I am always on a lookout to spotlight projects that not only expand what tarot can be, but actively challenge how we use it. The Axiological Tarot, created by artist and thinker Silas Plum, is one such project. Rooted in the philosophy of axiology (the study of values, I’ve just learned), this striking Kickstarter campaign asks not just what you believe, but what your behavior reveals about those beliefs. With a raw, layered art style and deep philosophical underpinnings, this deck isn’t here to comfort. It’s here to interrogate.
“Some cards in this deck deviate entirely from their initial meaning because the symbolic weight or intent demanded it,” he says. “It is, for lack of a better term, heretical.”
Despite its intellectual roots, The Axiological Tarot remains emotionally resonant. Each card becomes a litmus test for the reader’s internal hierarchy of meaning. “Every card asks: What is meaningful to you? What is valuable to you? Is that value inherited, taught, earned, questioned?”
Silas’s guiding inspiration comes from many sources, his wife’s early encouragement, recent philosophical inquiries into Wittgenstein and Scheler, and a long-standing fascination with how language and imagery shape human action. The result is a deck that’s visually complex and deliberately provocative, a canvas of collaged symbology and textured surrealism. Think: religious iconography meets forgotten blueprints, anatomical diagrams, and detritus of the past repurposed with purpose.
“I value truth and interest over pure beauty,” he notes. “I like old advertising. I like diagrams from things that never got made. I like projects abandoned 100 years ago and waiting to be rediscovered.”
Silas doesn’t consider himself a lifelong tarot practitioner, but rather someone who has always worked at the intersection of reflection and rupture, and this project found him at that precise point. “Tarot is a natural convergence of image, philosophy, narrative interpretation, and human interaction,” he says. “It fits.”
Browsing Silas’ website, I was immediately reminded of Dave McKean’s iconic Sandman covers, textured, surreal, and steeped in layered symbolism.
“The fact that you would compare me to Dave McKean is overwhelming and kind. The artistic style is hard to pin down. It’s inherently beholden to the symbology of RWS. But because it’s pulling from art that is made of collage with an eye toward textured surrealism, there is a layered symbology and relatively confrontational vibe linked to the visual aesthetic. I chose this because it seemed appropriate. To say anything else would be to manufacture a reason.”
I asked Silas about his Kickstarter campaign experience and he recounts a thoughtful conversation with a backer concerned about machine-assisted art. While they didn’t necessarily agree, the mutual respect in the exchange stood out. “We simply shared our points of view and concluded in a peaceful and productive place,” he says. “This person also ended up backing the project, which I found a bit confusing but extremely gratifying. If you happen to be reading this, thank you.”
Still, Silas is clear-eyed about the mechanics of crowdfunding. “Kickstarter is the most gentle marriage of commerce and art I’ve come across,” he reflects. “It teaches you quickly whether people resonate with your vision or if they’re looking for something more familiar. Creativity is one thing. Logistics are another.”
As someone who’s long examined values through a philosophical lens, Silas has no plans to stop at one deck. Two more projects are already underway: The Polychromic Tarot, which draws from an older illustration series titled The Polychronic Zoo, and The Forbidden Tarot of Sinners and Vice, a system that entirely replaces the traditional major and minor arcana with a new taxonomy of moral confrontations.
If The Axiological Tarot has one core function, it’s this “to uncover and explore the values that you live by, whether you admit to them or not,” Silas adds.
For those curious to confront their inner frameworks—and perhaps unearth the contradictions within, The Axiological Tarot offers not just a reading, but a reckoning.
Support the project on Kickstarter, or learn more about Silas’s work at silasplum.com.
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