Most of the cards, both Major and Minor, show Casanova in some kind of an erotic interlude, but other moments are shown as well.  The artist also uses some stunning landscapes of Venice to round out the deck. The suits used are Chalices, Pentacles, Wands and Swords, and the names appear in four languages.

Some of the cards work really well for me, and others do not.  Following are some highlights and lowlights:

Two of Pentacles:  Using an orgy, this lovely little card captures the concept of hedonistic materialism nearly pitch perfect.   Unlike many other cards in the deck, the women remain as clothed as the men, a fact which adds to the overall feeling of detachment. Also, none of the participants are looking into each other’s eyes.  It’s all about selfish pleasure and joy, sans any emotional connection.

The World:  In a deck filled with images of nude women, the one card that traditionally should feature a nude woman does not.  Instead, we see Casanova the writer working diligently on his memoirs in a candlelit library.  It works perfectly in the context of the deck. After all, there have been many who have lived lives as adventurous and full of seduction as Casanova, but only one man’s name has become a synonym for lover.  This immortality was achieved by his ability to write it all down. As a writer, I adore this idea and its one of the most innovative versions of the World I’ve ever seen.

The Nine of Cups:  The image shows a voluptuous redhead performing an act of fellatio on Casanova, but he appears bored.  Her face isn’t seen, as she’s just an object.  Having learned to read tarot on goddess-centered and feminist decks that portray this card in a positive light, I found this harshness of Raimondo’s card a bit jarring. The notes refer to the card as meaning pleasure for pleasure’s sake.  Sexist?  You bet.  Fascinating.  Definitely.
 
The Tower: Of all the cards in the deck, I liked this one the least.  It’s a simple and pretty enough image of the Church of Santa Maria Formosa in Venice, but since I find the Tower to be one of the most powerful, destructive and forceful cards in the deck, the softness doesn’t work for me.  There’s nothing here that implies ruin or creates the foreboding that the Tower should evoke.

The standard-sized cards come in the usual Lo Scarabeo box packaging, with shrink wrap not only around the deck itself but around the outside of the box.  There’s no book, but the deck comes with a little instruction booklet that does have a few notes explaining some of the deck’s images and how they relate to the card for which they were chosen.  I only wish the publisher had included such notes for all the cards.

Thankfully, Raimondo doesn’t get creative with naming the cards and rarely changes concepts - the cards follow the Rider-Waite pattern.  Any experienced reader would have no problem using them.    Raimondo does change the Lovers to the Lover, probably in deference to his subject.

I think this deck will become very popular with collectors for several reasons.  The artwork is well executed throughout the deck and some of the cards are truly stunning.  Also, the concept will appeal to a number of different groups:  tarot collectors, erotic playing card collectors, Casanova-philes (and I understand there are some) and Italian memorabilia collectors.

As far as its usefulness to a professional reader, I believe that’s limited.  The instructions suggest using it for readings of a romantic and sexual nature is an excellent, if obvious, point.  Since the deck is so masculine, I think it would be most appropriate for male clients, but of course everyone is different.  Personally, I pictured myself doing readings with this deck at the party Tom Cruise attends in “Eyes Wide Shut.”
 
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Guest Review Copyright 2001 by Melissa Madden
used with permission