Lo Scarabeo Primavera Tarot

I think this has also been called "art nouveau"

Yesterday I traveled to a small German town for an audition, and before settling down for the night in the hotel, I checked out the esoterica section in a big bookstore. They had a big selection of Scarabeo tarot decks. I chose the Primavera tarot, seduced by the colors and the flowers, etc. It reminded me of the illustrations to the Sleeping Beauty book that I had as a child.

The cards are all very beautiful, and some of them almost communicate something too. I'm working on figuring out what...

The traditional thief card seven of swords shows, in addition to the flowers, flowing dress and hair, sensuous breasts, and lovely face that are on every other card, a woman lifting a curtain behind her with her right hand, while gesturing with her left. Nothing else, but this gesture, suggests something "underhanded". That is good. Perhaps she is gesturing to her lover to "get thee behind".

Many of the cards do carry a possible relation to tarot : the six of wands carries a billiant bouquet -- okay, a bouquet of flowers for victory, instead of a wreath, I can relate to that.
The Five of chalices shows a woman eyeing an expensive vase that has just smashed.

The meanings are very very subtle. Instead of ten swords in the back, a single tear. Instead of bound hands, mummy wrap, and a cage of 8 swords: a tear, and the hair in braids.

The one exception, I guess, is the nine of swords. It is also one of the rare cards that isn't suffocated by the stylistic limitations. The nine of swords shows a full scene, of a woman languishing by her bed. The pose reminds me of baroque sculpture.

There is a faint hint of feeling here. I suspect the idea is that the emotions are all internal, so we can't see them. When appearance is so important, we have to become experts at reading teeny tiny subtle signs to find the truth.

I'll keep looking...in the meantime, I'm left wondering how the land that invented opera with its famous excesses could also produce a deck like this....

If anyone else has this deck, I would love to know how you feel about it and what you make of it.

I have this deck also; it's marked Tarot Art Nouveau on the box, but the English name on the title card is Primavera Tarot.
I can't offer insight on the interpretations since I only collect decks, I don't read with them. I think this is one of the prettiest decks I own, though. The style is very reminiscent of Alfonse Mucha, a prominent artist of the art nouveau movement.

Felicity
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My collection: http://home.attbi.com/~felicityk/tarot/

Hi Firemaiden. I want to revive an old thread here!

I just recieved this deck in the mail, and I have to say I love it. Firemaiden, your description of the subtleness in the cards is what won me over. Not only are these cards beautiful, I feel they will really help me improve my tarot reading - develop it further, push my limits.

The cards are really delicate, featuring beautiful women and men. I find that they are full of expressions. I opened my deck and did a side-by-side comparison to my Sharman-Caselli deck (a RWS clone, with nicer images in my opinion ). I was plesantly surprised at how similar some of the images actually are - except the meaning is conveyed in an expression instead of a scene.

And I feel there is alot of expression here. The court cards feel very active to me, and even though I haven't read with this deck yet (yet!) I feel that the court cards - which I find the hardest cards to read - will be easier than most decks. I like lively people!

Just after having a brief gander at the deck, I'd say my favourite card for the moment is the 8 of pentacles. It features a lady sitting, holding and looking at a painting. It's beautiful, I love it, from the movement in her hair, the metres and metres of cloth on her dress, and the look in her face as she admires the painting. It is her own work, I think, and she is giving it a critical look to see what to pain next - for I feel the painting is incomplete...

Anyway, I know - from reading other threads before buying this - that alot of people don't like this deck or don't recommend it as anything other than an 'art' deck, but I really feel that this could be a fantastic reading deck. It may take a while for someone like me who is only just begining to grow confident with traditional RWS-like images, but I am confident that I can do it. I really feel a connection, which is fantastic

Hi, Goddesscarlie! I just got the Art Nouveau mini in the mail yesterday! (I ordered a bunch of 2006 books from Llewellyn which are now on sale, including the 2006 Tarot Reader. And I couldn't just order something from them without adding a deck!)

Besides finding out that age is indeed catching up with my eyesight (this may be my last mini!), I found as you did that the deck will be quite readable. I also picked out the 8 Pents for a favorite! A great illustration of the meaning.

A few negatives:

I really don't like the Strength card. Not only is it violent, but it's also kind of hard to figure out what's happening. I guess it's Hercules abusing a centaur.

There's a little more nudity than I thought there would be. (I've got nothing against nudity. My favorite deck is Cosmic Tribe!!! But I do need to keep it in mind when reading for others.)

And there's half-naked girl doting on each elderly king, which I find a little disturbing. Why aren't there half-naked guys doting on the queens?!! (But that would probably still be disturbing . . .)

I've only looked through the deck a few times. I think tonight I'll find some more positives and balance out this post!

I agree with what you say Rachelcat.

Strength: It is so not how I picture strength. This is more to do with physical force. I much prefer the idea of a gentle woman taming the beast, it suggests a different type of strength, more of inner strength perhaps than violent strength.

I'm not so much bothered by the nudity, and I do think it suits the deck.

There are many images of two women together, and to me that is fine, 'innocent'. But when coupled with the kings and their women, it makes these other pictures of women together seem almost 'seedy'. It makes it seem like instead of these two women together being friends or even lovers, it feels like it turns them into pretty things to be looked at by men. I hope you know what I mean

That being said, yesterday I got a very acurate reading, with a king in it. I think it was the King of Cups, but I can't exactly remeber off the top of my head here. But, instead of the card relating to the king, I felt that meaning for it was being drawn from the woman! I found that interesting.

Sofar, looking through the deck there are cards that I'm not sure what they mean. However, when I do a reading, I don't seem to get these cards, and I am able to do the reading perfectly. I even did a 'fake' reading where I imagined that someone was sitting infront of me and asked a question. The cards were spot on. I have never done this reading before, and I've been thinking about bringing it up in another forum. But my point is that the cards aren't just pretty pictures, this deck is quite readable. Even for a novice like me.