Total Tarot Magazine
A few months ago, I spotted a new Tarot magazine on instagram – Total Tarot – and wrote about it HERE. Working in partnership with Lo Scarabeo, this bi-monthly magazine (twice a month – I’m never very sure if that’s what bi-monthly means though!) is about building your collection and is now on Issue 2 (£3.99). It seems to have something for everyone – beginner and experienced readers alike.
If you are just starting out, the magazine itself has got a lot of great information in it to help you get to grips with the cards on a step-by-step basis, how to use them, the terminology etc. If you are a collector of decks and a more experienced reader, you are getting your paws on a full version of a Lo Scarabeo deck every two issues (The Majors and box in one issue, the Minors in another). AND there are lots of other freebie goodies available too.
TRANSPARENCY: I had a lot of questions for the folks at Total Tarot, so they very kindly sent me copies of their first few editions for me to look over and answered my questions and concerns. So, any initial misgivings that I had have been dispelled: The magazine is beautifully laid out and easy to read with lots of white space to avoid info-clutter.
Concern no 1: Will the magazine suffer from being linked with only one publishing house?
Answer: Lo Scarabeo may be the sole publisher involved in the project, but they ARE one of the leading (if not THE leading) deck publisher in Europe. They have over 150 tarot decks on their website at the moment, ranging from the Radiant Wise Spirit style deck through Marseille decks to Pagan Cats (and everything in between!).
They also produce top quality Tarot accessories which are also included in the Total Tarot subscriber package – a journal, pendulum, reading mat, crystals, candles, crystal ball, tarot pouch etc
And NO adverts – just card reading information all the way!
Concern 2: Taking out a subscription will lock people in.
Answer: Nope – you can cancel your subscription at any time. And you don’t have the stress of having to schlep out to the newsagents or supermarket – you get everything delivered straight to your door.
Concern 3: You don’t get a choice in what decks you get.
Answer: This is true, but there really are so many decks available from Lo Scarabeo that unless your collection is already large, you won’t find yourself with duplicate decks. The Total Tarot team’s goal is to provide a wide variety of decks to suit different moods and styles. The decks covered in the first few issues are: Radiant Wise Spirit (a RWS deck), Thelema Tarot, Harmonious Tarot, Pre Raphaelite Tarot, John Bauer Tarot and the Golden Art Nouveau Tarot (which builds over many issues). You get a full deck over two issues.
And there will be a Marseille style deck included in the series too, I believe.
Concern 4: There will be a drop in quality for the magazine’s decks
The Lo Scarabeo decks are produced under licence for Total Tarot magazine, so they are not exactly the same. However, I compared their Radiant Wise Spirit deck to my Lo Scarabeo Tarot of The Master and the two decks are the same size. The Total Tarot Magazine’s Thelema Tarot has a green border, unlike the original, which is borderless (I think) … so there ARE differences. I am not an expert in card quality, but there isn’t any discernible difference in the card stock as far as I can tell. However the boxes are different. The Total Tarot boxes are branded with the Total Tarot on the side and, of course, there is no LWB in the Total Tarot box because you get the magazine!
If you opt to become a Premium Subscriber, you get your paws on the David Bowie Tarot (comes with issues 9 and 10 I think) and lots of the associated paraphernalia – the journal, mat and pouch. I think this deck comes in the full Lo Scarabeo box.
The cards are nice to shuffle! And so far no chips off the coloured border edge for the Thelema Tarot.
Concern 5: The gifts will be a bit crap.
Absolutely not! The accessory gifts are all from Lo Scarabeo too! They are what you would expect from a big international publisher. The journal that I received has a Rune-style cover and is 160 pages of hard-backed loveliness.
The Total Tarot people have also created an Instagram account and Facebook group, so I think that they are keen to get some kind of Tarot community flourishing around the magazine. It’s nice to be able to share a journey – and nice that they are making the effort for their subscribers.
If you want to find out more, here’s the link to the Total Tarot website.
PLEASE NOTE: The UK national roll-out of this magazine launches on 12 January 2022!
Edit: Jenn asked, in the comments below, how many decks there would be. I asked the publisher and this is the reply: ‘The series is planned for 78 parts, which means 40 decks in total. If they opt for Premium it’ll be 41 decks as they also get the Starman deck as well! They are free to pause or cancel at any time.’
Edit (19/1/22) Thanks to Susan Parker who commented below. As mentioned above, The Starman deck is part of the PREMIUM subscription and comes in sections across the following Total Tarot issues: 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75.
8 Comments
Dorothy Jane Macleod · 3rd July 2022 at 9:28 am
Missed issue 11 where can I get from please.
Alison Cross · 16th July 2022 at 3:14 pm
If you go to the Total Tarot website, you should be able to purchase back issues, Dorothy 🙂
Mark Bowyer · 22nd January 2022 at 10:12 pm
Thank you for taking the time to review this part work and answer all of the questions I had about the series. Although the website mentions tarot decks are split across two issues, the accompanying pictures only show the first few.
It certainly seems solid value for so many decks, making the magazine and, if you subscribe, free gifts effectively “free”.
Susan Parker · 19th January 2022 at 12:36 pm
Think your readers ought to note that the free star man goodies come with issue 15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 with the premium subscription I wouldn’t want any of your readers to feel mislead.. I’ve had to find out from a message sent by totaltarotcollectibles.com Facebook page answering a question regarding the free gifts… hope this helps.. maybe you were mislead? Let me know if you find out any information to the contrary.. susie x x
Alison Cross · 19th January 2022 at 2:19 pm
Susan – thank you for that clarification – I’ve added it into the end of the blog post so that things are absolutely clear to readers. I appreciate you letting me know.
Jenn · 16th January 2022 at 11:08 am
Thank you so much for the amazing review! My local store is getting the first issue in for me and I’ll go from there. Do you know how many decks will be offered in all? I doubt they’ll give 39 after all!
(Also I’m so thrilled to find you specialize in court cards as I find them really difficult, so will be spending some time here, haha!)
Alison Cross · 18th January 2022 at 11:22 am
Hi Jenn – I’m not sure how many decks there will be in total. I will certainly see if I can find out for you! I’ll add a comment to this when I do (and also add into the blog post too). Hope you enjoy the posts here, I try to make court cards fun!
Edit: Got this from the publisher: ‘The series is planned for 78 parts, which means 40 decks in total. If they opt for Premium it’ll be 41 decks as they also get the Starman deck as well! They are free to pause or cancel at any time’. So, there’s your answer Jenn 🙂
Ali x
Jenn · 21st January 2022 at 2:58 pm
My gosh, 40 decks! That’s amazing. Now if only any store over here in Ireland had copies! (distributor issue apparently, I’m hopeful it will be fixed.
Thank you so much for looking into that for me!