Review: Ukiyo Tarot

Any anime fans here? I have a tarot deck for you, especially if you're a sucker for all things mythology and folklore like I am: Ukiyo Tarot, by Pietro Turino, combines the beauty of old-timey Asian art with the wisdom of the cards to create a unique deck. It is beautiful, it is direct, it is a must for most! Thanks to the publisher for the copy to review!

• Publication Date: September 8, 2025.
• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications.
• Page Count: 128 pages.
• Dimensions: 3 x 0.69 x 5.06 inches.
• Rating: 5/5 stars.

Pietro Turino combines the subtle beauty of 17th century ukiyo culture with modern, anime-style illustrations in this gorgeous tarot deck.

The Japanese term ukiyo (the floating world) came to prominence in the 17th century to describe the pleasure-seeking culture of urban lifestyle in cities like Edo, Kyoto, and Osaka. From it stemmed an art movement that dealt with notions of transience, impermanence, and the ephemeral. This tarot deck recalls these fascinating concepts and combines them with a modern anime-like style to bring the subtle beauty of the floating world into the new millennium.

The cards themselves are nice to the touch, maybe a bit softer than I'd prefer, but I say this goes along with the theme of the floating world. The Ukiyo Tarot is easy to shuffle, work with, and the cards bend nicely. I expect most people to have a nice experience with them because of this, especially because the simplicity of the frame lets the art shine.

Speaking of the art, you guys are not prepared for how gorgeous each card is! Death, 4 of Wands, 7 of Cups, 7 of Swords, Judgement, and 3 of Swords are the most beautiful in my humble opinion, but the whole deck is evocative. As if it were visual poetry, Pietro Turino invites you with each card to focus on it first, inviting introspection and personal associations.

Reading with the Ukiyo Tarot is fairly easy, also, because it follows the Rider–Waite–Smith imagery. Some cards deviate more than the others, like Judgement, but others, like the 3 of Swords, are easily recognizable. This makes the interpretation much easier and allows for faster readings. The little booklet also enlightens you about the changes and folklore surrounding the deck.

All in all, Pietro Turino created a gorgeous piece of art with this deck. Each card is a delight for the eyes, but it is also a portal to a fantasy world that feels foreign and familiar at the same time. While I recommend everyone to be extra careful with the cards, I wasn't disappointed with my experience: simple, pretty, and accurate. It might take some time to get used to some of the changes, but then it's easy to understand them.

Kinky regards, K!

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Review: Before You Do Magic

Another week, another review. This time it is about a book from a big-name author: Before You Do Magic: Train Your Mind to Awaken Occult Skills, by Donald Tyson. With chapters full of exercises, this book is taking me to a new level as a witch, so I cannot recommend it enough. Thanks to the publisher for the copy to review!

• Print Length: 264 pages.
• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications.
• Publication Date: December 8, 2025.
• Genres: Psychic Development, Non-Fiction, Paganism.
• Rating: 5/5 stars.

Countless Books Teach the Mechanics of Magic

This One Develops Your Occult Mental Skills

Before you perform spells and rituals, you need to develop your innate abilities. Otherwise, you'll just find yourself going through the motions without achieving any practical results. Regardless of your experience or traditions, this book’s 120 exercises will help you gain the energetic focus needed to make your magic more effective.

Donald Tyson provides twelve chapters that each cover a different topic and why it is necessary for better magic.

• Occult Sympathies • Controlled Breathing • Meditation • Visualization • Concentration • Dramatization • Incantation • Realization • The Aura • Scrying • Channeling • Astral Projection.

Within each chapter are ten exercises to choose from that will help you strengthen the corresponding topic or skill. Find the exercises that most resonate within you and apply them multiple times to build up your esoteric abilities and open yourself to the realm of magic within your heart and mind.

I was excited about this book because I knew Donald Tyson is a big name in the Pagan/Witchcraft/Occultism world, so it was hard not to have high expectations. However, it met them with ease as soon as I started reading. The style, the organization, the ease with which everything can be performed, and more, were all great.

Each chapter comes with a short introduction to the topic at hand, some recommendations, and always clarifies that you must take things easy and slowly. As someone who didn't do this when he was learning about witchcraft, I can attest that this is a much-needed disclaimer. As you read Before You Do Magic, you discover that even though the exercises are fairly easy most of the time, you need to take your time with one before getting to the other.

The best part is that this is not a collection of random exercises. Instead, each chapter builds on what the previous explored. However, you don't need to make all of them: Donald Tyson is very explicit when he says that some people will have better results with this method, and some will have them with the other. There are many options, 10 options, to be precise, so it's easy to find something that works for you.

Of the 12 chapters, the one about scrying was my favorite. Full of insight, of ideas, working with the elements, and fun facts, it made Before You Do Magic shine. As a preamble to magical working, this book has a lot of useful information and practices that can enhance your Craft, along with the fact that it requires very few materials to work with, mostly your senses, some privacy, and time.

Kinky regards, K!

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My Ethics in Divination

Hello everyone. I've been going back to the basics of much of my practice, so I wanted to share something I have kept with me for some time: my ethics regarding divination. It is written mostly regarding cartomancy, which is my main method, but I keep the same ideas when using other tools.

This obviously doesn't mean to be the ethics you or anyone else should be following, but the ones I do because they make sense to me. If they resonate with you, great, but the idea is to ensure we all have a standard that ensures our self-respect, the respect for our practice, and the people who ask for help.

• Just because you can, doesn't mean you must: This is paramount for me. Being able to see something beyond what my eyes can see doesn't give me the right to see it. Do I have the right to know this? I ask myself.
• Don't read for people who are not there: When someone asks me about a reading about someone else, I politely decline. Instead, I offer "how about how you can help this person better, or understand them better?" If someone is not in there, I will not read about them to respect their privacy.
• Read for free for family and friends: I am lucky enough to have a lot of people who love me and that I love back, so I don't see why they should pay anything after years of love, kindness, and support.
• Offer free readings (sparingly): Even though I have done business and charged for readings, there is always someone who needs it but cannot pay for it. When I see someone like this, I make an exception because I know how it feels when you need help but don't have the resources. I still do, honestly.
• Call for spiritual help as needed: Although I have my guardians and guides, I don't call them all the time for clarity. I take responsibility to try first, knowing they will come if I need them. For protection and wisdom, yes, anytime, but if I can't understand something, I make an effort first before asking for help.
• Don't read for people who are afraid or don't believe: My sessions are aimed at helping people. If they are not peaceful, they are too scared of it to even try it, then I politely decline out of respect to them and their comfort. If they do not believe in it, to the point of saying, "Sure, let's go, but I don't care about this," then I decline as well out of respect to myself and my practice. Some nerve and some skepticism at first is good, healthy, even, but that's it.
• Don't make readings about love for myself: Similar to the first and second, I don't look into what's happening in my relationships unless they are there with me. I will and do read about how I feel, how to heal, how to best support our love, and so on, but not about "do they love me?" because I believe real love is based on honest, open communication, so this feels like going behind someone else's back.

There have been times when I had to make exceptions to each and every guideline, different case-by-case situations that made me more flexible, but that's what guidelines are for. They give me a structure, keep me grounded most of the time, but know I can and will do otherwise if needed.

Kinky regards, K!

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