This enchanting recent release from the creator of the Tarots of the Gnomes features the playful little fairies themselves as the cousins of the Gnomes, with recognizably similar art styles.  Small animals also feature prominently as the fairies' cohabitants of the magical world.  An overall charm permeates the images in this deck.

This marks the fourth deck overall by Lupatelli, who shares a genuine love of fantasy and mythology with his artistic talents.  It is his great skill in painting that saves this and his other decks from the terminally "cute" category.  I personally thought I would like this deck better than the Gnomes deck.  In reality, however, I found this one brought out my interest in the other one, too, so that I like each of them differently, but don't really think of one as better than the other.  It is almost more like this one is a sequel to that, and the reader would do well to get both.

The Major Arcana has the usual 22 cards, and some are titled traditionally, others not.  The Elf replaces the Fool, The Lover replaces a Lovers card, The Dryad symbolizes Justice, The Oread represents the Wheel, The Sylph replaces Temperance, The Troll takes the place of the Devil, The Naiad signifies the Star, and the Globe is at the end instead of the World.  The Dryad as Justice is 8, and Strength 11.  Cards are bordered in white with the Roman numeral at the top, titles in Italian at the bottom, and smaller letter titles in English, French, German and Spanish in the upper corners.  Many of the Major scenes are shown at night in this deck, more than is usual, but they are all appropriate to the characters shown.

In the Minor Arcana, there is an interesting departure from Lupatelli's standard mode.  While the Aces and the Court Cards feature his familiar style, the numbered cards are illustrated with Victorian-era pen-and-ink drawings of fairies.  The look is totally different from Lupatelli's and is a surprise if you're not expecting it.  Each numbered card features a pip arrangement of the suit items in one portion of the image field, with the pen-and-ink renderings in the other portion.  Aces feature adorable baby animals.  The suit items themselves are, in this deck, Hearts, Bells, Acorns and Leaves.  Court titles are King, Queen, Knight and Knave.  White borders again host the titles in five languages and the number at the top, this time in Arabic numerals.

The cards themselves are standard sized, which means they are slightly larger than their Gnomish counterparts.  A thin but flexible card stock makes the deck comfortable to handle and easy shuffling.  There is a slightly slippery protective coating on the cards.  The little white booklet which accompanies the cards replaces the previous standard of cards with short divinatory meanings which comes with the Gnomes; I am hoping at some point the Gnomes deck will be given a booklet as well, since this booklet has the most captivating little tale of the Fairy people given in it.  A spread or reading key is also given for use with the cards, and it is different from others in different decks, so that when you collect all the decks you have a variety of reading spreads to use.  Explanatory meanings for each card are also given, and there is a questionnaire at the end to fill out and send back to LoScarabeo.  An electronic version of this is available on their website below.

I recommend this deck to anyone who collects fairy things.  If you have the Gnomes deck you will also want this one.  This deck would be extremely good for reading with children.  However, the appeal is an all-ages one.  It's not a really beginner-oriented deck but I don't think it would be too difficult to muddle through if you did comparitive work in conjunction with another deck.  Deck collectors will definitely want to add this deck to their collections.  If you have any difficulty locating this deck, email Wicce here.

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Review Copyright 1999 by Gina M. Pace

The Fairy Tarots by Antonio Lupatelli, 1998
published by LoScarabeo, Torino

email Wicce for ordering information