Michel de Nostredame, sixteenth-century French apothecary and seer, was the most famous visionary of them all. In 1994, in the Italian National Library in Rome, a manuscript believed to be by the man himself was discovered along with 80 mysterious paintings drawing heavily on the symbolism of the tarot. John Matthews and Wil Kinghan realized the implications of this work and, after much research, now bring it to fruition.

For the first time, the astounding power of the prophecies is married to the predictive imagery of the Tarot. Fresh translations from the original quatrains add another dimension to the readings making this, without question, the ultimate oracle from the primary prognosticator.

The coolest thing about this deck is the story behind it! In 1994, an undiscovered volume of Nostradamus’ work was found. In it was the drawings for a Tarot deck that Nostradamus had been creating. The authors took those images and created The Lost Tarot of Nostradamus.

Reading with this deck really does make you feel like you are traveling back in time to the 1500’s. The cards have a very old, mysterious feel to them, which makes for a really unique reading experience.

This is certainly NOT a beginners Tarot deck. I have been reading Tarot for years and I had to look up the meanings in the book for some of the cards. This was due to the fact that the imagery, card names and suits differ from the standard Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck and the cards have Roman numerals on them. If you’re unlike me and paid attention in school and know your Roman numerals, you are one step ahead.

The companion book is awesome! It has all the information about how The Lost Tarot of Nostradamus was discovered and created, detailed explanations of each card meaning and three Tarot spreads, as well as some additional information about meditating and reading with the cards.

The card meaning section is essential because without it its hard to know what the hell is going on in half of the cards. Much of the symbolism is very different from your standard Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot deck, so don’t expect to just pop this deck out of the box and begin reading with it. Take your time to get to know this deck.