This very new tarot deck offering from LoScarabeo had me on the edge of my seat from the first moment I saw a picture of it on their website.  It is not yet available in the United States, but already I can see a growing demand for its lovely artistic cards and graceful figures.  This deck is right up there among the most beautiful tarots I've ever seen.

I do not know a lot about the Art Nouveau movement itself, and so I won't try to pretend that I do and actually critique the art on that level.  There is a definite "classical" feeling to the images, reminding me of the ancient Greeks and Romans and as I understand it, part of the appeal of Art Nouveau style is the return to those classical feelings and images.  As a tarot deck, the images are lovely, evocative and colorful, with circular and stained-glass sort of patterns in the backgrounds behind the main figures.

This is a traditional tarot deck, with 78 cards, 22 Major Arcana and 56 Minor Arcana.  All of the titles follow traditional naming and order, with The Lover instead of the Lovers.  Justice is 8 and Strength 11.  Each card has the Roman numeral for the card top and center in the white border, with the title in Italian in the bottom border, and the title appears in smaller letters in English, French, German and Spanish in the upper corners.  The borders are more open than just a white block around the design, adding to the free-flowing feeling of the cards.

When we get to the Minor Arcana, one thing that becomes very quickly apparent is the heavy use of female figures in the numbered cards.  By heavy I mean that in most traditional decks, there are mostly men in the cards, but in this deck I'd say the balance has switched to show mostly women.  Combined with the court cards and the Majors, you end up with a deck that is pretty evenly divided -- a plus for those who have always disliked the traditional tarot's gender imbalances.

The numbered cards have the Arabic numeral at the top in the center of the border, and titles are as in the Majors.  Traditional suit symbols of Cups, Wands, Pentacles and Swords are used in this deck.  The Ace is not titled as an ace but is instead represented as 1 in each suit.  Therefore the cards go from 1 through 10.  On each numbered card in each suit, there appears a bar of suit items in a pattern to help distinguish the image when you're looking at them, so you don't have to take your eyes off the picture to look at the title and see which suit you're in.  The court cards are the standard King, Queen, Knight and Knave.  I'd like to say the cards represent something between full scenes and pip cards.  The scenes shown are actually rather untraditional as far as resembling other tarots, but they portray the senses and feelings behind the meaning of the cards.

The cards themselves are slightly larger than LoScarabeo's usual size.  I'd say at this point it is safe to say the larger sized decks and informational booklet instead of the sets of cards with really short meanings at the end of the deck are a permanent change.  The larger size brings these cards to standard with other publishers, a size which is comfortable to handle and shuffle.  The card stock used is thin and flexible and has a slightly slippery protective gloss on them.  This wears in quite well, making them handle easily.

There is a folded little white booklet which comes with this deck.  It begins with a brief but informative discourse on Art Nouveau style itself.  An introduction to cartomancy is also included.  A spread, or reading key, is explained for use with the cards.  I like that it is not the Celtic Cross.  I also like that it is different from the reading keys in the other LoScarabeo decks, therefore if you collect all the decks you will have a large variety of keys to use.  The divinatory meanings for the cards in this deck are actually more along the lines of explaining why the images in the card express the feelings of the card itself; I found them surprisingly effective at making them clear.  The booklet ends with a questionnaire for the user to fill out and send to LoScarabeo; a website copy is also available for you to send electronically on their site below.

I highly recommend this deck for anyone who is interested in classical or art nouveau art styles.  I think a beginner might find them somewhat mystifying but with some experience and/or comparative work with other decks, they could actually prove to be quite enlightening.  The only problem one might have with them, and it's a small one in my opinion, is that the same overall look is consistently achieved throughout the deck; for some people, this kind of "same-ness" might be difficult to look at for lengths of time.  There is a tremendous depth of detail here that is well worth looking at, in my opinion.  As of yet this deck is not available for sale in the USA, but email Wicce for information on how to order one.

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Review Copyright 1999 by Gina M. Pace

Tarot Art Nouveau by Antonella Castelli, 1998
published by LoScarabeo, Torino

email Wicce for ordering information