A Product Review of Tarot of the Hidden Folk Card Deck

I have been a professional tarot card reader for over thirty years. Throughout the years I have accumulated quite a collection of different tarot decks. Although I mostly use the same deck over and over again, The Rider Tarot Deck, for readings, I have found to be drawn to other decks on occasion.

I was recently given "Tarot Of The Hidden Folk" by Lo Scarabeo as a gift. I was delighted, since this was one deck I did not have for my collection, and was one deck that I seemed to be drawn to.

According to the instruction pamphlet included with the deck, a short summary of this deck states "These cards deal with magic tied to the forces of nature, to the essence of the world itself which surrounds us and which the writers of fairy tales call "The Secret Realm". Playful or spiteful imps from children's stories (fairies, elves, souls of places and plants, etc.) are all manifestations of the vital world we are immersed in: the Secret realm. They are primordial energies, invisible and yet powerful, each of which has a precise role, a well-defined field of action.

Therefor the 78 cards of the Tarot of the Hidden Folk represent the mysterious beings who live in the Secret Realm. In spite of their invisibleness, there are human beings who, thanks to special talents or mysterious rites handed down over the centuries within initiatory fraternities, are said to be capable of perceiving their presence. Some of these initiates have even transcribed the history of the Secret Realm and the origin of the occult hierarchies in a magical work entitled Book of Rael from which we have taken the following lessons."

The instructions go on to say The creatures of the Secret Realm are divided into 22 "Keepers of the Universal Power" known as the major arcana. The most powerful force of the Secret realm are the 16 Governors, or court cards. The 4 roots are the suit in the regular deck of playing cards which are the wands, (clubs), chalices, (hearts), swords, (spades), and pentacles, (diamonds).

The imps, fairies, and elves are beautifully detailed. The art is brilliant. This is one of the nicest tarot decks that I have seen. The use of nature and symbolism is a pleasure to work with. I have got quite a few comments about this deck from my customers, and they all enjoyed the reading with this deck. It seems like everytime I do a reading for someone with this deck, I notice something on one of the cards that I didn't see before.

This deck gets a five star rating from me, and I will definitely continue to use this deck for readings.