Boadicea’s Tarot of Earthly Delights, by Caroline Kenner with illustrations by Paula Millet
REDFeather, 9780764369087, 216 pages, 80 cards, June 2025
Boadicea’s Tarot of Earthly Delights is a beautiful, vivid celebration of both the mystical and the material, seamlessly weaving together the pleasures of the physical world and the wisdom of spirit. In a crowded field of modern tarot decks—each vying to reinterpret the archetypes and traditions of the cards—Caroline Kenner and illustrator Paula Millet have created a deck of stunning images and poetic wisdom.
Caroline Kenner is a priestess, a tarot expert, a shamanic healer, and a witch. She has read tarot cards for five decades and has studied and honored Boadicea “as a Sacred Ancestress for more than 50 years.”1 Kenner is co-founder of the Fool’s Dog tarot app company, and this is her first book.
Paula Millet has enjoyed a lifelong study of art and science and loves this opportunity to create a deck inspired by her experiences. She is an artist, graphic designer and deck creator and has also worked in several museums in the US, including the Smithsonian. Millet has contributed to the creation of three other tarot decks.
The first thing I noticed about this deck is the use of vibrant colors and beautiful artwork. In her unique style, Millet has combined hundreds of classical art pieces in very unique ways. For example, the Knight of Fungi (Pentacles) features a knight wearing a snail helmet, brandishing a mushroom, riding atop a donkey. The collage designs that Millet creates are brilliantly stitched together to appear as one piece of art. The visuals are impressive and dazzling.
“Technically, I work in Adobe Photoshop, sampling, manipulating, and blending select bits from at least 5 or 6 or up to more than a dozen images to create each digital illustration.”2
The Major Arcana cards follow traditional names and Rider-Waite-Smith symbolism, although the duo created two extra cards: Boadicea the Queen and Perspicacious Platypus.
At this point, I’d like to share a little information about Boadicea from the guidebook:
“Boadicea was a queen of the Iceni, a tribe that occupied the territory of present-day Norfolk and Suffolk, during the Roman occupation of England in the 1st century of the common era. After her husband died, Boadicea and her daughters expected to inherit his throne under Roman law. Instead, her sovereignty was ignored.”3
She led an army of her people against the Romans, not once but three times. Although the Romans finally defeated her, Boadicea and her army killed almost 80,000 Romans. This deck is a testament to her “wisdom, assertiveness and courage.”4
In addition to the two extra cards, Millet and Kenner also renamed each of the Minor Arcana suits as follows:
• Cups – Tentacles
• Wands – Combustion
• Swords – Aether
• Pentacles – Fungi
The cards with tentacles amused me and the mini art collages with fungi tickled me even more. The way Millet combines tentacles with people and artifacts is delightful! Figures of varying ages, body types, and backgrounds populate the cards, reflecting a vision of humanity that is as diverse as the flora and fauna that surround them. (For any art lover who is interested in the source of Millet’s artwork, she includes a comprehensive appendix with all the information listed.)
In the guidebook, Kenner really shines, sharing a description of each card, a brief interpretation, and upright and reversed meanings and symbols. She includes a bit about the history of tarot, divination, and reading cards. Kenner also presents twelve spreads, as well as several pages on reading tarot. I found her meanings like what I’ve come to know as traditional RWS and appreciated how Kenner and Millet collaborated to create the poetic verse and artistic renderings for each card. I also resonated with this note about reading with only Major Arcana cards:
“Majors only readings can sharpen our focus on life’s most essential issues.”5
The cards are printed with a velvety, matte finish, edged in gold and further adorned with a colored border that matches each Minor Arcana suit or crimson for the Major Arcana. The cards are a bit oversized and were a little hard to shuffle with my small hands. However, the size allows the artwork to really shine. The cards are housed in a beautiful box that is decorated on the interior as if it held the finest map in the world. A deep well with a scarlet ribbon holds the cards, with ample room for the large guidebook. The box closes with a magnetic flap.
I took the cards to my Friday “Coffee & Cards” group, and my friends loved the deck! Here is a sample of comments:
JS drew the 2 of Aether “I can’t believe this card is telling me it’s time to make up my mind.”
She went on to say that she was battling with herself over a complex question and now knew that it was long past time to choose and move on.
LL drew the Perspicacious Platypus card and, after we all laughed at the absurdity of this card, she drew a breath, read the guidance and shared this:
“This very strange card has shown me a new way to look at my life. It’s time for me to look at what I want to embrace and what I want to leave behind. I can’t ask others to help me with this, because it’s my own decision to make.”
This deck would be appreciated by any level of tarot reader, although someone with a little knowledge of RWS would probably enjoy working with the deck more than a novice. Those looking for a deck to support healing, self-acceptance, and the exploration of personal pleasure will find much to love. Through its rich artwork, innovative symbolism and beautiful prose, Boadicea’s Tarot invites us to savor the delights—and the lessons—of our world.
I plan to keep the deck on hand for client readings and refer to the guidebook for additional wisdom for my own personal readings. As Kenner shares at the end of the guidebook:
“Tarot is a wisdom tool designed as a game. Working with Tarot can help you understand yourself, refine your goals, and achieve success and happiness. Tarot deepens compassion for self and others. Tarot enhances life.”6
PJ Spur is an author, intuitive, spiritual mentor, astrologer, and hypnotist. She does tarot & oracle card readings, natal chart readings, grief coaching, and relationship healing. She also has hosted a weekly “Coffee & Cards” event with her Soul Compass Community for the past four years. Her book Navigating Grief with Grace is available on Amazon. Learn more at www.dearpj.com