Tarot card, hand drawn in wax then lost wax cast

November 1, 2026

A card that is not paper

A tarot card is usually paper: printed, laminated, shuffled, laid out, and put back in a deck. That is its ordinary form, and it serves ordinary tarot work well. A tarot card hand drawn in wax, then lost wax cast in metal, is a different thing. It is a single card, chosen, drawn by hand, and made permanent in metal, as a pendant, to be worn, held, and worked with, rather than shuffled and laid out. That transformation, from paper to metal, from a card in a deck to a single image you carry, is the subject of this article.

The pendant is approximately 2 inches by 1 inch, and 2 millimetres thick. Those dimensions matter. Two inches by one inch is a card in miniature, large enough for an image to be read, small enough to wear. Two millimetres thick is a piece with substance, not a foil or a foil-thin copy, but a cast piece that has weight in the hand and on a chain. It is a pendant, in other words, not a picture of a pendant.

Why make a tarot card in metal at all? Because a tarot image, for many practitioners, is not only a tool for reading. It is also a meditation, a focus, and a companion. A card you return to, over years, because its image speaks to your path, or to a period of your life, or to a quality you are learning, deserves a form that lasts, and that can be carried with you, through the day, not only laid out on a table during a reading.

Hand drawn in wax, then cast

The making of this pendant follows the lost wax process used for the other cast pieces offered here, with a particular first step: the image is hand drawn in wax. That means the artist draws, in wax, the image that will become the card, by hand, rather than printing it, or modelling it digitally, or copying it mechanically. The wax drawing is then used to make a mould, the wax is lost, and metal is cast into its place, so that the hand drawn lines become metal lines, with all the small irregularities and decisions of a hand drawing preserved in the casting.

That hand drawn quality is the point. A printed tarot card is identical to every other copy of that card, from the same deck. A hand drawn card is unique, even if it depicts a familiar image, because no hand draws the same line twice, in exactly the same way. The pendant offered here is therefore described as a very unique hand done piece, and that description should be taken literally. If you order one, you are ordering a piece made by hand, for you, not a piece pulled from a stock of identical copies.

The casting itself is lost wax casting, of pure metal actually cast, starting from a wax version, which is much higher quality than the printed versions, using metal powder and plastic, that are found elsewhere. A cast piece has a density, a finish, and a durability that a printed copy does not, and it will age as metal ages, gathering a patina and small marks of wear, rather than peeling or breaking as a printed copy might.

Choosing a card to carry

The most important choice in ordering a cast tarot card is, of course, which card. That choice deserves thought, because a card worn daily is a different commitment from a card drawn in a reading.

Think first about the cards you return to. Which images have stayed with you, across readings, across years, across periods of your life? Which card, when it appears, makes you pause, rather than merely note it and move on? Which card describes a quality you are learning, a path you are on, or a challenge you are meeting, rather than a situation you hope will pass? Those are the cards that repay carrying, because they are not merely predictions. They are companions, and teachers.

Think also about the card's traditional meanings, in the system you work in, and about your own experience of it. A card's book meaning and your lived meaning of it may differ, and both matter. A card you carry should be one whose meanings, book and lived, you have sat with, and are willing to carry with you, visibly or under clothing, through ordinary days, not only in readings. If a card's image embarrasses you, or puzzles you, or feels like a costume, it may not be the card to carry yet. The right card, for carrying, is usually the one that feels, on reflection, like it already belongs to you.

If you are unsure which card to choose, spend time with your deck first. Lay out the cards you are considering, live with them on your altar or desk for a few days, and notice which one you keep returning to, and which one you keep avoiding, and why. That observation, over days, is a better guide than a single reading, or a single impulse, and it is the kind of slow choosing that suits a piece made by hand, in metal, to last.

Wearing a tarot image, and working with it

Wearing a tarot card as a pendant is a practice in itself. It means carrying an image with you, through the day, where it can be touched, looked at, and remembered, in moments when a deck is not to hand. That carrying can serve several purposes, depending on your practice. It can be a meditation focus: a glance at the pendant, in a difficult moment, recalling the card's image and its meanings, and what they ask of you in that moment. It can be a reminder: of a quality you are cultivating, a path you have chosen, or a lesson you are learning, kept literally close to you, rather than left in a book.

It can also be a working tool, in the ordinary ways seals and pendants are worked with here: holding it, placing it under a candle, putting oil on it, carrying it with you, wearing it as a pendant, or showing it to the person or matter it concerns. Anointing a tarot pendant with oil, for a particular working or meditation, is a way of marking it for that purpose, and fumigating it with incense is a way of preparing it, as other tools are prepared. Those uses are general, and they apply to a cast card as they apply to a cast seal, because the material and the form, metal, pendant, hand made, are the same, even though the image is a tarot image rather than a spirit seal.

Wear it deliberately. Put it on with intention, in the morning or before a working, and take it off with intention, at night or after a working, if that is your practice. Or wear it continuously, if that suits you better, but do so by choice, not by forgetting it is there. A pendant worn deliberately keeps its character as a tool and as a focus. A pendant worn by habit alone, never noticed, becomes mere jewellery, however beautiful, and that is a loss to the practice it was made for.

Reading with a card you carry

Carrying a single card, in metal, does not replace reading with a full deck, and it should not be confused with doing so. A deck reading works by relationship: cards in positions, cards in combination, cards in sequence, telling a story that no single card, alone, can tell. A carried card works by depth: a single image, lived with over time, revealing more of itself, layer by layer, as you live with it. Those are complementary practices, not competing ones, and a practitioner who does both will learn from both, in different ways.

If you read with a deck, notice how the carried card appears in your readings, once you are wearing it. Does it appear more often, or with new meanings, or in new positions? Does wearing it change how you read it, when it comes up in a spread? Those observations, kept in your record, are part of the learning that a carried card offers, and they are worth noting, because they show how a tool, carried daily, changes the practice that uses it.

If you do not read with a deck, a carried card can still serve as a meditation and a focus, without any reading at all. Sit with the image, in quiet, for a few minutes, and let it speak, in the way images speak: not in sentences, but in associations, memories, and questions. Write down what comes, in plain language, and return to those notes over weeks. That is a tarot practice in its own right, and it does not require a spread, or a question, or a prediction, to be valid.

Care for a cast card pendant

A cast silver pendant, two inches by one inch and two millimetres thick, needs the ordinary care of any cast silver piece, with a particular attention to its image. The image is hand drawn, and its lines, in metal, are the work itself. Keep the pendant from harder tools that could scratch those lines, store it apart from other metal pieces, and wipe it after workings, especially if it has been anointed or fumigated, so that oil and smoke do not dull the image over time.

Check the bail regularly, as with any pendant. That bail, and the chain or cord it hangs from, are what keep a unique, hand made piece from being lost, and they deserve the same attention as the image itself. A sound bail, a trustworthy clasp, and a chain suited to the pendant's weight, are practical necessities, not minor details.

Expect the pendant to age, as silver ages. It will gather a patina, and small marks of wear, especially if it is worn daily. Those marks are not, in themselves, damage, provided the image remains legible and the bail remains sound. They are the record of a piece that has been carried, and lived with, rather than kept for show, and that record is part of what makes a hand made piece personal.

A note on results, plainly put

No guaranteed magical result is promised for this pendant, and that is as it should be. A tarot image, in metal, can focus meditation, remind you of a path, and serve as a working tool, but what follows from carrying it, in terms of magical result, is yours to observe, not mine to guarantee. That wording is about the magical work itself, not about delivery dates for a physical pendant.