The Lo Scarabeo publishing company released their signature deck in 2007 with the idea to “unify the distinctive symbolic vocabulary of [the Tarot de Marseilles, Waite-Smith, and the Thoth] decks”. Created by Mark McElroy and with artwork by Anna Lazzarini, this deck packs a lot of symbolism to inspire your intuition.
The Lo Scarabeo Deck
The cards are a little thinner than playing card stock with a matte finish which is neither slippery nor sticky. I love the feel of them, though I like a slightly sturdier stock. The images are bordered with clear identification and printed in full color. Despite being chock-full of symbolism, the images aren’t crowded, however, a borderless version with larger images for my 54-year-old eyes would be appreciated.
Packaged in a standard box, a booklet provides keywords in six languages, as are all decks from Lo Scarabeo. Beginners, don’t count on the booklet for meanings – it is pretty basic. Do read how the author conceived the deck, it is very interesting. To create their vision, McElroy and Lazzarini examined each card from the Tarot de Marseilles, Waite-Smith, and Thoth decks and pulled out what was common and what was unique. The resulting Lo Scarabeo imagery reveals meanings hidden to most tarot practitioners.
Getting Into The Details
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For example, the Ten of Cups shows the traditional rainbow, but also ten celebrants raising their cups in salute to the main archetypal cup. Fulfillment/Delusion are the keywords. The feeling of group belonging, celebration, and acknowledgment of success stand out for me. On the shadow side, there is a cultish feel to this card that I never noticed.
The Queen of Coins/Pentacles (Comfort/Laziness) is luscious. Roses, lilies, grapes, and ivy surround the figure illustrating the material things over which she has mastery. But the expression on her face is ambiguous and do I see a highlight or a tear on her cheek?
The Lo Scarabeo Magician (Mastery/Trickery) possesses strong Loki or trickster vibes. The four elements present in both their symbolic and material forms: Cups-Rain, Wands-Lightning, Coins-Earth, Swords-Clouds. We see the caduceus around his neck, representative of Hermes and the power to “wake the sleeping and send the awake to sleep”.(source)
Lo Scarabeo in Use
The Lo Scarabeo immediately moved into my main rotation of cards. No breaking for me – I just connected with it immediately. It is now one of my top three decks, along with The Modern Witch Tarot and the Heaven and Earth Tarot.
What Clients are Saying about Sophrosyne Tarot
I was advised to ask open-ended questions instead of predictive questions which I thought was helpful because I never would have known if it weren’t for the reader. The reader provided the reading along with some advice too so the entire reading was very thorough and explained in an understandable manner.
Everything said was accurate and helpful for me to identify my flaws in order to grow as a person. I have learned a lot about tarot and what it does to help me.
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