Deck Review: Incubus Tarot

 Davide Furno (creator and artist) and Charles Harrington (text author), Incubus Tarot. Torino, Italy: Lo Scarabeo, 2024 (link to publisher). 

Genre: Tarot, cartomancy

Subgenre: demons, shadow, surreal

Format: kit with small book and deck

Source: I own this one 

The High Priestess-II 

This 78-card set includes the deck and a small companion book. Typical of Lo Scarabeo, the book's text in in multiple languages: English, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese. On a side note, I am wondering if the Bad Economy is affecting Lo Scarabeo because they seem to be cutting back on language translations. They used to also have languages like Chinese and Russian, but now what remains other than English are Romance languages. The book has 127 pages of text; it has 49 pages for the English text. The text is arranged as follows: 

• A deck of demons. This is a brief description of the deck's theme of demons. Demons here are not just supernatural demons; they can be your inner demons, part of your shadow. 
• A Tarot with three voices. This section explains the three points of view every card offers: essence, whispers of the abyss, and reversed, and they are briefly explained. The author recommends shuffling the cards so you get upside down (reversed) cards. I don't usually do reversals, but that is because I can usually sense a reversed meaning on an upright card. I'd say do what works for you. 
• The Devil and Angel on your shoulder spread. This a simple 3-card spread. 
• The cards. This is where you get the card entries. We start with the Major Arcana followed by the Minor Arcana suits: cups, pentacles, wands, and swords. All card entries feature the same text of essence, whispers of the abyss, and reversed meaning, basically three short paragraphs per card. 

The book overall is pretty basic, yet I found the card interpretations to be interesting and worth reading. Can you read the cards without the book? Probably, but you may miss some of the cards' full wisdom. 

The card art is mostly in grey tones with some additional limited colors such as purple tones. Up front you can tell this is a dark deck, which works fine for me as I like dark decks. If you are more into sun and light and bright, this deck may not be for you. The art at times has a surreal quality. You can see the artist paid attention to detail. The characters featured in the cards are expressive and show emotions well. 

Five of Pentacles 

For the most part, the card art falls within the Rider Waite Smith (RWS) tradition. The art is expressive enough that the deck can work for intuitive readers. The cards do spark the imagination. 

The cards measure about 4 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches. The card back art is not reversible. Each card is identified by simple print font in a black ribbon at the bottom of a card. The card stock is a bit thin, typical of Lo Scarabeo style. The cards have a soft gloss and shuffle with relative ease. 

Overall I love this deck, and it is now one my favorites. This is one I'd buy a back up copy to make sure I am not without it. You can use it year round, but I would prefer using it during the dark time of the year. This is one I highly recommend. 

5 out of 5 stars.  

 Decks with similar appeal factors that I have used. Links go to my reviews: 

• I got the deck in part because Charles Harrington wrote the text. He also wrote the text for the Murder of Crows Tarot, Tarot of the Vampires, and Tarot V. 
• The Ludy Lescot Tarot. 
• The Dark Fairytale Tarot.