Sakki-Sakki Tarot Review
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A note from Aurica
I love how Sakki-Sakki feels as though a sketchbook has opened and begun speaking in symbols. The faces are bright, strange and tender, and even the smallest detail—a tilted eye, a curling line, a sudden patch of red—can become the part of the card that answers first.
When I read with it, I let that first visual tug lead me into the familiar tarot meaning. The Star feels hopeful without becoming sugary; The Moon asks me to stay with what is half-seen; and The Artist turns the whole spread back toward the reader with one quiet question: what are you ready to make from what you now understand?
This is a deck for readers who enjoy intuition with texture and personality. Give its handmade images a little room, and they can help you meet your own creative voice with more courage, curiosity and delight.
THE ORIGINAL EDITION
An artist’s tarot, built as a creative language
The Sakki-Sakki Tarot: For the Artist in Each of Us is Monicka Clio Sakki’s self-published 2004 deck. The original package pairs the deck with a small guidebook and presents the cards as tools for intuition, play and creative discovery.
Collector note: this exact edition is officially out of print. The Amazon link supplied for this review may show marketplace availability, so confirm the seller, condition and edition photographs before ordering.
Sakki-Sakki does not look like a deck that was polished into sameness. Its pictures feel drawn, cut, painted and dreamed into being. Faces stretch, symbols float out of scale, and little visual jokes sit beside serious spiritual questions. That handmade restlessness is the deck’s central strength.
The structure remains familiar: twenty-two trumps and fifty-six suited cards in Rods, Cups, Swords and Coins. But there is one important correction to make before reading further. This is a 79-card deck. The Artist is a real extra face card—not a card back or packaging insert—and trump XX is printed The Angel, not Judgement.
CARD STUDY
The Artist
A dark central field sits behind a patterned curtain-like frame, with a tiny point of blue above it. The image resembles an unfilled stage or canvas: possibility is present, but the work has not yet appeared.
Reading prompt: What wants to exist through you, and what would happen if you stopped waiting for certainty before making the first mark?
A familiar system in an unfamiliar voice
Readers who know Rider–Waite–Smith can enter without learning a new grammar from scratch. The card numbers, suits and court hierarchy remain recognizable. What changes is the emotional temperature. Sakki’s figures feel more like actors in a private myth than illustrations of fixed keywords.
That makes the deck productive for free association. A symbol may land before the textbook meaning does: a spiral, a mask, a pair of eyes, a hand reaching into another visual layer. Rather than correcting that first response, Sakki-Sakki rewards following it.
FOUR-CARD STUDY
A handmade symbolic language
Read together: the sequence moves from personal agency, through relationship and renewed hope, toward a whole that still feels alive rather than sealed shut.
How the deck reads
Sakki-Sakki is strongest when a reading needs invention rather than reassurance. The cards are bright, but they are not simply cheerful. Their humor can expose a habit; their odd proportions can show where life feels distorted; their ornamental details can reveal what the conscious mind has been skipping over.
In a daily draw, begin with three visible facts before naming a meaning: a color, an object and a gesture. Then ask how those details interact. This slows the impulse to force the image into a memorized definition and lets the deck’s own language speak.
CARD STUDY
XX. The Angel
A large red-haired face dominates the upper card while a trumpet and radiating lines send the call downward toward smaller figures and lifted hands. The printed title matters: this is not simply a conventional Judgement card relabeled by a website.
Reading prompt: What message has become too loud to ignore—and can you hear it as an invitation rather than a verdict?
FOUR-CARD STUDY
Four beginnings, four kinds of material
Read together: ask which beginning needs energy, feeling, discernment or practical commitment—and which element is currently missing.
Is Sakki-Sakki good for beginners?
Yes, with one qualification. The familiar structure gives beginners a map, but the artwork does not always narrate a scene as literally as a classic Rider–Waite–Smith deck. A new reader who wants strict keyword confirmation may initially find it slippery. A visually curious beginner will probably experience that openness as freedom.
The most useful approach is to keep a small image journal. Write what you actually see, then compare that response with a standard meaning. Over time, the gap between those two notes becomes your personal reading vocabulary.
CARD STUDY
The Fool
A loosely drawn figure steps forward in bright patterned clothing while carrying a staff; a small pale animal presses close at the feet. The uneven line gives the scene motion before the journey has found a stable shape.
Reading prompt: Where would imperfect enthusiasm carry you farther than one more round of preparation?
Shadow, difficulty and emotional honesty
The deck’s playful style does not erase difficult material. It changes how difficulty enters the conversation. Anxiety, loss and exhaustion appear through exaggerated bodies, stark contrasts and dreamlike staging rather than polished realism. That distance can help a reader approach hard cards without pretending they are harmless.
FOUR-CARD STUDY
From exclusion to reclaimed ground
Read together: isolation asks for emotional steadiness; an ending clears what cannot continue; practiced self-support rebuilds tangible independence.
Who will love this deck?
Sakki-Sakki suits readers who enjoy outsider art, collage-like symbolism, expressive faces and images that keep changing under attention. Artists and journalers may connect especially strongly with its insistence that interpretation is an act of making.
It may be less comfortable for someone who wants photographic realism, perfectly uniform digital rendering or an edition that is easy to replace. The original is collectible and out of print, so condition and completeness matter when evaluating a second-hand copy.
Pros & Cons
What works
- Distinctive handmade art with a strong personal voice.
- Familiar tarot structure supports intuitive experimentation.
- The Artist adds a genuinely useful creative prompt.
- Rich color, symbols and expressive figures reward repeat readings.
What to consider
- The original 2004 edition is out of print.
- Some scenes are more symbolic than narratively explicit.
- The unconventional drawing style will not suit every reader.
- Buyers must distinguish the original from the later successor deck.
Original deck or successor edition?
The deck reviewed here is the original 2004 Sakki-Sakki Tarot. Monicka Clio Sakki later created I AM THE ARTIST Tarot as a reworked successor. They are related, but they are not interchangeable editions. A listing for the newer deck should not be presented as a live purchase route for the original.
The Amazon buttons on this page use the supplied ISBN-matched product destination. Because the original edition is collectible and out of print, check the listing photographs and seller details to make sure the offer is for the 2004 Sakki-Sakki Tarot rather than its later successor.
Final thoughts
Sakki-Sakki’s lasting appeal is not polish but presence. It asks the reader to participate—to notice, associate, question and make something from the encounter. The seventy-ninth card turns that invitation into the deck’s thesis: the reader is not only decoding the image. The reader is also an artist.
See SAKKI-SAKKI TAROT on Amazon
Frequently Asked Questions
How many cards are in the Sakki-Sakki Tarot?
There are 79 face cards: the traditional 78-card tarot structure plus the official extra card, The Artist.
Who created the Sakki-Sakki Tarot?
The deck was created and illustrated by Monicka Clio Sakki. The original English-language edition was self-published in 2004.
Is card XX called Judgement?
No. The printed card title is XX. The Angel. It occupies the conventional Judgement position, but the visible title should be respected in captions, alt text and readings.
Is The Artist a card back?
No. The Artist is a genuine extra face card and the official seventy-ninth card. The card back uses a separate all-over abstract pattern.
Can I still buy the original Sakki-Sakki Tarot?
The creator identifies the 2004 original as out of print. Second-hand copies may appear, but this review does not treat stale marketplace pages as guaranteed availability.
Is I AM THE ARTIST Tarot the same deck?
No. It is a later reworked successor by the same creator. It shares creative lineage with Sakki-Sakki but has different content and packaging.
