Quick Specs
- Author: Jake Richards
- Format: 54-card deck with 64-page guidebook
- Card Size: 3.25 x 4.25 inches
- Tradition: Appalachian folk magic
- Best for: Fortune telling, dream interpretation, card-based divination
Appalachian Conjure Cards: A Living Folk Tradition in Deck Form
Appalachian folk magic has roots that stretch back centuries, drawing on the blended traditions of Scots-Irish settlers, Indigenous plant knowledge, and African spiritual practices that converged in the mountain communities of Virginia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas. Playing cards entered this tradition early, repurposed from ordinary card games into tools for fortune telling and dream reading by the region’s grannie witches, yarb doctors, and backwoods folk practitioners. Jake Richards grew up in western North Carolina, on the side of Mount Mitchell, embedded in this living tradition through generations of family practice, and the Conjure Cards deck is his effort to document and transmit it in a usable form.
The deck is fashioned after a standard 52-card playing card structure plus two jokers, a total of 54 cards, each illustrated with regional folk imagery rather than standard card pips. The symbolism is drawn from the specific superstitions and dream symbols Richards encountered in Appalachian tradition, not invented or borrowed from other esoteric systems. Every card in the oracle deck carries a meaning rooted in the specific cultural landscape of the southern Appalachian mountains, which makes it distinct from both tarot and generalist oracle decks.
What Makes This Deck Different from Tarot
Most oracle decks on the market today trace their visual and conceptual lineage to the Rider-Waite-Smith tarot system, even when they don’t use the standard 78-card structure. Conjure Cards does not. Its organizational framework is the playing card suit system, and its interpretive content is entirely regional, drawing on specific Appalachian beliefs about particular symbols, animals, plants, and landscape features. The black cat is a witch or enemy; the black dog is the devil; the white rabbit is luck; the gravestone marks endings, not transformation in the tarot sense. These meanings come from a specific cultural context, not from a universal esoteric framework.
Richards also incorporates dream interpretation into the deck’s methodology, a practice that has coexisted with card reading in Appalachian communities for generations. The 64-page guidebook explains both card meanings and how to read combinations, including the significance of the two joker cards that have no equivalent in standard tarot reading. For practitioners who have found tarot’s European ceremonial magic roots less personally resonant, and who are drawn to American folk traditions with verifiable regional depth, this deck offers a meaningful alternative rooted in documented practice rather than invented mythology.
Jake Richards as Author and Practitioner
Richards is not a professional card designer who researched Appalachian culture from the outside. He is a practitioner whose family worked in this tradition for generations across Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. His previous book, Backwoods Witchcraft, established him within the folk magic community as a careful and grounded source on a tradition that is often misrepresented or diluted when it reaches broader audiences. He teaches classes in Appalachian folk magic.
The result is a deck that carries genuine authority. It isn’t trying to be tarot, and it isn’t trying to be a generic oracle. It is a very specific regional divination tool made by someone whose credibility comes from immersion in the tradition being documented. For collectors interested in American folk magic practice as a category, this is one of the few decks that can credibly claim to represent that tradition rather than approximate it.
How to Use Conjure Cards by Jake Richards
Three ways to engage with Conjure Cards, from a single draw to multi-card readings using the traditional Appalachian approach.
- Draw a Single Card
Shuffle the 54-card deck thoroughly, then hold it in both hands and think of a specific situation. Draw one card, lay it face up, and consult the guidebook entry for the card symbol before considering how the Appalachian meaning fits your question.
- Try a Three-Card Spread
For a three-card spread, draw the first card for the situation, the second for the obstacle or influence, and the third for the likely outcome. Richards includes traditional Appalachian combinations in the guidebook to add depth to multi-card draws.
- Watch for the Joker Cards
When you draw the joker cards, pay close attention. The little joker signals a witch or hidden enemy, represented by the black cat, while the big joker signals the devil or dark spiritual force, symbolized by the black dog of Appalachian lore.
The Tarot Fellow Standard
I stock Conjure Cards because it documents Appalachian folk magic in a playing-card deck by an author from that region, and it stays with regional material rather than borrowing from other systems. Appalachian folk magic is a living tradition, and I offer this deck as an entry point, not a substitute for learning from practitioners and community. For more fortune-telling and card-reading decks, browse my divination collection.
Frequently Asked Questions
Conjure Cards is a 54-card fortune-telling deck based on Appalachian folk magic traditions, created by Jake Richards, author of Backwoods Witchcraft. It uses playing card symbolism overlaid with regional folklore, dream symbols, and folk magic imagery.
No tarot experience is needed. The deck is rooted in Appalachian card-reading traditions that predate modern tarot in the region. The 64-page guidebook explains each symbol, its meaning, and how to read card combinations in an accessible format.
The little joker depicts a black cat and represents a witch or hidden enemy. The big joker depicts a black dog, a figure symbolizing the devil or dark spirit in Appalachian folk belief. Together they signal serious adversarial spiritual influence.
Jake Richards is an Appalachian folk magic practitioner and author based in Jonesborough, Tennessee. He grew up in western North Carolina and has practiced folk magic within his family tradition for years.
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