A bit daunted by the Dante...

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 24 May 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Andryh	24 May 2002
Yesterday I bought the beautiful Dante Tarot published by Lo Scarabeo. I stumbled across it quite unexpectedly, and purchased it on a whim. I've never so much as picked up The Divine Comedy, and have only a vague sense of what its about. However, after viewing these spectacular cards, I am very intrigued, and plan on attempting to read the epic. Does anyone have this deck? Do you find this a rewarding reading deck, or is it just a phenomenal art deck? This is such a hypnotically gorgeous tarot, but it seems very overwhelming for those of us unfamilliar with Dante's work. If this is a good reading deck I'm more than willing to rise to the challenge of getting to know it better. Any input welcome. Thanks!

purplelady	30 May 2002
Andryh, I don't own the deck (yet) and have never read the divine comedy either. But I feel strangely drawn to this deck! Not sure why. Maybe it's the surreal, modern looking artwork, or the airy feel to it. Awhile ago I began a thread asking if anyone knew For Sure which suit corosponded to which as there was some confusion about this in reviews, but no one answered the thread to my knowledge. I Want This Deck! For instance there is a suit of bricks, which you'd think would be more like pentacles than anything else , but I think it's really wands? I think Everyone is a bit daunted by the dante!

Lee	30 May 2002
I think the artwork is just gorgeous, but I believe it's incapable of being read with. There are certain decks out there where I don't believe the author/artist really took the readability factor seriously, and this is one of them. But it's worth having for the art! -- Lee

amyel	30 May 2002
Quote: Originally posted by purplelady Andryh, I don't own the deck (yet) and have never read the divine comedy either. But I feel strangely drawn to this deck! Not sure why. Maybe it's the surreal, modern looking artwork, or the airy feel to it. Awhile ago I began a thread asking if anyone knew For Sure which suit corosponded to which as there was some confusion about this in reviews, but no one answered the thread to my knowledge. I Want This Deck! For instance there is a suit of bricks, which you'd think would be more like pentacles than anything else , but I think it's really wands? I think Everyone is a bit daunted by the dante! Yep, I have this deck. Andryh, you might want to go back maybe two months and see my thread on the Dante (I think it's called "I got the Dante!") I have tried to read with this, but as Purplelady says, the way the artist assigned the alternative suites doesn't quite jive with me. I keep intuitively thinking they are all mixed up! The artwork is beautiful, though. It sounds like you have joined "the dark side" of tarot collecting, as Kiama refers to it.... I'd suggest if you continue to have problems with it, don't force it. Enjoy it for what it is - a beautifully rendered deck - and move on to another. P.S. Purplelady, I think I did answer this....perhaps in my original thread.....unless you asked in a different thread.... P.P.S. I've bumped the original thread, which asnwers your querey, purplelady. Sorry I didn't see your original query or I would have answered....Andryh, this might give you some more guidence.....but it might not....

Andryh	31 May 2002
Thanks to everyone for their impressions of this deck. This tarot, while still thoroughly befuttling me, has really stolen my heart. The more I look at it, the more beautiful it becomes. I have started to read the Divine Comedy, and can already connect several of the cards to the story. I am still unsure, but I am holding out hope that if one has a strong enough understanding of Dante's writing, this can be a functional deck. I will continue to try to study this deck, and try to keep everyone posted with my progress. Thanks again.

Jewel	31 May 2002
Andryh please do keep us posted on your progress, I am quite curious to hear the outcome.

Cerulean	31 Aug 2002
Our teacher just said he's incorporating into a nonprofit, as people donated slides, services., etc. so the url now reflects the change. We just finished a seminar--10 weeks to be exact--reviewing highlights of the Divine Comedy. If you go to [url]http://www.motwm.com/url] and look under Dante, a short synopsis of the 100 cantos done canto-by-canto suggests hightlights. I hope that helps people. To get highlights and dual language translation, we used Alan Mandelbaum in three paperback volumes. For the solitary student, I can suggest two other alternatives: the Everyman's Library version has line drawings by Botticelli, English only. For someone like myself, the Dover Library Dual-Language translation with selected cantos fully translated, then some others summarized. I like the smaller paperback for notes and a quick reference while I use other Dante things such as... The Dante Tarot! I'd also suggest the least expensive copy of La Vita Nuova, The New Life for background on the love story as Dante tells it. Dante writes it all as a romanticized allegory-- a retelling of his poetic take on his life and times and people that did wrong to him or in his eyes, did wrong to others. I'm still absorbing everything, but I like how the Dante tarot allegories echoes back at me. If anyone ever gets to Paradiso and sees how the metaphors in the first three cantos echo I.Corinthians XIII...well, the Lights Suit is a very pretty reflection of Paradiso as a whole. Just my take after a dizzying ten weeks trying to balance work and classes... Mari H.

Kaz	31 Aug 2002
mari: is the link you provided above correct? coz i get an error on the url. edited to say that it works now, thanks mari :-) kaz

Dark Inquisitor	01 Sep 2002
I have just recently gotten this deck. I love the colors & style of the artwork. I was excited that time had been taken to fully illustrate the minors. But, upon closer inspection, the minors are unreadable as tarot cards. Completely different. The only way to read this deck for me now is to correlate the meanings given in the book to the pictures on the cards. So instead of digging up standard tarot deck meanings for the minors, I will look at them as individual pictographs, -flash cards, sort of. I am not going to bother to dissect the Divine Comedy for all the nuances. I am partially annoyed at the situation, because this could have been one of the all time greatest & most unusual classic tarot decks. I will put this deck in my private Museum of Tarot Fossils and take it out to use as a diversion or contemplation item. But it could have been so much more. Tarotphelia

The A bit daunted by the Dante... thread was originally posted on 24 May 2002 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.