Review By Tabitha Chamberlain
Kabbalistic Visions: The Marini-Scapini Tarot by Marco Marini and Luigi Scapini
Published by Schiffer Publishing, Ltd, www.schifferbooks.com
ISBN: 978-0-7643-4662-0
Retail: US $45.00
I freely admit that Kabbalism had been area of interest that I chose to research years ago, so I have some working knowledge of the subject. When I got this deck I was very excited to see if my rusty familiarity of Kabbalism would be of any use to me.
The first thing to realize about this kit is that it isn’t for the causally interested. Besides the 45-dollar price tag, the world of Kabbalism is vast and confusing one. I should also mention that there is a very distinct difference between traditional Judaic Cabbalism and that of occult Kabbalism that most tarot decks incorporate into their systems.
This particular tarot kit gives you an opportunity to open the door to an interesting fascinating worlds of Kabbalism. Unfortunately the authors do except you to have some basic concept of those worlds you’re entering into, with both of the amount of Kabbalism and Biblical references that aren’t explained within the book itself.
There is no simple way to learn Kabbalism. This kit isn’t going to allow you to grasp the concepts of it and you go merrily off onto the world of Kabbalism. It’s meant to be years of studying. There is a good many books on the subject that I would suggest that you pair together while you study of this deck.
The book that comes with it touches on several key aspects of that of tarot and Kabbalism. The upside though each card has a detailed explanation of the symbolism chosen when creating the card, even if you’re not terribly sure of what it means. This symbolism has a lot to do with both Kabbalism and Biblical references, so be prepared to have several books opened at once if study is your goal.
The book also has four spreads in the back: Kabbalistic Cross, System of the Seven Cards, Game of the Pyramid, and the System of the Twelve Cards. One interesting note here is that all of the Majors also contains their meanings in each position of one spread: The Kabbalistic Cross.
This deck is illustrated by a tarot artist that many of us are fairly familiar with, as he created the Medieval Scapini Tarot. The tarot deck itself is vivid and stunning. The background is black with a scroll like image that holds the depiction of each tarot image. The colors used are very bright, the imagines themselves are based in symbolism, not in prettiness. Some of the images will be somewhat disturbing or hard to understand until you do read their description in the book that comes with it. While they may still be disturbing they will at least make sense.
The cards are huge measuring 5.5 inches by 3.5 inches, the images cover almost all of that space. The card title font on the cards are difficult to read. The cards are also edged in silver that will flake when handling the deck. The backs are reversible are all black the image of the worlds of Kabbala.
My particular set was missing the 3 of Coins so I don’t feel I can give you an honest review on how well the deck will read. I will say that if you have an interest in religion and Kabbalism this should be a deck that you some give some serious consideration to as the combination of the references in the book and the symbols in the deck itself would be worth years of study.
The tarot kit concludes a sturdy large box that has two slots, one for the cards and another for the book to nestle in. They do include a poster of the Tree of Life which is one of the most important parts of Kabbalism.