Sherwood Oracle | Mark Ryan | John Matthews | Anne Yvonne Gilbert

At first glance it might look a bit weird having a post on a blog about the Wildwood Tarot about The Sherwood Oracle … but it’s not really. Created by Mark Ryan and John Matthews with artwork by Anne Yvonne Gilbert, the Sherwood Oracle is a companion deck to our Wildwood Tarot.

The first question that people ask is – why is the artwork not by Will Worthington? And the simple truth is that Will is enjoying a well-earned retirement now! And Anne Yvonne Gilbert is a superb illustrator and Mark and John were absolutely delighted when she agreed to be the Sherwood Oracle’s artist.

Where might you know Gilbert’s work? Well, if you are a person of a certain age and can remember the iconic picture disk for Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘Relax’, THAT’S her work! She has impeccable credentials – designing stamps for the Royal Mail, over 60 book covers and illustrated a dozen books.

The box cover is so exciting, isn’t it? This beautiful Greenwoman figure festooned with leaves and berries is just lovely.

As with The Wildwood Tarot, the Sherwood Oracle will retell the myths of Sherwood and the cards will explore the universal themes within those myths.

The companion book for the deck is much slimmer than that of the Wildwood, coming in at 72 pages. The deck itself is 36 cards.

Publication date might be May 2024, but the pre-orders are very healthy and already the set is sitting at 166 in the Cartomancy category – not bad for a set that won’t hit the shelves for another couple of months!

But enough talk from me – here’s a few more images to whet your appetite!

Also , I’ll be letting you see it in full when my copy arrives!