A truly delightful deck which I unreservedly recommend to those new to Tarot - especially if they are cat lovers and after all who else is likely to be looking at this deck! - and those with years of Tarot experience behind them. The cards have the sturdiness you'd expect from a Lo Scarabeo deck and the design on the back of the cards features the head of a foreign cat upright and reversed, allowing for reversals for those who like to use them.
The designs on the cards for both the Minor and Major Arcana echo the designs in the Coleman-Waite deck, making these cards extremely easy to read for those familiar with that deck. For those inexperienced in Tarot, the designs and the expressiveness of the cats - both their facial expressions and their body language - supports an intuitive reading of the cards.
This is a deck free of the patriarchal and Christian overtones of so many decks and - while retaining the essence of the cards' traditional meanings - the images on the cards are full of humour and joie de vivre. The cat in Strength card, for example, is entwined with green and red leaves and has a paw gently resting on the head of a small dog; and the moon in the Moon card and the sun in the Sun card feature cat faces. The Hermit carries his wand, from which hangs his lantern, in his upturned tail as he treks up a bleak mountain peak; and the Devil features two hybrid cat-creatures, one with a head that's part-rabbit-part-cat, the other with long dog-like ears. Both have chains around their necks and the inverted pentacle is on a large black box in the background but no-one - no Devil-type being - sits on top of that box. The image - suggestive of the experimentations conducted in the latter days of Atlantis - implies that the two hybrid cat-creatures are responsible for the disempowerment they are undoubtedly feeling. On this card, the LWB says "Making a choice, taking an action or staying in a situation that is contrary to your best interest. Doing something that turns into something you aren't meant to be".
As well as offering charming images, and many refreshing insights, this deck is also ideal for occasions when you are doing a reading for someone who is a bit fearful of Tarot. The other card which receives so much bad press, the Death card, shows a black cat in a cemetery at night, and yes, there is a sickle, at his feet, but the card is undoubtedly less likely to evoke fear in the faint-hearted than the Death card in many decks. |
