Visionary Woman Tarot - oil-painted tarot with a direct, personal guidebook
Kristine Gorman has read tarot professionally for decades, including live on her own FM radio show where callers brought real questions and expected real answers. That experience shapes this deck in ways you can feel when you hold it: direct, emotionally grounded, and built for actual use.
The 78 cards are reproductions of her original oil paintings. Gorman works within the classic Rider-Waite-Smith structure, filling it with her own imagery and a consistent colour palette across each suit.
What you see on the cards
The figures hold eye contact. Painted in oil, they carry an emotional weight and expressiveness that suits the medium. The minor arcana follows a deliberate colour scheme: warm earthy browns for pentacles, vivid red and gold for wands, deep blues and greens for cups, and clear silver tones for swords.
Several major arcana cards carry intentional departures from standard imagery. The Devil appears as the King of Doubt, placing the source of obstruction firmly inside the self rather than outside it. The Hanged Man is shown as a wooden artist's lay figure, a reference to Gorman's own practice as a painter. The Judgement card features an antique record player, used as a symbol of inner calling.
The most discussed card in the deck is The World, which shows a painted portrait of Rachel Pollack, tarot author, pioneer, and Gorman's mentor. That same painting appeared on the cover of The Cartomancer magazine.
The guidebook
The 160-page full-colour guidebook opens with a foreword by tarot author Benebell Wen. Gorman writes from practice, not from theory. The interpretations are direct and aimed at practical, real-life situations rather than abstract symbolic analysis.
This is not an introduction to the tarot system. It is an account of how Gorman herself approaches the cards, shaped by years of reading for real people with real concerns.
Renaming The Devil as the King of Doubt is not a cosmetic change. It is a position: that what blocks us comes from within. That idea runs through the whole guidebook.
About Kristine Gorman
Gorman lives in Lambertville, New Jersey, and works as a painter, writer, and professional tarot reader. Her artwork has appeared in galleries across the United States and in private collections worldwide. She has presented at major events including BATS (Bay Area Tarot Symposium), NWTS (Northwest Tarot Symposium), and StaarCon.
Her radio show ran for more than eight years and is available on Apple Podcasts as 'The Visionary Woman Tarot Radio Show'. She has treated the show and this deck as two expressions of the same work: reading for people who want straightforward answers.
Specifications
- Number of cards: 78
- Guidebook: 160 pages, full colour, with foreword by Benebell Wen
- Language: English
- System: Rider-Waite-Smith
- ISBN: 9781578638697
- Publisher: Weiser Books
- Publication date: August 2025
- Weight: 649 g
- Dimensions: 142 x 49 x 195 mm
- Creator (cards and text): Kristine Gorman
Questions we often get
Does this work well if you already know the Rider-Waite-Smith well?
Yes. Gorman builds on that structure but makes visible departures across several major arcana cards. Anyone familiar with classic RWS imagery will immediately notice what she changed and why.
What language are the cards and guidebook in?
Everything is in English. Card titles appear in English on the cards, and the guidebook is fully in English.
