What a triumph!
My local esoteric shop promised me they'd try and get this one from the Lo Scarabeo rep when he came this week and they did!
I have my copy...
It is - if this were possible - infinitely better than I thought it would be. I was already excited about it but when I opened it up in the car, I went through it card by card and reeled excitedly at the whole atmosphere and mood of it.
It is so sweet and eerie and melancholy and delicate. It has this morbid and innocent childhood mood about it which I just LOVE! And yet it feels so contemporary - the artwork really is superb. I know that these are not 78 images designed for tarot and that the artwork came from already existent sources (i.e images that were already pictures) but you really don't feel that when looking at it. It veers very much towards the intuitive - not explicitly RWS - but a definite hint in the Minors, more obvious in the Majors.
I just know that querents will adore seeing this deck laid out on the table. Of course we'll get people finding it too creepy and that's fine etc etc but for those of you that like a little something sinister in your tarot beauty this one will tick ALL the boxes. My partner who is often critical of the bland/comic-book/naive/collaged artwork in modern decks thought this deck was fabulous.
Something I notice immediately and which would normally really bother me is that there is nothing explicitly male in the deck apart from the Emperor. All the kings are little girls. Of course there are toys and monkeys and genderless dolls and if I'd known this it might have bothered me but the deck is so captivating that I'm more than happy with how it is.
Usual LoS cardstock, court and suit symbols, no multi-lingual borders, minimal off-white borders with suit symbols and number and little decorative flourish etc etc
Such a beautiful and touching deck.
