Deck Review: Jack O'Lantern Tarot

Giuliano Costa (author) and Rachel Paul (artist), Jack O'Lantern Tarot. Torino, Italy: Lo Scarabeo, 2021.  

Link to Lo Scarabeo (in Italian).

Link to Llewellyn (U.S. distributor).

 

Genre: Tarot deck

Subgenre: Halloween, Samhain, art

Format: 78-card deck with little white book in tuck box. 

Source: I own this one.

 

Six of Pentacles card

I first used this deck during September 2022, and it is a great deck to use during fall season and Halloween time. The deck comes in a tuck box. The deck has 78 cards, and it includes a little white book (LWB). 

The LWB is a standard Lo Scarabeo booklet written in four languages: English, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. The LWB includes a short introduction, the instructions and layout for the 5-card Pumpkin-Patch Spread, and card meanings for Major and Minor Arcana cards. The 5-card spread is described as "a spread for examining the journey of a situation from start to completion, from humble seed to masterpiece" (4). The LWB does provide a bit of detail to help interpret the spread. It looks like a good spread to try out during the fall season. For the Major Arcana cards you get about a paragraph of description and interpretation per card. For the Minor Arcana cards you get about two to three lines of text. The LWB also includes a paragraph on the deck's art references. 

The cards have a classical style of art. According to the LWB, "artistically and philosophically the source is to be traced to the early German romanticism and the movement of Strum und Drang" (22, emphasis in original. I add link to Wikipedia entry for folks who, like me, had to look up the term). Thus the art can be expressive and emotional at times. The Jack O'Lanterns theme is featured prominently on the cards in a variety of ways. Colors are lively and bright, and fall colors such as orange, yellow, and green are prominent. The artist clearly put a lot of attention to detail, so there is plenty to draw upon for card readers. Each card is like a classic masterpiece panting you could find in a museum. 

The Magician-I card

For the most part, the card designs fall well within Rider Waite Smith (RWS) system, so those who use RWS should be good to go. The art is very rich and detailed so it should work well for intuitive readers. You can probably use the cards without the LWB, though I recommend reading the LWB at least once to learn about the deck's themes and the artist's vision for the cards. 

The cards have a very soft glossy finish. They slide and shuffle with ease. The card stock is flexible and thin, though not as thin as Llewellyn card stock. Lo Scarabeo tends to do a bit better with their card stock. The cards are borderless; they are identified by a small block banner on the bottom of each card. All cards retain their traditional names. On this deck, Strength is VIII, and Justice is XI. The cards measure about 4 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches. The beautiful card back art is not reversible. 

Overall, this is a beautiful and very colorful deck. You could use it year round, but it is well suited for fall and Halloween season. It is a solid deck that is easy to use with accessible art that is easy to read. Readers at any level can use and enjoy this deck, though given the sparse LWB I would suggest beginners add a good Tarot reference book. Still, it is a great deck that I enjoyed very much and hope to keep using for many years to come. I am glad to have it in my collection, and I highly recommend it. 

5 out of 5 stars.