology deck and more like a descent into a dream. A mythical, eerie and dark-fantasy world.

A world of deep shadows, ancient ruins, violent seas, forgotten gods and beautiful but unsettling landscapes. The artwork is designed to feel cinematic and emotionally charged, combining photorealistic imagery with surrealistic elements, gritty film-like textures, ritualistic symbolism and the strange atmosphere of ancient myth.

I did not want to create a bright, idealized interpretation of classical Greece.

I wanted the world of Homer to feel dangerous, violently and hauntingly beautiful even. Every card should leave room for interpretation while still evoking a distinct emotion when you draw it. The stories behind the cards can serve as cautionary tales, sources of inspiration, or simply invitations to look deeper into your own journey.

Because in one way or another, we are all wanderers; we leave home, we lose our way, encounter people, temptations, failures and victories.

And eventually, we try to find our way back: not necessarily to the place we started, but to an understanding of who we have become.

THE STORYTELLING EDITION

Alongside the standard edition, we are creating a special Storytelling Edition.

In this version, fragments of the corresponding myth are incorporated directly into the artwork through elegant typography. Each card therefore becomes more than an image.

It becomes a fragment of the epic itself. The Storytelling Edition can be used as a Tarot deck, but it can also be experienced as a visual retelling of the Iliad and Odyssey, allowing you to rediscover the memorable scenes, characters and stories of Homer's world one card at a time. 

The Storytellign Edition will be made available once the corresponding stretch goal is hit.

ABOUT ARCANA MUNDI

We are a small independent creative team based in Berlin, dedicated to creating Tarot decks for collectors, readers and lovers of mythology and art.

Our vision is to explore Tarot as a language of symbolism, reflection and spiritual guidance by connecting it with the mythology and cultures of different civilizations around the world.

Over the years, our community has successfully supported:

Tarot Magic Realism
Inspired by the Latin American tradition of magical realism.

The Norns Tarot
A journey into Norse mythology and the world of the Norns.

The Mayan Tarot
Inspired by the mythology, art and symbolism of the Maya.

With The Odysseus Tarot, we wanted to create our most cinematic and emotionally immersive deck yet — combining the visual language of dark fantasy cinema with the surreal and timeless qualities of ancient myth.