Well, it must be Celtic night in the Pace household, cause I just finished reviewing the Celtic Tarots by Gaudenzi and Tenuta, and now here I am doing the Lupatelli one. This deck is only the 22 Major Arcanas, though, an art deck and not the full deck that the other one is. Lupatelli is the fellow famous for doing the entrancing Gnomes and Fairy Tarots, and his familiar style shines through in this deck as well, making Celtic life and legend totally appealing.
By far my favorite Celtic tarot deck, this art deck works in a similar fashion to the Major Arcana of the Celtic Tarots in that the characters of the cards are all Celtic gods and goddesses or figures from Celtic legend and lore. In fact, most of the cards have the *same* legendary figures shown on them. In both decks, the Morrigan is the Empress. In both decks, Finn MacCumhail is the Devil card. The main difference is in the style of the illustrations.
In the Major Arcana, traditional
tarot titles are supplanted by the name of the figure on the card.
A Roman numeral accompanies the title of each card. The card that
stands for Justice is 8 and the card which represents Strength is 11 according
to the Marseilles tradition. Titles and characters are as follows:
0 - Fintan Mac Bochra
(The Fool)
I - Lug (The Magician)
II - Brigh (The High
Priestess)
III - Morrigan (The Empress)
IV - Dagda (The Emperor
V - Dian Cecht (The Hierophant)
VI - Etain e Midir (Lovers)
VII - Nuadu (Chariot)
VIII - Ogma (Justice)
IX - Goibniu (The Hermit)
X - Boaob (The Wheel)
XI - Conchobar (Strength)
XII - Cu Chulainn (The
Hanged Man)
XIII - Art mac Cond (Death)
XIV - Achtan (Temperance)
XV - Finn Mac Cumaill
(The Devil)
XVI - Aillen mac Midhna
(The Tower)
XVII - Grainne (The Star)
XVIII - Oisin (The Moon)
XIX - Bran mac Febal
(The Sun)
XX - Manannan mac Ler
(Judgment)
XXI - Eriu - (The World)
As this is an art deck, there is no Minor Arcana, no suits, no courts or pips.
The cards themselves are larger than standard size, printed on a heavily textured ivory cardstock, with rough edges that are not perfectly even, to give you more of a hand-cut feel. The corners are squared off and sharp. You would probably not want to shuffle this deck but it handles nicely for looking through it. A celtic knotwork design is printed in double blocks on the back, so the back design is reversible. The little white booklet is all in Italian.
I recommend this deck highly for collectors of celtic decks and mythology items. Fans of Lupatelli's work will enjoy this in addition to their Gnomes and Fairy decks. Tarot collectors in general will also like this one. For more information on purchasing this deck, email Wicce.
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LoScarabeo
Review Copyright 2000 by Gina M. Pace
Tarocchi dei Celti by
Antonio Lupatelli, 1991
published by LoScarabeo,
Torino, Italy