This new deck from LoScarabeo is not a tarot deck, but it is a nice little prediction oracle type deck, specially suited towards selecting lucky numbers for playing in the various lottery games.  The instructions are in Italian so I can't read the fine print for working with this deck, but it looks like it is based in large part on the classical Marseille Tarot.  It is, however, all *minor* arcana-oriented, which is unusual.  There are fifty-two cards in this deck, with four suits taken directly from Marseille Tarot decks, and the court cards included have three not four.  King, Knight and Page are here, and it is the Queen that is taken out, as opposed to the poker decks where it is the Knight that is missing.
 
Each card is double-ended so you see a different side when the card is upright versus when it is upside down.  Although actually they aren't so much like reversals as they are like doubling the size of the deck, giving two ends to the same card doubles its playability.  You see the image area actually divided into four quarters, and two quarters are used for each end.  The left quarter features the suit icons from the pip card or court card.  These are the same for each end of the card.  You will see four cups, two swords, etc.  In the right quarter, there is a large Arabic numeral in red, accompanied by two verses of what I believe is a fortune-telling stanza.  Underneath this, in red again, is the name of a different city in Italy; Torino, Milano, Palermo, etc.  On the other end of the same card, you will see the left quarter features the same pip arrangement but a different number, city and stanzas.

The court figures are treated the same way in this deck.  I don't really like to say this deck is using the Minor Arcana at all, but there are the traditional suits of Cups, Batons, Swords and Coins.  As stated above, King, Knight and Page are the three court cards used in the deck.  There is no Major Arcana.  This deck is not used for esoteric meaning, but in terms of predicting lucky numbers and good or ill fortune.  This is certainly a novel application for a deck of this type and I would be *extremely* interested in seeing an English language version of this deck produced at some point.  I can definitely see a market for this deck.

The cards themselves are your basic poker deck size, although the cardstock is sturdier so the overall thickness of the deck is, well, thicker.  It feels comfortable in the hand.  The edges of the deck are cut evenly and the corners are rounded off.  It shuffles and handles well, but takes some breaking in to wear out the initial stiffness.  The back design is small, subtle, done in a taupe color and the pattern is tight and baroque-looking.  There is no little white booklet but three cards at the end provide six "pages" of instruction, all in Italian.

I recommend this deck to anyone who, in their practice of reading for others, gets a lot of calls for "tell me my lucky numbers!" or who needs to be able to give out this kind of information.  Of course many people will want to buy it to determine their *own* lucky numbers.  Anyone who buys this deck after reading my review and wins the ten million dollar lottery because of it owes me lunch.  *grin*  It makes a nice collectible as well.  Those who can read Italian will obviously be at an advantage with this deck, however much of it can be gotten without reading the instructions when one has some experience with fortunetelling cards in the first place.  For information on purchasing this deck, email Wicce.

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Review Copyright 2000 by Gina M. Pace

Sibilla Della Fortuna, 2000
published by LoScarabeo, Torino, Italy