17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Surrealistic Journey into the Twilight!, July 28, 2009
This review is from: Tarot of the Sweet Twilight (English and Spanish Edition) (Cards)
From samples over the internet, these cards "called" to me. I didn't know exactly why, but then it hit me. "Wow! This is Tim Burton meets Tarot", I thought. It's undeniable that the imagery in the Tarot of the Sweet Twilight seems to be taken out of movies like "The Night Before Christmas" and "Corpse Bride". However, this is not just a rehash of the Rider Tarot in the spirit of those movies, but an ingeniously designed deck by Christina Benintende.
The cards on this deck are bordered black, with a reversible back to behold. The imagery losely follows the Rider tradition in a surrealistic fashion. With muted but contrasting colors, each card sucessfully captures the environment at twilight. At times, a sun and a moon will be seen at opposite ends of a card. The characters are languish being of pale skin that at all times captivate your imagination with their hidden emotions. However, this is by no mean a depressing deck.
Each card on this deck is labeled top and bottom on six languages including English, Italian, Spanish, French, German and Dutch. The Major Arcana are numbered at the top with stylish purple roman numerals, starting at 0 with The Fool. No matter how much I try, I won't be able to make justice to these cards. Instead, I can say that my mind was full of wonder as I enjoyed them. Is there a scythe as the shadow of the skeletal figure in Death? Is that an effigy of Yoda at the bottom left corner of Strength?
The suits in the Minor Arcana (chalices, pentacles, wands and swords) are subtly integrated into the imagery. The pip cards are fully illustrated and numbered at the top. There are a lot of interesting cards in the Minor Arcana like Ace of Cup with a woman bathing in a cup, Nine of Pentacles with a Catwoman look a like in view, and Knave of Wands with a troubadour with a spanish guitar to mention a few.
The only disappointing part of this deck is perhaps the Little White Book that comes with it. If you wanted to know what inspired the designer, you won't find an answer there. However, the descriptions were to point of the imagery on the cards.
If you like surrealistic art and tarot, this is probably a good deck for you. I suspect this is a deck I will enjoy for a long while.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lovely Redo for Tarot, September 4, 2009
This review is from: Tarot of the Sweet Twilight (English and Spanish Edition) (Cards)
This isn't a typical Rider-Waite clone deck. A fair number of the illustrations depart from the standard symbology, but not so much that the interpretaions are totally lost! You shouldn't have too much trouble adapting to the deck for doing readings from.
But that's not really why I dig this deck. It's the look. The colors are vivid, but not overly cheerful. I read a review where someone felt that it was the deck that Tim Burton never made, and I think that is an apt description. It's got some gloomy outlook amidst the more upbeat cards, and the drawings are rather charming. It's not as far out there as the Deviant Moon Deck either; it's stylised without departing from certain Tarot norms.
Additionally the card stock is a good wieght and the finish is not overly slick making them easy to handle. Lo Scarabo's boxes have a different fold at the bottom that doesn't roughen up the cards when you put them back in. The little white book is a bit on the sparse side, but that's standard. The meanings given in it do seem to vary a bit from what you learn elsewhere, but I found them to be relatively easy incorporated twists of other decks.
All in all, charming without being overly cheerful or theme interpretive.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sweet Twilight, November 4, 2009
This review is from: Tarot of the Sweet Twilight (English and Spanish Edition) (Cards)
Simply put: This deck is amazing.
The cards are great quality with beautiful artwork. It's magical, depressing, emotional, artistic, but without being over done. It is what it is, the sweet sweet twilight.
I did a great deal of research before purchasing and I am beyond satisfied.
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