Winter in Carolingia Tarot by Dmytro Ryzhak

A Hand-Drawn Medieval Tarot Lost Beneath the Winter Snow

A jester crosses a frozen landscape. Knights ride beneath pale winter skies. Kings, queens and villagers inhabit stone halls and snow-covered settlements.

Welcome to Carolingia.

Winter in Carolingia Tarot by Ukrainian artist Dmytro Ryzhak transports the traditional tarot into an imagined medieval Europe, where the familiar archetypes of the cards unfold against quiet snow-covered landscapes.

Every illustration has been drawn using ballpoint pens, creating intricate linework, cross-hatching and extraordinary texture throughout the deck.

Atmospheric, unusual and wonderfully immersive, Winter in Carolingia feels less like looking at a collection of individual cards and more like stepping into another world.

Tarot in the Heart of Medieval Europe

The inspiration for the deck comes from the Carolingian Empire, the great medieval realm that flourished across much of Western Europe during the ninth century.

Rather than attempting a strict historical reconstruction, Dmytro uses Carolingia as the inspiration for a broader imagined medieval world.

Snow lies across towns, forests and open countryside. Characters appear wrapped in heavy medieval clothing. Castles, villages and courtly figures create a setting that feels lived in rather than simply decorative.

The result is a tarot world caught in winter: quiet, stark and contemplative, but never lifeless.

Drawn Entirely with Ballpoint Pens

One of the most distinctive features of Winter in Carolingia Tarot is Dmytro Ryzhak's artistic technique.

The illustrations are created with ballpoint pens, using fine lines and dense cross-hatching to build texture, shadow and detail.

Against the pale winter landscapes, the characters become particularly striking.

It gives the deck the feeling of an illustrated medieval storybook or an artist's rediscovered manuscript, while retaining a contemporary visual identity of its own.

A Familiar Tarot Beneath the Snow

Although its setting is distinctive, Winter in Carolingia retains the familiar structure of traditional tarot.

The Minor Arcana follows the four suits of:

Wands • Cups • Swords • Pentacles

with traditional Page, Knight, Queen and King Court Cards.

Readers familiar with the Rider-Waite-Smith tradition will recognise much of the underlying visual language, making the deck approachable despite its unusual setting.

The borderless artwork allows the winter landscapes to occupy the full card, strengthening the sense that every scene belongs to the same frozen medieval world.

Why You'll Love Winter in Carolingia Tarot

• 78-card tarot deck plus 2 additional cards
• Created by Ukrainian artist Dmytro Ryzhak
• Illustrated entirely using ballpoint pens
• Inspired by medieval Europe and the Carolingian period
• Atmospheric snow-covered landscapes throughout
• Familiar traditional tarot structure
• Borderless card design
• Traditional Wands, Cups, Swords and Pentacles
• Page, Knight, Queen and King Court Cards
• Includes a printed guidebook
• Presented in a hard two-part box
• Published by independent Ukrainian publisher Pentagram
• Wonderful choice for collectors of unusual indie tarot

The Reading Experience

There is an extraordinary stillness to this deck.

Winter strips the landscape back. Characters stand against snow rather than elaborate backgrounds, allowing expressions, gestures and symbolic details to come forward.

That gives readings a thoughtful, contemplative quality particularly suited to questions involving patience, endurance, transition, solitude and the periods of life when outward activity slows while something deeper is developing underneath.

Yet this isn't a bleak deck.

There is life everywhere in Carolingia: relationships, journeys, celebrations, conflict, work, community and courtly drama continue despite the snow.

Winter hasn't stopped the story.

It has simply changed its landscape.

At a Glance

Creator & Artist: Dmytro Ryzhak
Publisher: Pentagram Publishing
Origin: Ukraine
Published: 2026
Cards: 78 + 2 additional cards
Card Size: Approx. 67 × 118 mm
Card Language: English
Suits: Wands, Cups, Swords & Pentacles
Court Cards: Page, Knight, Queen & King
Borders: Borderless
Guidebook: Printed guidebook included
Packaging: Hard two-part box
ISBN: 978-627-9512253

About Dmytro Ryzhak

Dmytro Ryzhak is a Ukrainian tarot artist whose distinctive hand-drawn work has appeared across a growing collection of independent decks.

Winter in Carolingia is his fifth tarot deck, following Bloody Tears Tarot, Fantasy Garden Tarot, City Labyrinth Tarot and Rediscovered Classic Tarot.

His detailed ballpoint-pen technique gives his work an immediately recognisable identity, combining traditional drawing methods with imaginative tarot worlds.

Perfect For

Winter in Carolingia Tarot is particularly suited to:

• Lovers of medieval tarot
• Indie tarot collectors
• Fans of hand-drawn tarot artwork
• Rider-Waite-Smith readers
• Historical and medieval fantasy enthusiasts
• Winter and seasonal tarot collections
• Readers drawn to atmospheric decks
• Introspective and reflective readings
• Fans of Dmytro Ryzhak's artwork
• Collectors supporting Ukrainian artists and publishers

Collector's Note

Winter in Carolingia Tarot is an independently published deck created by Ukrainian artist Dmytro Ryzhak and published by Pentagram.

Its unusual ballpoint-pen artwork, medieval setting and cohesive winter landscape give it an identity quite unlike most traditionally illustrated tarot decks.

Why We Love It at Oneness Emporium

Some decks give you a theme.

This one gives you an entire postcode.

You don't simply get a medieval Fool, a medieval Magician and a few strategically positioned castles. Dmytro has built a world where the whole tarot appears to belong.

And the decision to cover that world in snow was inspired. It creates a stillness that makes the extraordinary ballpoint artwork even more effective.

It feels cold. It feels quiet. It feels old.

Basically, we're keeping the central heating on while we read with it. ❄️