This deck comes as a set of the deck and a book. The deck is of the normal 78 cards and the book is 118 pages long. This deck is not a Rider-Waite clone. There are many differences in both the Major and Minor cards and, at the face of it, this deck has a whole different basis. Here are some quotes from the book to illustrate this difference:

“The Greenwood Tarot seeks to strip back the archetypes to their basic, pure form and remove the political and sexual attributes that were added in later years.”

“It also attempts to demystify some of the esoteric code by utilising the Wheel of the Year as a basis. This is a nature-based cycle of prehistoric origin and follows the seasons and landmarks of the human spirit as much as the natural flow of Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn.”

“The Greenwood Tarot is a journey - and a hierarchy - and to this end we have, where fitting, made most of the human aspects in the Major Arcana androgynous so as not to deny anyone access to these archetypes.”

The Greenwood is, then, an ancient forest where man would encounter many plants and animals nearly undisturbed by human contact. The Greenwood is presented as an analogy for the world, with all of its beauty, dangers, challenges and opportunities. It is a place where we can go to reconnect with nature and ourselves. The Greenwood Tarot is then a guide to this ancient forested world.

The cards reflect the forest with their many images of animals and plants. Out of the whole deck only 36 cards show humans and of those 11 are of half-human, half-animal creatures, while 40 cards show animals. The cards reflect the ancient times with the use of symbols like spirals, preChristian labyrinths, etc. So the Greenwood Tarot takes from the medićval setting of many decks to a much earlier time.

Another major aspect of this deck is that it is based on what is called the “Wheel of the Year”. That is, the natural, yearly cycles are used to give meaning to the cards, especially the Major Arcana. This is similar to at least a couple of other Tarot decks such as the Blue Moon Tarot. The year is marked by the solstices, equinoxes and the cross-quarter days. Each of the Major Arcana is associated with one of these days. For example the Sun, World Tree, Greenwoman and Greenman are associated with the Summer solstice. There is a chapter is the book which takes one through the year and illustrates the card’s relationship with that time of year. To show some of the differences in the Major Arcana here is a list of the cards:

0. The Fool
I. The Ancestor (The Hierophant)
II. The Star
III. The Archer (The Chariot)
IV. Justice
V. The Lovers
VI. Balance (Temperance)
VII. The Greenman (The Emperor)
VIII. The Greenwoman (The Empress)
IX. The Blasted Oak (The Tower/The Hanged Man)
X. Strength
XI. Reflection (related to The Hanged Man)
XII. The Wheel (Wheel Of Fortune)
XIII. Guardian (The Devil)
XIV. Death
XV. Hermit
XVI. Judgement
XVII. The Seer (The High Priestess)
XVIII. The Moon
XIX. The Shaman (The Magician)
XX. The Sun
XXI. The World Tree (The Universe)

Each suit of the Minor Arcana is associated with a season of the year. The four suits are Stones (Pentacles), Wands, Arrows (Swords) and Cups. It is interesting that all of the court cards are animals. From the online handbook, I see that the Court cards were to have different names from the Page, Knight, Queen and King that are printed on the cards. These new names are Blessing, Wanderer, Holder and Empowerer which are much more in fitting with the rest of the deck.

The book in this set, while giving a decent introduction to the deck, leaves several things without enough explanation. The Minor Arcana in particular is given only a brief overview. There is online documentation about this deck, maintained by Chesca Potter, which provides some additional information. This site also has images of all the cards.