Tarot of the Secret Forest by Lo Scarabeo at House of Tarot

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Submitted By: Marina (Yuko) on 03/05/2006
This tarot is, certainly, one of the most unique tarot decks published by Lo Scarabeo recently. With an artwork filled with nature creatures and rebellious vegetation, it\'s sure to enchant all faerie/nature lovers.

Created by the artist Lucia Mattioli, who lives on the edge of a forest, the deck\'s artwork is soft, with muted colours and many bugs, plants, faeries...even some bigger animals, like fishes and owls.
There\'s one special thing, however, that makes this deck different from all others: both sides of the cards have images. The back has the same image of the face, except that the face has the dreamy-looking painted artwork, and the back is black and white, with a stronger, sketch-like drawing.
What could make the deck difficult to work with actually gives the tarot reader a whole new way of reading tarot. Both sides can be used, together or separately, and the companion booklet instructs on how to do that.

Personally, i found the painted side easier to meditate on, whereas the black and white side helps me to focus on the symbolism the cards shows. But i think it\'s necessary for me to choose the cards with eyes closed, since you can always see which card you are drawing.

Some cards have a very obvious symbolism, while in others you have to work a bit, let the picture \'carry you\', in order to understand. The cards are emotive and beautiful, and it wasn\'t hard for me to find some very different from what i am used to. Such as the Two of Wands, that shows an owl flying away from a tree, and the Seven of Pentacles, in which we see a long flight of stairs between many trees, filled with butterflies. We don\'t know how long will it take for us to finally stop climbing the stairs, but we feel willing to do that, nonetheless!

The Tarot of the Secret Forest has the normal 78 cards, but unlike other Lo Scarabeo decks, there are no titles in many languages or white borders to disturb us - the borders, in fact, are black. Only the symbol of the suits and the numbers are shown. The court cards are named Knave, Knight, Queen, King, and the suits, Swords, Pentacles, Chalices and Wands.

The booklet that comes with the deck is, as usual, printed in five languages, not leaving much space for the symbolism of the cards to be better explained. But i still found it helpful in making me understand, at least a bit, some cards that at the beginning made no sense to me.

I wouldn\'t recommend the deck for people who enjoy a more traditional imagery, for real beginners or people who like decks with a stronger, more colourful artwork. For the others, it can always be a different reading experience with a non-standard deck - one that certainly leads us to a more intuitive reading - or just a very pretty, worthy treasure in a tarot collection.

5 of 5 Stars!

Submitted By: Nada Mesar on 10/28/2005
Dou you like images of bizarre insects, fairy tale like creatures, fairies, dark forests evoking mysteries of days gone by?

Then the Tarot of the Secret Forest is made for you. As a special feature the back of the cards have a black and white image of the picture given on the front so you can choose if you wish to use the coloured or the black and white side or can mix the cards in a reading.

Fans of Brian Froud\'s Fairy Oracle will surely love the Tarot of the Secret Forest, too.

4 of 5 Stars!

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