Dark Grimoire Tarot (English and Spanish Edition)

Look at the Hanged Man card first! You will quickly realize that this is not your usual Tarot deck. This Tarot deck is DARK, not only because of the muted colors used, or the shadowy illustrations, but also because, as the LWB states, it is "a key that can open forgotten doors in the darkest corners of the psyche". The deck is inspired by writings on magic, witchcraft and the occult, especially those of H.P. Lovecraft, in his tales about The Necronomicon. There is a Necronomicon Tarot published, but these two decks are quite different. The LWB included with the deck is the usual type from Lo Scarabeo, that is, it gives you very little to aid you in determining the meanings of the cards. In fact, no meanings for each card is set forth. However, with regard to this deck, that is a good thing. The reader is given alot of leeway in interpreting the cards. The LWB gives you alittle info to start you off, and you do the rest. In many decks, the cards "speak" to you, and basically tell you how to interpret the cards, but this is not the case, in this deck. In this deck, the cards invite you in, to ponder what they might mean. I don't want to tell much about what is included in the Major and Minor Arcana cards, just that the illustrations are beautiful. The only thing I wish to say about the cards is, that I own about 35 decks, and that this is the first deck to which I can truly say, that I was more fascinated with the pip cards 2-10, than I was with the other cards in this deck. You look at the cards, and you keep on asking yourself "what if", and what would happen if one's dark side and fears do not remain hidden, but come to the surface? I don't think that this deck is good for beginners into Tarot. Some understanding of Tarot meanings would be helpful in interpreting these cards. Also, I don't think that it would be a good idea in using this deck for divination purposes for other people, because of the negative ideas and scary illustrations contained in the deck. It is more useful for meditation and analysis. It should be used as a tool to "know Thyself". The illustrations contain severed heads, demons, monsters, spirits and apparitions. You must delve into the psyche to seek the answers to the following questions: Do these things exist in reality, or are they goblins all of my own creation? Are we in control, or are we being controlled?

The card stock and structure are well made for shuffling. The size is perfect for smaller hands which is appreciated for long discussions with higher self and guide/source wisdom. From experience divining the messaging with limited and seemingly cryptic passages requires an ascended conceptualization of divine structure inside of the infinite. I picked these up too soon. Believing them shadow work tools in my already extensive kit. These are not that. While they can aid in the walk through one’s shadow self in a superficial manner one who hasn’t surrendered to the vast comprehension of source will find them rather cryptic. Reading for others requires either incredible intuitive instinct adeptly built over vast experience or a comprehension that these will confound lower vibration conversations many on the earth bound plane desire answers within. These are not “should I or shouldn’t I” in regards to daily living reasoning tools. If however one is seeking higher purpose within the esoteric Akashic wisdom spheres the cards begin to unravel the cryptic messaging in surprising ways. A new beauty arises in the illustrations as the depths of the cryptic verbiage begins to create a moving picture within the illustrated landscapes which hold keys to unraveling the limited but heavy hitting written messages. They certainly open up to creative guide, ancestral, and source messaging to develop vast conversation within limited card selections. A working knowledge of traditional Rider Waite tarot is helpful to bridge the gap in the limited explanations in each card section. But beware staying too true to original tarot as these are meant as an expansion beyond origin. And I would tailor spreads that one is very comfortable with in utilization as these are more intuition and synchronicity vs structure specific. Definitely a well thought out Lovecraftian journey married to oracle and tarot divination. I think it does the marriage justice. Bravo

I love how the description is still on each card, giving you a little bit of insight. I love the artwork for each one. I just wish I could support a local artist and get some with some painted. :) Either way these are very intriguing. Very nice.

This is an amazing deck, as stated in other reviews its not for everyone but if it is to your style you will be very very happy.

I'm pretty satisfied with this deck. It's got a lot of the great references I would have expected. I like the Lovecraft portrait on the back of each card and Lovecraft himself (in a straightjacket) being the Fool. But I do think they've put a rather... dare I say... *positive* spin on Lovecraft's world. The cards seem to portray people coexisting with horrors and monstrosities. In fact one card shows a human being riding and Elder Thing! I mean don't get me wrong, that's gotta be my favourite card; but it's not a very Lovecraftian sentiment! At other times I'm not at all sure what story of Lovecraft's is being depicted by a certain card. I wish the booklet which came with this had been better. For the major arcana it describes what's being depicted; but for the minors there isn't even an entry for each card, just an overall guide to the suits. Speaking of the booklet, it states there that "ignorance can never be redeeming." This seems a distinctly un-Lovecraftian sentiment. It goes on, "Therefore, Tarots could never be an evil and frightful grimoire, but rather will always adapt to being an instrument of the will of man, a true master of his own destiny and always more aware of this power." Yeah... I think a Lovecraftian deck should be less optimistic. Tarot represents the patterns the Universe is organized in. Those patterns aren't always very human, and sometimes they will be frightening, and it's probably true that knowledge is ultimately better than ignorance, but in the short-term it can have negative consequences. There are a few Lovecraft stories I wish had been included; for example I do like the Hermit card as is, someone simply engaged in reading books, but it would have been nice to have a Mi-Go capsule in the background or some other sort of reference to a specific story, or specific dangers of seeking knowledge. I also would have liked to see the Shoggoth themselves appear somewhere, and the hyrogliphed halls of the Elder Beings. Ah, and despite an entire suit dedicated to Lovecraft's Dreamland writings, we don't get any of the weird Dreamland creatures, like the moon beasts, the Night Gaunts, the strange creatures from Doom that Came to Sarnath, the zoogs, or indeed the cats. Ooh also the "Great Race" would have been nice to see. A lot of the cards have fairly generic ghouls-or-fishmen-or-something, misshapen humans with glowing eyes, rather than specific horrors. So I do think there would have been room for more stories. Still, this deck has some great cards, I like the overall fairly muted coloring and atmosphere, and the deck comes off as less trite than some other Lovecraftian decks.

I received this tarot deck as a gift from my fiancee just a few weeks ago and I have had a chance to do a few readings with it. Even though the cards are loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft stories, this deck is not a "gimmick deck". It is a good deck to read when a serious answer is needed and you want a very straight-to-the-point answer. I will warn that the symbolism in this deck is very dark so if you are afraid or turned off by gruesome images then this probably isn't the deck for you. I love the images on the major arcana especially (see Strength), but the art of the minor arcana is impressive as well. Much of the imagery has a lot in common with the Rider-Waite-Smith pack, but this is definitely not a RWS clone as there are plenty of differences (namely severed heads and bloody scenes) to make this a very unique deck with a lot of creepy atmosphere. Highly recommended to horror fans or any fans of darker themed tarot decks.

This is such a creepy deck - and I love it! I was looking for a deck to do shadow work with and I wanted a dark one. I have been looking for a while. I bought the Deviant Moon deck and I love that too and it is creepy as well, but this one has more realistic images and real dark demon looking creatures. I guess it was made based on Necronomicon, but you don't need to know anything about that to use this deck. I don't. I posted this review mainly so I could post some pictures for you all to see. The first pic is of the really super creepy ones that I selected, to give you an idea of how dark it gets. But not all the images are dark themed. The coloring is the same but some, like the star, and the suit of cups have a lighter more "hopeful" imagery. Hope this helps!

I'm very picky when it comes to illustration, and collect tarot decks for the art. This deck does not disappoint and isn't cheesy like lots of other darker decks. The standard Lo Scarabeo quality is very average but I still enjoy the art

I love them

Lo compré con mucha espectativa, pero me decepcioné: Es de una débil simbología, mucho efecto, poca sustancia No lo recomiendo.

It’s good and

Adotei como meu tarô de atendimento padrão. É muito perfeito pra fãs dos Mythos e de todo o universo que lovecraft contou

Really nice tarot deck, its good to handle life problems