Entering November’s Sacred Space With The Hush Tarot

By Beth Allen
November whisks us away from the vivid oranges and reds of October and envelops us in muted tones of grays and browns. 
Plump gourds and juicy apples are replaced with dried leaves and a chilling wind that blows in from the north.
November is a difficult month for many. The festivities of the harvests have ended and we must squarely face the shorter days and colder nights ahead, leaving behind the intensity of Samhain. 
But November is beautiful in her stark truth. The leaves swirl at our feet and disperse into the sky, the bare branches sway in the wind — Nature has begun her elegant dance with death.
Matching a tarot deck to November‘s shifting feelings and moods can be tricky but fun.
The Hush Tarot by American artist Jeremy Hush captures Nature’s deepening silence, allowing us to work with self-discovery in a way that honors November’s energy.
Hush’s illustrations are influenced by 19th-century botanical etchings and the memento mori of the Victorian world. The deck recreates Nature as a study of decay, normalizing the natural cycle of life and death as the Victorians did in their spiritual and cultural practices.
Life in Victorian times wasn’t all ballgowns, feathered fans, and carriages. For the vast majority this was a harsh and dark time, marked by poverty, the prevalence of disease, a high infant mortality rate, and numerous wars and colonial conflicts. People turned to spirituality to help them accept and understand their world and loss.
With scientific discoveries in natural history, the Victorians viewed Nature through a romanticized lens, but also as a very real reflection of the unbiased brutality, and often, brevity of life. There was a return to the idea of memento mori, Latin for “remember you must die,” as a way to cope.
This philosophy originated in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire, and as grim as it sounds, in reality it was a call to live life fully, to be present for every moment, and not to become ensnared in materialism because death is inevitable — November’s message as well.
The deck fundamentally follows the RWS system but Hush’s art forges its own path and is no clone. 
In his homage to the Victorian style of art and approach to Nature, Hush emphasizes Nature’s power over humans. In the guidebook Hush explains his artistic choices, writing that humans are on the same scale as even the smallest animals and that animals hold an essential guiding role in our lives.
Like Nature herself, some of the cards can be disturbing and confronting, while other cards are comforting and sweet.
The Fool is a ferret, an animal that is curious and playful, the Ace of Wands shows a sparrow creatively finding food and beginning to build its home, the Five of Swords is a man dressed in colonial attire walking away the victor, only to find himself entangled in weeds, while the Seven of Cups is a girl lost in dreams atop a fanciful horse.
Published by U.S. Games Systems, the 78 cards are a little bit shorter and slightly wider than standard-sized cards. They have a semi-gloss finish and are dressed in the colors of late autumn.
The Hush Tarot is the best of both worlds: You can go down a rabbit hole, starting with the guidebook and then researching more into the art and history of the times, or you can hold each card and let your intuition speak to your heart — Swords and Cups.
The month of November gives us permission to surrender to the quiet and take in the sacred lesson Nature is teaching us. With its play on death, decay, and new life, the Hush Tarot helps guide us through that.
As the poet Robert Frost wrote: 
“Not yesterday I learned to know 
The love of bare November days Before the coming of the snow…”