And it's fun to listen to 'em -- almost as much fun as working your way through this shamelessly erotic and outrageously non-reverent reworking of the Tarot.
Go to "Tarot Passages" or "House of Tarot" or any similar web-site, and you'll see noses turned up a-plenty along with a lot of sanctimonious sputtering about how illegitimate this deck is; how disgustingly sexist; how boorish; how ... but you get the point. Most reviewers begin by saying "I'm certainly no prude, but ... " and then prove just the opposite.
(Luis Royo's two decks usually get the same treatment.)
Well, I got a Big Kick out of the "Tarot del Decameron", which unsurprisingly has little to do with the naughty classic by Giovanni Boccacio except its insistence on de-mythicising, de-glamorizing, and re-energising Sex by showing it, not under a haze of courtly romantic nonsense, but in the down-and-dirty, hot-for-it, sweet-'n'-nasty-down-the-alley form it comes to most of us when we "get lucky".
"The Magician" is not the other-worldly Lord of Will portrayed in many more traditional decks -- he's offstage here; a smug and rumpled, paunchy medieval charlatan who has already done the show and has obtained his "unworthy" objective -- the company of a naked young nubile thing on whose shapely and willing posterior he rests his hand with quiet, proprietorial pride. Ouch! That little glimpse backstage is guaranteed to upset those who make their living as magicians of one sort or another, and would much rather see themselves (and have the rest of us see them!) as they appear before the footlights!
And so it goes throughout the Major Arcana (of which this deck originally consisted); the images are comments on traditional interpretations, often designed to deflate, poke fun at, and re-invigorate the familiar Tarot imagery, grown self-important and self-righteous since its inception in roughly the 14th century. "Temperance"? A comely lass kneels at a rough-hewn table, pouring out a cool drink for a wealthy traveller -- while down below and out of sight she lifts her skirt so a second man can service her with his tongue: If you can do that without spilling a drop you have indeed achieved Temperance! "The Tower"? Rather than the dark, brooding spectre of disaster and destruction, we are given a young couple in a shady green bower engaged in almost innocent (though graphic) foreplay, almost in the shadow of the old, crumbling, and not very threatening tower in the background -- yes, Virginia, the ancient and outmoded citadel of their consciousness has been irrevocably broached, and there will no doubt be Consequences, but, Lord! it looks like fun ...
In short, the deck is seeking to do what sex itself often does: Loosen you up, sweetheart! You been dwellin' on stuff too hard ... take a break an' git you some relax!
I find the Court Cards a little less successful, and the Minors even less so; but that's not to say they don't score points -- there are, however, only so many sexual positions human beings can artistically assume, and, just like in Real Life, sometimes the artist's inspiration comes up short and we find him repeating himself or failing to drive home his point with sufficient verve ... just like ourselves, sometimes, in the lists of love ...
The artwork is uniformly brilliant; colorful, imaginative, and bold -- this is a beautiful set of cards. An additional complaint by purists is that the cards do not always reflect the standard rote meanings purists have come to depend on (instead of just looking at the card and seeing what it tells you today about your situation in life); that kind of dependence, as far as I'm concerned, is just intellectual and spiritual laziness: Why look at different decks (especially non-traditional decks) at all if all you aim to do is simply cut-and-paste a pre-memorized set of definitions?
To sum up: I highly recommend the deck, particularly the original Major Arcana, as an entertaining, illuminating, and liberating commentary on Tarot and modern Tarotists; as a really juicy set of "dirty" pictures"; and, provisionally, as a fairly adequate if flawed reading deck. No doubt you'll find yourself outraged to find your favorite card stripped, spread, and made sport of in this way, but I firmly urge you to stop and consider whatever truth lies in what that card is actually saying rather than low-bridging it for what it DOESN'T say.
Do that, and you'll find yourself ahead on the deal -- not only with the "Tarot del Decameron", but with any deck at all.
