Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose

Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose
Cover to issue #1 of Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose (March 2000). Art by Jim Balent and colors by Holly Golightly.
Publication information
Publisher	Broadsword Comics
Schedule	bi-monthly
Format	ongoing
Publication date	2000 to Present
Number of issues	103 as of March 2017
Main character(s)	See Characters
Creative team
Writer(s)	Jim Balent
Artist(s)	Jim Balent
Colorist(s)	Holly Golightly
Creator(s)	Jim Balent

Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose is an American comic book, written and drawn by Jim Balent with coloring and lettering by Holly Golightly and published by Broadsword Comics since 1999.

It is the story of Tarot, a warrior witch, and her family, friends and lovers. The comic generally features stories of fantasy action and adventure interspersed with frequent scenes of nudity. As well as the comic narrative, each issue is backed up with interviews with actual witches and Wiccan practitioners, and guides for casting fan-submitted spells.

Witchcraft, Wicca, or simply Craft is the way by which witches manipulate mystical forces. The Craft is Wicca-based, with the Threefold Law an important lesson shown in the series. Witches use diverse ways to attain supernatural powers, being Tarot reading, scrying, ceremonial magic, or potion making.

Because most of the main characters are Wiccans, the Wiccan gods are important to the story. They seem antagonistic to religious intolerance, and appear only infrequently and always in surreal and mystical forms. The Wiccan God and Goddess are embodiments of the dualism of the universe, two opposing and balanced forces.

In Tarot's universe magick is a real and very powerful force. According to the Goddess, magick emanates from the union of all things, because all things are interconnected. Nothing, no matter how small, can be separated from the whole, similar to the Gaia hypothesis.

Beings from mythology such as dragons, fairies, elves, and gorgons are very real but exist only in a magical dimension apart from the real world. This dimension, referred to as "the Realm Beyond the Mist," is a place of enchantment. Some magical beings, such as dragons, see their imposed exile as humiliating, and believe that magical creatures should band together to destroy humanity.