Description
This is my deck when I want the cards to slow me down instead of speeding me up.
The Winding is the sixth volume from Three Trees Tarot, created by Stephanie Burrows and illustrated by Adam Oehlers, whose hand-drawn pen-and-ink work carries the atmosphere of old fairy tales and forgotten light. No AI touches this artwork. Every line is made by hand, and it shows in the way the images breathe.
The deck follows a spider who lives in an old wooden shed at the edge of the Heartwood property, the world of Three Trees Tarot’s previous deck. Leaving that known place behind, the spider walks into the forest and eventually toward a village. For a spider, the world is technically dangerous. But this one doesn’t know that. It just walks. That quiet courage is what the whole deck is built on: exploration, finding your way one step at a time, and the particular kind of bravery that comes from not fully understanding the odds.
The Major Arcana follows the spider through the forest, mapping the 22 archetypes of the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition onto a creature moving through shadow, bark, moss, and light. The Minor Arcana arrives when the spider reaches the village, where the four suits explore quiet lanes, doorsteps, market stalls, windowsills, and hidden spaces. No other animals appear. The atmosphere does the heavy lifting instead, and it does it well.
This is not a deck that gives you the answer immediately. Suits don’t always show a literal number of objects. Meanings arrive through imagery, feeling, and the story accumulating across the spread. The creators describe it as an invitation to slower, more intuitive reading, and I agree. It is the deck that asks you to sit with the image before you reach for a definition.
The physical object matters here too. The cards are printed on eco-friendly 400gsm FSC-certified, carbon-balanced paper using vegetable-based inks, and finished with a matte anti-scuff laminate. The backs are reversible. The two-part grey box is made from responsibly sourced materials and designed with recyclability in mind. A small hole in the base lets you push the cards out without wrestling the box. No physical guidebook accompanies the deck by design, keeping the edition as low-impact as possible. Instead, three double-sided companion reference sheets with thoughtfully chosen keywords come with the deck, and a black-and-white PDF guidebook can be found here: .
Each copy of The Winding comes with a uniquely numbered certificate of authenticity.
How to work with The Winding
Pull one card when you want a question, not an answer
Use the companion reference sheets for keywords, then set them aside and look at the image again
Read the spider’s position in each card as a mood or direction, not just a symbol
Let the village cards in the Minor Arcana ground you in the everyday: the doorstep, the lane, the window
Use it for slow morning reads rather than quick yes or no questions
Study it card by card as an illustrated world, not just a tool
I would reach for The Winding for any reading about a journey, a transition, a threshold not yet crossed. For someone standing at the edge of a known place, about to walk into a forest. It pairs quietly with The Fertile Void for liminal season work, two decks that understand the in-between from completely different angles.
The Winding is an extraordinary gift for a tarot reader at any level who wants a deck that rewards patience, who reads slowly and is not apologetic about it, or who simply wants something on their shelf that was made entirely by human hands and means it.
A black-and-white world, fully rendered.
A spider, walking.
A deck for the reader who knows the winding path is usually the right one.
Details
Name: The Winding Tarot Deck by Three Trees Tarot
Artist: Stephanie Burrows (creator), Adam Oehlers (illustrator)
Publisher: Three Trees Tarot, West Yorkshire, England
Cards: 78 tarot cards (22 Major Arcana, 56 Minor Arcana), 7 first-edition bonus cards, 3 double-sided companion reference sheets, 2 blank protective cards
Card size: 70 x 120mm, approximately 2.75 x 4.73 inches
Card backs: Reversible
Card stock: 400gsm FSC-certified, carbon-balanced paper, vegetable-based inks, matte anti-scuff laminate
Box: Two-part grey lid box, responsibly sourced, designed for recyclability
Guidebook: No physical guidebook. PDF guidebook sent automatically on purchase
Certificate: Uniquely numbered certificate of authenticity included
Edition: First printing, bonus cards exclusive to this edition
Artwork: Entirely hand-drawn, no AI
Use: Slow reading, intuitive reading, narrative tarot, transition work, liminal seasons, daily practice
With love and a spider’s nerve,
