Reading Tarot

I have decided to buy a bunch of different tarot decks and offer review of them for readers of this blog. The Black Tarot is a deck that caught my eye because of its incredibly creative imagery and dark visual style. I found the cards online, since they are fairly rare and can be hard to locate in local shops. Fantasy imagery abounds, with depictions of hunky men with swords and semi-naked women posing next to impressive ruins. The artist has clearly gone for a dark gothic theme with these cards, and he warns readers in the included instruction booklet that one should not use these cards “if you only want to know about good things.” But if you want to know about naked women, this is definitely the deck for you!

The black Tarot springs from the imagination of fantasy artist Luis Royo, an illustrator from Spain whose work has appeared in comic books like Heavy Metal magazine. Admittedly, this is not the kind of art style that I usually go for, but his exaggerated designs work surprisingly well in the context of a tarot deck. The meanings that he assigns to each card are a little bit off-base, and I think that the artist had only a passing interest in serious tarot reading and history when he made these drawings.

The Black Tarot deck comes in a box with 78 fully illustrated cards featuring German, French, English and Spanish names. The size of each card is 2 3/8 X 4 ¼ inches. The edges of each card are rounded and the deck has a very nice feel to it when handled.

This deck can certainly be used for readings, but may not be ideal for beginners, since some of the definitions and images differ widely from established tarot meanings. Also, the numbered minor arcana cards provide symbols only and are not fully illustrated like the major arcana cards. If you grew up with or appreciate comic books, fantasy novels, or Dungeons and Dragons, the Black Tarot is definitely a deck that you need in your collection.

Buy This Deck Online Now

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