Black Tarot by Fournier

Product 5/9


Black Tarot by Fournier

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This deck provides a good survey of the work of famous illustrator Luis Royo. Published by Fournier. The boxed deck includes 78 cards in full color and an instruction booklet in English, Spanish and German. Please note that some of the pip cards have drawings of swords, wands, etc. rather than full illustrations.

Price: $24.99

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Reviews ...

Submitted By: Pierce on 06/22/2006
I didnt really like this set of tarot cards. Im not blaming or dissing the artist or makers of the cards, but the website does not depict whats on the cards well enough. I ordered them thinking \" O.K., these cards are going to have a few pictures of naked women on them but that cool\". I got them and every one of the cards (except for the minor arcana) have naked women on them doing things like fucking guys. Sorry but i didnt like that

2 of 5 Stars!

Submitted By: Susan on 03/26/2006
The Black Tarot
By Luis Royo

Dark and atmospheric, the Black Tarot showcases the work of Luis Royo, the erotic, fantasy artist probably best known for his illustrations of Julie Sprain for the movie Heavy Metal. Mr. Royo has noted that the Black Tarot is designed to show “the beauty and the beast we all carry inside” and the deck’s accompanying little white booklet admonishes the user, “Do not get involved with this Tarot if you only want to know about good things”. With the aforementioned warnings in mind, black borders aptly frame the deck’s dark images and effectively serve as a portal to enter and explore the shadow aspects of erotica and fantasy within the framework of Tarot. Though tastefully done, this is not a subtle deck! Sensibility is subjective, of course, but I consider the deck’s images to be quite sexually overt.

Published by the Spanish publishing house Fournier, the Black Tarot’s cards feature four languages and are printed on high quality cardstock. They measure 2 3/8” X 4 1/4” and the card backs are almost, but not quite, reversible. The deck loosely follows the Marseille-style format with Strength as number XI, and Justice as number VIII. All of the Major Arcana cards, though, are named and numbered. For the most part the Minor Arcana cards are un-scenic pip cards, as one would expect in a Marseille-style deck, but the Aces are fully illustrated. All of the cards in the deck, not just the Major Arcana cards, are numbered using Roman Numerals. The deck’s little white booklet, also printed in four languages, provides the usual bit of background information, cursory card definitions and a Celtic Cross spread.

Despite remaining true to standard Tarot structure, I see this as more of a collector’s Tarot than a true working Tarot deck. It can be used, of course, but to my eye, some of the card images (and definitions found in the deck’s little white booklet) stray pretty far a field from traditional Tarot. Still, for fans of Lois Royo, erotica, or those who enjoy sci-fi fantasy art, this is a must-have deck. In the past, the Black Tarot has been difficult to find and has generally commanded rather high prices. The good folks at the House of Tarot have made the Black Tarot available at a very attractive price. If you like your Tarot dark and sexy, proceed accordingly!

4 of 5 Stars!

Submitted By: Lucretius on 10/21/2005
Summary:

Usability: ** 2 out of 5 -- You /can/ use it.
Aesthetics: *** 3 out of 5 --Do you like _Heavy Metal_ magazine?
Value **** 4 out of 5--A pretty good price, as offered here.

Let\'s start by saying that I\'m a child of the late 80\'s and early 90\'s. That I played D&D as a kid. That I probably saw more hot elf chicks getting molested than I saw real girls blushing by the time I was 20. I grew up with _Heavy Metal_ magazine, the T&A covers of _Dragon_ and so on. Keep that in mind as I say the Black Tarot is, for me, at 30-odd, a little tasteless. But boy, if I hadn\'t gotten my fill of vampire chicks and Red-Sonja-esque barbaribimbos rendered in tiny tiny teeny card form, I\'d probably /love/ this deck.

The Basics:

It\'s a tarot deck. 78 Cards. The symbology isn\'t strict Rider Waite, but about as good as you can probably get when your source is mostly T&A Bimbo Posters for the Fantasy Set.

Appearance

Each card has a rather large black border, with white text and a thin white border around each picture. There\'s the number of each trump or minor arcana in roman numerals, then the name of the card in four languages. Spanish and English up top, French and German before. The problem with the big border is that the art, which was probably concieved at poster size, looks pretty small. You can hardly see all the barbarianboobies and ghouls and buzzards and other fantasy goodies.

Cards
Majors:

The High Priestess is a vampiress with a black gauze on.

The Empress is an evil queen with black gauze on.

The Emperor is a hot blonde, sans clothes, with a demon behind her.

Do you sense a theme?

Knaves frequently show nipples.
Queens frequently show nipples.
Knights often have horses. Some girls with nipples may be present.
Kings--there\'s a guy, but often also a girl. Sometimes nipples are in evidence.

The pip cards are all pretty plain. Swords, flaming bowls, wooden spindles, hyborean skull-thingie coins.

Readability:

Well, the minors are just pips. Some of the majors make sense in the Rider-Waite-Smith system. Some don\'t. On the whole, they all give a nice decadent barbarian feel. If you\'re reading for people who think that\'s cool, you\'re set. Me, there\'s a lot of decks I\'d choose before I chose this one.

Quality:

Nice finish, nice box, nice little pamphlet in white paper in four languages, giving a few spreads and very basic keyword sort of impresson.

The Bottom Line:

Would I buy this deck if it hadn\'t been handed to me? If I was a fan of barbarian / fantasy art, I\'d buy it in a second. It\'s well constructed, and the art is high quality. Barbarian chicks? Yowza!

Would I buy it as the pseudo-intellectual college-professor type I am?

Maybe not. It brings back nostalgia, and it\'s nice. If I were a collector or a fan of the art, I\'d snap it up in a second. But I\'m not. I\'m looking for something fairly simple and readable and iconic. If you\'re like me, you might give this one a pass.

3 of 5 Stars!

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