New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit Since 1901
| Summary:
If you like white cats, this art deck is a cute collector’s item. Review Lo Scarabeo, the prolific Italian publisher of some of the most beautiful Tarot decks in the world, has made available several of their decks in a "mini" size of 44 x 80 mm (about 1.73 x 3.15 inches), about 1/3 smaller than most Tarot decks. This makes them very easy to carry with you anywhere and everywhere. The cards do not have the same protective coating as most decks so they may not last as long as full-sized decks. When I first became interested in the Tarot about a bazillian years ago, I decided I wanted to obtain all of the Tarot decks that were available. This was at a period when the interest in Tarot deck design was just beginning to explode. Every time I’d buy a deck five new ones would come on the market. I finally gave up my desire to collect decks. However, I noticed that there were certain types of Tarot decks that were being created. Some were startlingly different from the Rider-Waite-Smith model. Some tried to introduce their own symbolism. Some tried to out RWS the RWS deck. Some were what I call "art decks." Their only purpose is to present something "arty" to the RWS design. There is no attempt at symbolism or meaning, just art. To my mind, that is exactly what the Mini Tarot of White Cats is. Simply take out the heads and hands of the characters on the RWS deck and replace them with heads and paws of fluffy white cats. That’s it. I had to go to the internet to find out anything about the artist for this deck. On this, the mini version, there is nothing anywhere??"in the LWB, on the box??"that says anything about this. There is nothing about anyone who came up with the idea. Perhaps there was a reason for this? The LWB does have a cute six-card spread. If you really, really, really??"and I mean REALLY??"like white cats, you might find this to be a good deck to use. If you’re a professional Tarot reader and have a client who just adores white cats to an extent that all the client wants to talk about is white cats, you could use this adorable deck for them. It also makes a great "gag" gift for your favorite Tarot reader. As I wrote above, I had to go to the internet to discover who was involved with this deck. I found one site that had ten reviews of this deck, of which nine gave it the highest rating possible. When I examined the reviews, they all said that they were cat lovers and not one mentioned whether they had given successful readings with the deck. Like I said, if you really like cats, this deck is going to be one you’ll like. So if you want to collect every Tarot deck available or have a very niche use for this deck, you will find it adorable and cute. Otherwise, this deck will go in my "rarely if ever use" section of Tarot decks. I’m not really all that much of a cat person anyway, so I don’t have a use for a deck where all of the people are now white cats. Well, there is one card where the main figure isn’t a white cat. It’s The Fool. You guessed it. The Fool is a white dog. Cute. Name of deck: Tarot of White Cats (mini) Publisher: Lo Scarabeo ISBN: 0-7387-1237-X Artist’s names: Severino Baraldi Name of accompanying booklet: Tarot of White Cats Number of pages of booklet: 32 ( just over 7 in English) Author(s) of booklet: Unlisted Available in a boxed kit?: No, but it also comes in a full size version. Magical Uses: None Reading Uses: Maybe general readings for someone who really, really, really likes white cats. Theme: White Cats Tarot, Divination Deck, Other: Tarot Does it follow Rider-Waite-Smith Standard?: Yes Does it have extra cards?: No Does it have alternate names for Major Arcana cards?: |
