Harmonious Tarot by Lo Scarabeo at House of Tarot

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Submitted By: Karen on 09/14/2007
Harmonious Tarot (2005) published by Lo Scarabeo

Artwork by Walter Crane and Ernest Fitzpatrick
Graphics/editing by Pietro Alligo. Instructions by Maria Caratti
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The Harmonious Tarot is a beautiful \"art deck\" from LoScarabeo, featuring artwork created and inspired by Victorian-era painter Walter Crane. But more than just a lovely collection of artwork, the Harmonious Tarot is a wonderful, readable tarot deck that both beginner and experienced readers can appreciate.

The Harmonious Tarot is a standard-sized, Lo Scarabeo deck, complete with the standard six languages inside the outer, white borders. The inner borders are exquisitely ornate, in an art-deco, floral design. The colors of this deck are subdued, in rich autumn hues of gold, brown, orange and green.

The deck closely follows the Rider-Waite system for the most part, other than the reversal of trumps VIII (Justice) and XI (Strength). The pips especially are very easy to read and interpret, each one telling its own unique story. Although this deck closely follows Rider-Waite, it is not what I would consider a \"clone\" or carbon-copy of that deck. Instead, it does depart from the basic structure in several cards, which keeps it interesting. For example, in the 5 of Wands, where we would typically see five young men playfully jousting with their wands in a friendly competition, here we see three tiny cherubs, seemingly working together as they tug on the flower stems. Even though the message is slightly different than \"the usual\", it still works.

Another favorite card for me is XV The Devil. This is one of the strangest Devil cards I have ever seen....it is frightening and almost comical at the same time: A gruesome, monkey-faced demon is riding upon a sinister, black cat-beast with wild eyes and claws and teeth bared at some unknown enemy. The monkey-demon has his sword in hand, and it is unclear what may be happening beyond the borders of this scene....there is something strange and unsettling about this image.

I would recommend the Harmonious Tarot to anyone who appreciates this particular style of artwork, and particularly for fans of Walter Crane and the storybook illustrations of the late 19th century.

This is a beautiful, flowery deck rich in detail and imagination.
I would not hesitate to recommend this deck for professional readers, collectors and even beginning students. It is a real gem, on many levels.

~Karen L. 9/14/07

5 of 5 Stars!

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