Dragon Tarot is a bold, visually arresting tarot deck from renowned fantasy artist Peter Pracownik (Ogham Celtic Tarot) working under the direction of tarot author and astrologer Terry Donaldson.

Wyverns, the Hydra, Xiuhcoatl, the Chinese Dragon Kings - it is astonishing how dragons permeate the legends of so many different cultures around the world; clearly dragons talk to some deep-seated and partly obscured aspect of the human soul. It is significant as well that there is not one notion of the Dragon, but many: English dragons (as in Beowolf) tend to be firebreathing cave-dwelling Hermits; European dragons are typically winged, while the powerful Chinese dragons resemble large beclawed snakes.

Pracownik's dragons are huge, anthropomorphic creatures drawn in a hauntingly occultish and grungy style. They inhabit a netherworld of misty forest landscapes, interspersed with more recognisable scenes of human-like dwellings and environments. These beasts share a uniform shape - be-winged and be-whiskered, with forked tales, scaley fronts and spiney backs, but Pracownik has painted them in a wild riot of different colours through the deck.

The deck itself follows the Rider-Waite structure relatively closely - although with some nice touches, such as the Hanging Dragon in place of the more conventional Hanged Man. Also of significance is the way in which Pracownik has layered esoteric symbology into the deck (as he did with the Ogham Celtic Tarot before it): each card overflows with symbols including the signs of the Zodiac, the four magickal elements, hourglasses, Yin Yang and hexagrams.

The Dragon Tarot deck is accompanied with a brief "little white book" but really the appeal of Dragon Tarot - as with all of Pracownik's work - is in opening that gateway into another world and stepping through: into an occluded, naturalistic but esoteric world, one where the dragons of yore reign supreme.