I’ve been looking for an autumn deck lately.

Not necessarily a Halloween deck, and definitely not something too witchy. I wanted something earthy and atmospheric that felt like forests, darker evenings, changing seasons, and definitely autumn colors.

Then I stumbled upon the Green Codex Tarot.

Created by Alexander Kopytin with artwork by Alexandra Dvornikova, this is a 78-card tarot that combines tarot with themes of nature, ecology, psychology, and our relationship with the environment.

The current kit comes with the 78-card deck and a 192-page full-color English guidebook, with cards measuring 70 × 120 mm. The English edition was published by Llewellyn in October 2025, in partnership with Lo Scarabeo.

And visually?

Yep. This was very much the autumn vibe I had been looking for.

My First Impressions

My first thought was, oh, I like this.

The artwork has that dark woodland feeling without going full witchy. There are forests, stars, animals, plants, shadows, and plenty of earthy colors, but it doesn’t feel like the deck is trying to scream AUTUMN!

It’s much quieter than that.

The artwork feels like walking through the woods toward the end of the day, when the light is disappearing and everything starts looking a little different.

I also wasn’t expecting the deck to have such a strong psychological and ecological angle.

At first glance, I thought I was getting a beautiful nature-themed tarot.

Then I started reading about the concept behind it and realized there was quite a bit more going on.

The Green Codex is built around the idea that humans aren’t separate from nature. We’re part of the same larger ecosystem, and the deck uses tarot to explore that relationship.

That definitely made me more curious about the guidebook.

The Artwork

Alexandra Dvornikova’s artwork is what initially pulled me in.

Her style is minimalist, earthy, folkloric, and atmospheric. The illustrations don’t have that slick, highly polished digital look that a lot of modern decks have. They feel softer and more like illustrated folklore.

The color palette is restrained, with lots of deep greens, browns, muted blues, cream, and dark nighttime shades.

There are pine forests, plants, animals, birds, stars, water, mushrooms, and plenty of natural imagery throughout the deck. But the artwork doesn’t make nature look overly perfect or decorative.

There are some strange moments, too.

And I like that.

The human figures often have a slightly mythological or folkloric quality, while some scenes feel almost like they came out of an old storybook. There are also surreal and symbolic elements mixed into otherwise recognizable tarot scenes.

The Green Codex is definitely a pippish deck, especially when it comes to the Minor Arcana. You’re not getting fully illustrated, story-heavy scenes on every card like you would with a classic Rider-Waite-Smith clone. The cards rely more on symbols, objects, figures, and compositions to give you something to read from.

That was actually a pleasant surprise for me because I normally struggle with pip decks. I rely heavily on visual cues when I read, so a Minor Arcana card that gives me nothing beyond a number and a collection of suit symbols can be difficult for me to connect with.

Green Codex still gives me enough visual material to work with.

The imagery is more subtle than a fully scenic deck, but there are animals, plants, environments, characters, and symbolic details that give me something to look at and build an interpretation around. So while I would absolutely describe this as a pip-heavy deck, it doesn’t feel completely stripped down visually.

The deck does reference traditional tarot, but it isn’t simply a Rider-Waite-Smith redraw. The artwork draws from several tarot traditions while developing its own visual language.

The court cards, for example, use Page, Knight, Princess, and King rather than the more familiar Page, Knight, Queen, and King structure.

One of the cards that really shows the deck’s approach is The Devil, which features the Devil and Lilith holding a mirror surrounded by snakes. It’s a very different visual take on the card and gives you something to think about beyond the usual Devil imagery.

There is also nudity in some of the artwork, so keep that in mind if you’re looking for something completely PG.

Overall, the artwork feels quiet, earthy, slightly eerie, and folkloric.

It has the autumn atmosphere I wanted without turning into another obvious witchy-season deck.

Box, Card & Finish

The Green Codex comes as a kit, with the 78 cards and 192-page guidebook housed together. The cards measure 70 × 120 mm.

And as you know, I’m not a fan of big boxes.

This one is definitely on the larger side, but I can forgive it because there is actually a reason for the size. You’re not getting a giant box with a tiny deck rattling around inside. The guidebook is substantial, so the larger kit format makes more sense here.

The box has a magnetic closure and a ribbon inside to help lift the contents out. The overall presentation is a deep forest green and fits the deck really well.

The cards have a matte-almost-papery-finish, and they shuffle nicely without feeling overly slippery.

The backs have a dark forest and starry-sky design with a pentacle. They aren’t reversible, so if you like reading reversals, that’s something to keep in mind.

The cards aren’t edged, which is perfectly fine with me. The artwork already has enough atmosphere without needing another decorative element.

Guidebook

The guidebook is one of the things that makes the Green Codex more interesting than I initially expected.

It’s 192 pages and fully illustrated in color, and it isn’t just a little companion booklet with a few keywords for each card. It’s divided into several sections, so there’s actually quite a bit to work through.

It starts with Features and Purpose of the Deck, which gives you some background on the idea behind Green Codex and what the creators are trying to explore through the deck.

Then you get How to Use the Deck, which covers several different approaches to reading, including:

✦ Intuitive Reading
✦ Monologue Reading
✦ Five-Card Reading
✦ SWOT Method Reading
✦ Environment Interaction Reading

I like having that variety because it gives you different ways to approach the cards depending on what you’re actually trying to do with a reading. You can keep it simple and intuitive, or use one of the more structured methods when you want to dig into a situation.

Then there’s The Cards, which is the biggest part of the book.

Each card gets its own poem, followed by the card’s interpretation/meaning and a suggestion for working with that particular card. I wasn’t expecting the poems, but I actually like that they’re included. They add another little layer to the deck and give you something to sit with before jumping straight into the practical interpretation.

The guidebook also has a more academic and psychological tone than you might expect from looking at the cards. Kopytin’s background in psychiatry, psychotherapy, and art therapy is very relevant to the approach of the deck.

This isn’t a guidebook I’d necessarily recommend speed-reading. There’s enough here that I’d rather take my time with it and see how the different ideas connect with the cards.

There’s also a little detail on the back cover that I really like: “Liber, Hominis, Terrae et Universae.” It fits the overall idea of the deck nicely, with its focus on humanity, the Earth, and the wider natural world.

How the Deck Works

At its core, Green Codex is still a traditional 78-card tarot, so the basic structure is familiar if you already read tarot.

What makes it different is the framework around it. The deck connects tarot with ecology, psychology, and our relationship with the natural world, so nature isn’t just there to make the cards look pretty. It’s part of how you’re encouraged to approach a reading.

The guidebook gives you several ways to work with the cards rather than limiting you to standard tarot spreads. There are different reading techniques, examples, and prompts that encourage you to look at a situation from different angles.

One of the more interesting approaches is the SWOT reading, where the cards are used to explore Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It’s a more structured way of looking at a situation and can be useful when you’re trying to figure out where you actually stand rather than simply asking what’s going to happen.

There’s also an Environment Interaction Reading, which takes the idea of the deck quite literally by bringing the natural environment into the reading. Instead of sitting at your usual reading table, you’re encouraged to spend time outside and pay attention to your surroundings as part of the process.

I like that the deck gives you these options because it makes Green Codex feel like more than a nature-themed tarot with a different coat of paint.

You can still read it like tarot.

You can also use it as a way to explore yourself, your surroundings, and the relationship between the two.

Who It’s For

I’d recommend the Green Codex to readers who:

✔  Want a nature-focused tarot that goes beyond pretty botanical artwork
✔  Like earthy, dark, folkloric visuals
✔  Have been looking for an autumn deck that isn’t overly witchy
✔  Enjoy psychology and self-reflection
✔  Like studying the ideas behind a deck
✔  Want a substantial guidebook
✔  Enjoy trying different reading methods
✔  Struggle with pip cards but still want enough visual material to work with
✔  Are interested in ecology or the relationship between humans and nature

I’d probably put this more toward intermediate tarot readers rather than someone picking up their very first deck.

Not because you can’t read it as a beginner, but because the guidebook gives you a lot to chew on. If you’re someone who enjoys learning and researching, that’s probably a plus. If you just want quick card meanings, it may feel like more work than you were looking for.

My Honest Thoughts

I originally picked up the Green Codex because I wanted an autumn deck.

That’s still one of the things I like most about it.

It has that darker forest feeling I was looking for without becoming overly witchy or Halloween-themed. It’s earthy without being aggressively rustic, and mystical without turning everything into moons, crystals, and spellwork.

The artwork is probably my favorite part.

I love the limited earthy palette and the slightly folkloric quality. There are enough strange little details that I actually want to stop and look at the cards instead of immediately moving on to the guidebook.

The pip cards were also a pleasant surprise for me.

Since I normally avoid pip-heavy decks, I wasn’t expecting to connect with the Minor Arcana as easily as I have. I need visual cues when I read, and Green Codex gives me enough to work with without turning every card into a fully illustrated scene.

But the guidebook is what made me realize this deck has more substance than I initially expected.

The ecological and psychological approach isn’t just something mentioned in the description. It’s actually part of how the deck is meant to be used.

I also appreciate that there are practical ways to work with the cards beyond the standard “shuffle, ask a question, pull three cards” routine.

The Environment Interaction Reading in particular feels very on-brand for the deck. If you’re going to make a tarot about our relationship with nature, I like that the deck actually gives you a reason to get off the couch and go outside.

My one hesitation is that this isn’t necessarily a casual little deck.

The guidebook is substantial, the concepts are more academic than what you might expect from the artwork, and there is plenty here to study.

Personally, I don’t mind that.

I’m always going to be more interested in a deck that gives me something to dig into than one that I understand completely after five minutes.

So yes, I came looking for an autumn deck.

I just happened to find one that also gave me forests, folklore, psychology, ecology, and a 192-page rabbit hole to fall into.

Where to Find the Deck & Deck Info

✦ Deck Creator: Alexander Kopytin & Alexandra Dvornikova
✦ Artist / Illustrator: Alexandra Dvornikova
✦  Publication Date: October 8, 2025
✦ Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
✦ Where to Get the Deck: Amazon