Fey

The Fey Tarot
Riccardo Minetti & Mara Aghem (Lo Scarabeo, 2002)

Review
It's such a happy little deck!

If it weren't for the odd half-revealed nipple I'd happily recommend this to younger readers- even the Devil is looking particularly huggable, while the Empress and Emperor both appear to have a pet, uh, winged unicorn teddy bear.

So yes, not a deck that takes itself too seriously.

Don't assume that means there's any problem with the art though- there's a wonderful range of creatures present, and the fairies themselves have every kind of face, expression and age, all rendered in bright and extrovert colour. The only major difference between the Majors and Minors in terms of art is that the Minors have more pronounced line work.

The stand out cards of this deck have to be Judgement, being a self-portrait of the artist herself being poked by her curious creations, and the knight of swords, who appears to be riding what seahorses think dragons look like. There's lost of tiny little delights as well- the stars are all on string in the Ten of Pentacles, looking as though they've just come from a child's bedroom.

There's decks for reading, decks for meditating, and now it seems clear there's a deck for making me feel unexpectedly cheerful as well.