The Book of Shadows Tarot | Andrea Aste

Published by Alison Cross on

The Book of Shadows

I decided to throw caution to the wind on Friday and make a proper video deck review for this deck, The Book of Shadows Tarot.

Dear Reader, I kid you not, it took HOURS and you would NEVER know that from the 7 minute offering that I made on youtube.

I shall look at even TV adverts with new-found respect ….

Anyway, the deck that I reviewed was The Book of Shadows Tarot by Andrea Aste.

I had the good fortune to meet Andrea last year when I visited Italy with a group of nefarious ne’erdowells  Tarotists on Arnell Ando’s Tarot tour.

Andrea Aste

I was hugely impressed by him.  And not just that moustache.  His drive, vision and illustrating skills fairly whipped me along with him.  So, when the kickstarter was launched, I was there, pledging.

As is my habit, I am now reviewing the court cards from the deck.  To see my review of the whole shebang about the deck, go to my youtube channel. Yars.  I haz one.  I do rabbit on somewhat …. so take a coffee and something to keep you awake.

There are two pages in the book that comes with the deck that focus on the hieroglyphs found on the cards; thus the symbols act as titles and keywords.

Initially, I thought that there was nothing to decode the symbols on the court cards.  BUT I AM MISTAKEN!!!

The Magician’s decoded glyphs show me the four symbols that signify each suit. Wands is represented by a stylised two-branched tree, Coins by a spiral, Swords by three wavy lines and a scimitar and Cups by a cup.

Through additional Sherlockholmesian shenanigans, I can see that the symbol for Woman and Man and the symbol for Power show up on the Queen and King cards

Power + Man + Wand/Cup/Sword/Coin = King of suit
Power + Woman + Wand/Cup/Sword/Coin = Queen of Suit
Horse + Human Being + Wand/Cup/Sword/Coin = Knight of Suit
Human Being + Wand/Cup/Sword/Coin = Page

It’s that simple.  And that clever.

The Suit of Swords

Alternative career as fashion designer entirely feasible!

The Suit of Wands

I don’t know what went wrong with my scanning – too much gin, maybe? 

The Suit of Coins 
The Suit of Cups 
I think that you can still buy a copy directly from Andrea via his website (and have it signed, perhaps?!).  I understand that Lo Scarabeo, who printed the cards etc) will be distributing via their outlets too.
So, what do you think? 


Alison Cross

The Tarot's Court Cards are my specialist area.Β  They talk to me. Not LITERALLY though ....

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