Ludy Lescot Tarot Cards – September 8, 2011

As soon as I managed to unwrap the Ludy Lescot Tarot, I was blown away. This deck, inspired by Ludy Lescot herself, is indeed a seductive new take on darkness-themed Tarots. It depicts an occult world laced with pain, power, and darkness. The masterful use of muted tones by Patrizio Evangelisti goes surprisingly well with his artistic style. Right away, this one of my favorites Tarot decks.These cards are bordered black, with a thin elegant frame around the imagery. Each card contains either a number or symbol at the top and bottom. No labels are used in this desk. The dark theme continues at the back of the cards. A thin frame surrounds the image of two hands reaching toward each other over a background of grayish leaves. One is palm up (male), and the other palm down (female). In the frame, a Latin quote is written.The Major Arcana are numbered top and bottom with roman numerals, but starting with null symbol for the Fool. In this deck Strength is VIII and Justice is XI. There are many cards in the Major Arcana full of symbolism. For Example: In the Fool, a barefoot child playing a flute replaces the classic Fool, while a chicken seems to replace the dog. This child is being followed by multitude of rats like in the medieval story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. In the Lovers, a woman is sitting in a bench. Her lover approaches her from her back and as he binds her arms, bites her on the shoulder drawing blood. A book lies open in the floor and towards the right, a rider is seen approaching them. In Strength, it is not the lion a beast to be tamed as we see a naked woman on her knees and hands facing us ferociously.The Minor Arcana are labeled with a symbol for the suit at the top. The standard symbols of swords, wands, cups or pentacles. The pips are labeled with a number at the bottom, but it also incorporate a number of the suit symbols subtly depicted within the card imagery. Sometimes it is very subtle. For Example: In the Eight of Wands a woman runs up stair, where eight wooden steps are seen. In the Seven of Pentacles, a woman looks at herself on a mirror. On her seat beside here, there are seven dark roses in a bouquet.The court cards are labeled with a symbol at the bottom for page, knight, queen, or king. These depict the usual characters. All the knights ride horses, although their poses show different levels of power and majesty. These knights: (Wands) consider with determination, (Swords) charge with aggressiveness, (Cups) ride with passion and (Pentacles) bows with diplomacy.The only thing not to like about this deck is the Little White Book (LWB) that comes with it. This is not to say the LWB is bad. For example: Ludy relates her early wishes to have Evangelisti to illustrate her tarot deck. Once you see the images in this deck, you can tell she was spot on. Also, few sentences you get for each card really fleshed out their meaning, even as one can easily guess the meaning of each card as these are very intuitive. In the end, I can not help but feel that the LWB only touches the tip of the iceberg about this deck. I'm still wishing for a full guidebook, that's all.I'm really in a bind not to recommend this one for beginners. In one hand, this deck is very intuitive, but in the other, is very dark and lacks labels. This is one esoteric tarot that I'm certain very few tarot collectors would let go.Other decks by Evangelisti:Initiatory Tarot of the Golden Dawn Deck (Lo Scarabeo Decks English and Spanish Edition)Initiatory Tarot of the Golden Dawn Deluxe (Lo Scarabeo Decks English and Spanish Edition)

I was kind of skeptical when I decided to purchase this deck. However, since the very first time I have it in my hands, I felt this strange and electric energy. For some reason I could connect very easy with the images and the vibes (Although I'm not much into dark theme Tarot decks).So, let's begin with the facts: 78 tarot deck, published by Lo Scarabeo; comes in this regular box most of the tarot decks are made (nothing special). Contains a little white booklet with 63 pages with descriptions in 5 languages: english, italian, spanish, french and german. Here I have to make a stop: the introduction is a brief letter from Ludy Lescot telling us the story of how she began to work with the cards and the world of spirits. The "description" of the major and minor arcana, are no keywords, but rather these are phrases that gives you a hint or riddle to think about. I assume this was conceived to develop your own intuition and personal meanings; to have a more personal relationship with the deck.I read in other reviews that the card stock is flimsy, and I was expecting this when I got them, but it's ok. I mean, they are no super thick, but they feel like a regular playing card.The Major Arcana: No titles, just the number (so it would be easier if you have previous knowledge about the numbers of the major arcana in Tarot). Although it is a dark deck, it uses vibrant colors and the majority is in purples, pale grey, ocher, and dark reds.The Minor Arcana: No titles; at the bottom of the card you see the number, and at the top a little figure that shows you what suit is (a wand, a cup, etc). It is RWS based.There's some nudity in the cards, but this does not bother me at all. The people appearing in the images are very sensual and vampire-like. I see there are more women in the deck, so I guess this evokes a more feminine vibe, therefore you can use this deck to shadow work with the feminine aspects.

Let me start out by saying that I love the artwork in this deck. It's definitely one for a collector. I don't see how I will be able to read with these though. The cards just don't speak to me and if there is symbolism in them, I'm just not seeing it. I was hoping the LWB would give me some idea as to what the artist is trying to portray but it was less than useless. The quality of the card stock is not so great. It's very flimsy and if I do end up working with these cards it won't be on a regular basis. For the artwork, I'm glad it's in my collection but I don't plan on using the deck for readings.

I felt incredibly drawn to this deck and then I got it and found it a little off-putting. So I didn't touch them for about a month. Then, one day I pulled them out and started reading with them. This is now my favorite deck. I find that it reads emotionally and is a really chatty deck. What seemed dark at first, now feels realistic. I found that this deck opens up my intuition. I absolutely love this deck. Highly recommend.