The Dark Grimoire Tarot

[Nydia]

Myrrha, thank you for the card descriptions! That's a bit sad about the kings and queens, though. I'm still curious about this deck.

 

[firefrost]

Err...any chance of a few scans at all...?

I'm undecided, I'd like to see more of the deck before I do decide to buy it.

Must admit, the Eight of Swords does put me off a little...

 

[Myrrha]

Myrrha, thank you for the card descriptions! That's a bit sad about the kings and queens, though. I'm still curious about this deck.

Well, the Kings and Queens aren't identical or anything. I've become spoiled by decks like the Gothic Vampires and the Tyson Necronomicon deck where the Kings and Queens are actually doing things and not just sitting on thrones with symbolic accoutrements.

firefrost, I don't have a scanner or a digital camera, sorry! Maybe someone else will post a few scans or pictures.

 

[Lillie]

Maybe you can do some shadow work with it, Lillie?

\m/ Kat

Oh, seems like it was just some fancy name for something I do anyway.
On the occassions I can be bothered to care that much about why I am thinking the mad things I'm thinking....

 

[thorhammer]

Oh, seems like it was just some fancy name for something I do anyway.
On the occassions I can be bothered to care that much about why I am thinking the mad things I'm thinking....

Yeah . . . why not just go with it, I say? Most of the time it doesn't do any harm . . .

\m/ Kat

 

[Pagan X]

Oh, my. I am looking forward to the study group threads for this deck. I suggest everybody put up an Elder Sign screensaver first.

I don't recall any stories in which the Elder Race (At the Mountains of Madness) flew with humans on their backs. Night Gaunts grab people and fly with them; Mi-Go are winged, but put people in brain cylinders for transport.

Aceofhearts, somebody has to exercise some sense and take care of the rest of us on our way to Arkham Sanitorium. The quote about the Abyss is from some philosopher, I don't remember which...see, it's affecting me already.

 

[Onyx]

I have a question . . .

I am very much looking forward to getting this deck. I have drooled over it since I first saw it in the Lo Scarabeo book.

I have never read any Lovecraft before. I know that I should have but just never have for one reason or another. I am wondering how important will be to read up before I get the deck? Is it going to be necessary to understand the illustrations?

I know that it is out in Europe and I thought I would ask to see if any who have the cards are as Lovecraft illterate as I am and it is okay or do I need to head to the bookshop and start readings?

Onyx.

 

[Queen of Disks]

The exact quote is by Nietzsche. It goes like this:

Battle not
with monsters,
lest ye become
a monster,

and if you gaze
into the abyss,
the abyss gazes
also into you.

(Got it out of my copy of "Watchmen" by Alan Moore. Another movie I want to see very badly.)

A screen saver of the Elder Sign would be very cool. The study groups will certainly rock. (goes to dig out my H.P. Lovecraft books and The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers.)

 

[Myrrha]

I am very much looking forward to getting this deck. I have drooled over it since I first saw it in the Lo Scarabeo book.

I have never read any Lovecraft before. I know that I should have but just never have for one reason or another. I am wondering how important will be to read up before I get the deck? Is it going to be necessary to understand the illustrations?

I know that it is out in Europe and I thought I would ask to see if any who have the cards are as Lovecraft illterate as I am and it is okay or do I need to head to the bookshop and start readings?

Onyx.

Hi Onyx
There is such a lot going on in the pictures that you should be able to get a reading just from the image. Also, I haven't read all the stories but I'm pretty sure that many of the cards are not from a particular story but are more inspired by the atmosphere of the stories. If you are the kind of reader who uses one specific meaning for each card then reading the stories would help.

Sometimes with story-related decks it becomes a lot of layers of meaning to juggle, with the image and the story, and then the tarot meaning. I find it really difficult. There were some useful comments about this in threads on the Fairytale Tarot. People who read well with it seemed to start by reading the image and then bring in ideas from the story as they seemed to fit in the reading.

If you would like to read a few short stories to get into the atmosphere of the deck here is a site that has them with big print for reading on the screen.

http://www.dagonbytes.com/thelibrary/lovecraft/index.html

I would recommend "The Dunwich Horror", there are a couple of cards that seem closely related to that story and you will get get an idea if knowing the story is helpful to you or not. "The Call of Cthulu" isn't as great a story (IMO) but it would give you an idea of what the Lovecraft beasties are and the horror they inspire. The Shadow Over Innsmouth, is a great atmospheric story and sets the tone for the atmosphere of the deck. I think a couple of cards refer to it but not as directly as I would like.

 

[Texas Tarot]

A question for Lovecraft afficionadoes: Are there any stories that have humans riding one of the Elder Things? (the tube shaped Beings with starfish-like heads) I remember them as being not the kind of Being that would stand for this. The Six of Swords shows a woman riding one. However, it has an atmosphere of dream and I can think of several interesting interpretations regardless of whether this is true to Lovecraft's ideas.

Oh no. No piggy back rides that I remember, and I believe I've read all of Lovecraft's fiction. They and the other ...things in the Cthulhu Mythos wouldn't suffer such an indignity from a lifeform that they would consider to be their inferior.