A woman walked into a New Age bookstore in Sedona in 2017, picked up a Guardian Angel Tarot deck, and asked the clerk whether it was one of the “old” ones or the “new” ones. The clerk knew exactly what she meant. The old ones were Doreen Virtue’s. The new ones were Radleigh Valentine’s. And the difference between them is not just a matter of who signed the box.
Doreen Virtue vs. Radleigh Valentine represents the most visible schism in modern angel card publishing: two authors who collaborated on a series of bestselling tarot and oracle decks before Virtue’s 2017 conversion to evangelical Christianity split their catalog into two incompatible lineages. Their decks share names, imagery, and production history, but they diverge in structure, interpretive philosophy, and the entire cosmology they assume the reader brings to the table.
What Actually Separates Virtue and Valentine Decks?
The simplest distinction is theological. Doreen Virtue’s decks, produced between 2004 and 2017, operate within a broadly New Age framework that blends angelology, crystals, numerology, and a non-denominational “lightworker” spirituality. Radleigh Valentine’s decks, which began appearing in 2018 after Virtue withdrew from the occult market, retain the visual style and many of the deck titles Virtue originated, but they reinterpret the cards through a more structured, Golden Dawn-influenced tarot system that Virtue had deliberately softened.
Valentine does not use the word “occult.” He describes his work as “spiritual but grounded in traditional tarot structure.” But the practical effect is this: a Valentine deck teaches you the major arcana in order, with recognizable Kabbalistic correspondences. A Virtue deck may not number the major arcana at all, or may rename them entirely to remove what she later called “occult associations.”
That is the split. One author abandoned the tradition. The other stayed and rebuilt.
The History: How One Partnership Became Two Catalogs
Doreen Virtue had been a prominent figure in angel card publishing since the late 1990s. Her Angel Therapy (1997) and Healing with the Angels (1999) established her as the leading voice in a market that barely existed before her. By 2004, she had released the Angel Oracle Deck with Hay House, and by 2010 she was producing multiple oracle and tarot decks per year.
Radleigh Valentine entered as a collaborator around 2012. Virtue and Valentine co-created the Guardian Angel Tarot (2012), the Angel Answers Oracle (2013), and the Magical Unicorn Oracle (2015). Valentine brought a background in traditional tarot reading and a willingness to work within Virtue’s softened system. The partnership was commercially successful, and their decks shared a house style: pastel colors, rounded corners, card titles that replaced intimidating terminology with approachable language.
Then came March 2017. Virtue announced on social media that she had converted to Christianity and was renouncing her entire occult catalog. She specifically named tarot cards as tools she could no longer endorse. She asked retailers to stop selling her decks. She did not, however, ask Valentine to stop.
Valentine retained the rights to continue producing revised editions of their co-created decks. Hay House kept printing the Guardian Angel Tarot under Valentine’s revised authorship. The original Virtue editions went out of print. Valentine released Angel Tarot Cards (2018) and Guardian Angel Tarot Cards (2019) as new editions that replaced Virtue’s name with his own and adjusted the card meanings.
Today, the two catalogs circulate in parallel. A reader buying a used Angel Answers Oracle from 2013 gets Virtue’s interpretations. The same deck purchased new in 2024 contains Valentine’s. The card art is identical. The booklet is not.
How the Decks Differ in Structure
Major Arcana
Virtue’s original tarot decks often renamed or removed the major arcana cards that carried heavy occult weight. In the Guardian Angel Tarot (2012 edition), “The Devil” became “Materialism.” “Death” became “Transition.” These substitutions are well-known in the community and are Virtue’s clearest departure from historical tarot.
Valentine’s revised editions restore the traditional names. His Guardian Angel Tarot Cards (2019) uses “The Devil” and “Death” as printed on the cards. The images remain the same, but the labels change. This is consequential. A querent who draws “Materialism” and a querent who draws “The Devil” are having different conversations with the deck, even if the picture is identical.
Minor Arcana
The minor arcana in Virtue’s decks were often not numbered. A three-card spread drawn from the Angel Tarot (2011) would read “The Sun” and two picture cards without numerical rank. This made the deck function more like an oracle than a tarot. Positional meanings (past, present, future) were determined by the card’s placement, not by any numerical or elemental correspondences.
Valentine’s revisions restore suit rankings and elemental associations. His Angel Tarot Cards (2018) includes numbered minor arcana with keywords that reference the traditional meanings: cups for emotions, wands for creativity, swords for intellect, pentacles for material matters. This allows a reader to apply standard tarot spread techniques that Virtue’s decks did not support.
Reversals
Virtue explicitly discouraged reversed card readings. Her booklets treat every card as having a positive or neutral meaning only. Valentine includes reversal interpretations and provides upright-and-reversed keywords in his companion guides. This alone changes how a practitioner uses the deck. With Virtue, you shuffle upright and read only the face. With Valentine, you flip cards and read both sides.
Symbolism and Cosmology
Virtue’s cosmology is light-centric. Her cards depict angels, unicorns, and celestial landscapes without shadow. There are no wands or athames in her imagery. Skeletons and demons are replaced by clouds and flowers. This is not merely aesthetic. It reflects Virtue’s stated belief that occult symbols carry spiritual energy that practitioners should not engage with.
Valentine’s cosmology is structure-centric. His cards retain the gentle imagery but add back the architecture of the traditional tarot. He does not depict the Baphomet or the inverted pentagram, but he restores the structural elements that give tarot its predictive and analytical power: the numbering, the suits, the Kabbalistic path correspondences, the astrological signs associated with each card.
A practitioner using a Valentine deck can map a reading onto the Tree of Life. A practitioner using a Virtue deck cannot. That is the practical difference.
Which Deck Should You Choose?
The choice depends entirely on what you believe a tarot deck is for.
If you view tarot as a tool for gentle spiritual guidance, affirmations, and angelic communication, and you prefer to avoid imagery or concepts that feel uncomfortable, a Virtue-era deck or a current Valentine deck used with Virtue’s original booklet may serve you well.
If you view tarot as a structured symbolic system rooted in Hermetic and Kabbalistic traditions, where each card has fixed correspondences that can be studied and applied analytically, and where reversals and shadow cards are part of the work, then a current Valentine edition is the better choice.
We cannot recommend using both booklets with the same deck. The images support two different interpretive frameworks. A reader who memorizes Virtue’s meanings for a card and then reads Valentine’s reversal for the same card will create cognitive friction. Pick one author and stay with it.
Common Misconceptions
“Valentine just repackaged Virtue’s work.” He repackaged the art, not the meanings. The card images were created by artists (Steven Bright, Doris Wiebe, and others) who worked on the decks for Hay House. Valentine revised the text, restored the traditional names, and added structural elements that Virtue had removed. The decks are visually identical; the books are not.
“All angel tarot decks are Virtue’s.” Virtue originated the angel tarot category as a mass-market product, but she was not the only creator. James Wanless’s Soul Cards, Alana Fairchild’s Kuan Yin Oracle, and Colette Baron-Reid’s The Muse Tarot all predate or coexist with Virtue’s work. The association is strong but not exclusive.
“You can swap the booklets between editions.” The Guardian Angel Tarot 2012 booklet will physically fit inside the 2019 box, but the card titles and numbering systems have changed. Cards labelled “Materialism” in the 2012 version are labelled “The Devil” in the 2019 version. Using the wrong booklet will produce confused readings.
“Valentine’s decks are occult now.” Valentine describes his work as “traditional tarot with an angelic overlay.” He does not include the Qliphoth, the Goetic spirits, or the inverted Tarot of the Marseille traditions. His decks are spiritually neutral, structurally traditional, and accessible to readers who want a numbered system without heavy occult symbolism.
FAQ
Can I use a Doreen Virtue deck if I practice traditional tarot? You can, but you will need to add your own numerical and elemental correspondences. The deck will not supply them. Many readers print replacement card lists from online sources.
Are Radleigh Valentine decks considered “New Age” or “occult”? Valentine identifies as a “spiritual author,” not an occultist. His decks are marketed in the New Age section but use structural elements borrowed from Western esotericism. The label depends on who is applying it.
Which deck is more accurate for readings? Neither set of meanings is more accurate. Accuracy depends on the reader’s fluency with the system. A reader trained in traditional tarot will find Valentine’s system easier to read precisely. A reader comfortable with intuitive guidance may prefer Virtue’s approach.
Are the Valentine decks still in print? Yes. Hay House continues to publish Valentine’s Guardian Angel Tarot Cards, Angel Tarot Cards, and Angel Answers Oracle as current titles. Virtue’s original editions are out of print but widely available used.
Related Guides
The split between Virtue and Valentine is not the only schism in modern oracle publishing. For a broader view of how deck systems diverge, see our guide to oracle systems. If you are interested in how the major arcana was reconstructed after Virtue’s edits, the Tarot of the Angels entry walks through each card’s traditional and revised names. And for readers who want to understand the structural differences between oracle decks and tarot decks, our oracle versus tarot comparison covers the practical distinctions.
The two catalogs sit on opposite sides of a line that was drawn in 2017. One side offers comfort. The other offers structure. Both sides claim the same images. The reader provides the meaning.