Broken Mirror Tarot Mercury Special Edition

Broken Mirror Tarot Mercury Special Edition - RWS tarot seen through a fractured mercury mirror

The premise of this deck is clear and consistent: every card is rendered as if viewed through a broken piece of mercury mirror. Not as a decorative flourish, but as a visual idea that runs through the entire deck.

Mercury mirrors were among the earliest refined mirrors produced in the history of glassmaking, developed during the Renaissance. That historical reference sits in the name Mercury and sets the tone throughout: vintage, fragmented, with a line structure that makes every card read as a mosaic.

What you see on the cards

The imagery follows the Rider-Waite-Smith system, so the familiar arcana structure and symbolism are all present. What changes is the treatment of the surface: lines and patterns divide each card into segments, as though glass has fractured and the shards hold the image together differently.

The deck contains 81 cards in total: 78 standard tarot cards, two alternative versions of The Tower and The Hermit, and a special extra card called Sea of Clouds. Those additional variants offer a little more room when it comes to interpretation.

Material and finish

The cards are printed on 310 gsm Japanese black core cardstock. That weight sits on the heavier side and gives the cards a solid feel in the hand. The finish is an air-cushion matte, which keeps the surface smooth to the touch and allows the cards to shuffle evenly.

The format is 70 x 120 mm, a standard tarot size that stays manageable. The cards come in a tuck box.

The concept behind the deck

The creator uses the broken mirror as a philosophical image: what you perceive outside yourself mirrors what is happening inside, and the other way around. The fracture in the glass marks the blurred line between the two. That idea is not a note added to the cards; it is built into the design itself.

Anyone already working with an RWS deck will recognise the structure immediately. What shifts is the fragmentation of the image, which makes the cards feel familiar and slightly more unsettled than a standard deck.

Specifications

• System: Rider-Waite-Smith
• Number of cards: 81 (78 standard + alternative The Tower + alternative The Hermit + special card Sea of Clouds)
• Dimensions: 70 x 120 mm
• Cardstock: 310 gsm Japanese black core
• Finish: Air-cushion matte
• Edges: Smooth pressed
• Packaging: Tuck box
• Printing: 4-colour process, eco-friendly odourless ink
• Language: English
• EAN: 2914605452035

Questions we often get

Does this deck work if I already know the Rider-Waite-Smith system?
Yes. The card structure and symbolism follow RWS fully. The difference lies in how the surface is treated visually, not in the underlying meanings.

What exactly are the alternative cards?
The deck includes two alternative versions of The Tower and The Hermit, plus a special card called Sea of Clouds. The available information does not describe what distinguishes these variants from the standard versions in terms of content, so you can decide which version to use in a reading.