2017 Review: After Tarot—Lo Scarabeo

Overview

The After Tarot is a unique spin on the snapshot images of tarot cards and what takes place immediately following the moment previously captured. This deck aims to shed further insight onto a set of cards that have been capturing hearts and minds of all ages since their inception in 1912. 

The After Tarot is a Lo Scarabeo product brought to life by Corrine Kenner, Pietro Alligo, and Giulia F. Massaglia, and is due out on February 08, 2017. 

How It Reads

The deck is set up like the Rider-Waite-Smith originator though the new images allow the book to provide additional details so even if you're old hat with a deck of cards, it's worth a sit down. The deck reads well for those who love by the book material and provides ample room for intuitive readers to romp around in their subconscious. 

I will be interested to see if some readers utilize both this deck and the RWS one in a dual reading fashion. I suspect it will be super cool. One thing that I noticed is that some of the cards that have been seen as traditionally "bad" have a more positive twist, which I liked simply because it presented the idea that you could think outside the original parameters and didn't have to get stuck thinking that one card only meant one thing, especially if it was a source of angst for the reader and their clients! Not one card is ever solely bad or good, but this deck does wonders for highlighting that with subtlety. 

The book, cheekily titled Afterthoughts, has organized the cards by their numbers, so all the ones, twos, and threes are together, and so on and so forth. The larger numbers, like Judgment, are boiled down to a single digit (Judgment is sorted as a two instead of twenty).

Below you will find the results of my one card, two card, and three card readings with the After Tarot deck. 

One Card

What Will My Day Look Like?

The 4 of Cups came up and immediately I thought 'oh man!' but the book elaborates on this card, and explains that sometimes it is best to be discerning when you are giving and getting—you get to focus on you if need be. When we are given gifts it is our prerogative to do with them as we please, regardless of what anyone may think.

I found this card to be very appropriate as I am coming back to you all after a brief hiatus and splitting my time between my passion business and my several manuscripts in progress. All labors of love but when we create, our babies do take up energy, it's important to remember to pour one out for yourself some days.

Two Card

Advice for Queer Street Tarot?

Two cards proved quite fun, and after shuffling (including the bridge) I found both of these back to back. Occasionally I feel like that's my goof in shuffling poorly but reading them together made a lot of sense.

The six talks about coming into creative thinking, about ideas and how they are finally finding land to cultivate. The seven spoke to the need to protect ideas, as we are all aware that there are people out there that love ideas, even if they aren't their own. So, I took all this to mean that I am finding my footing in the creative mindset, my ideas coming to fruition, and it was imperative now that I complete projects rather than just talk about them.

Three Card

General Advice for Me?

I love the dynamic of these cards, and their expanded meanings were a lot of fun to see. In this one I just wanted the cards to speak to whatever it was that needed to be spoken to and this is the result.

The Empress is an expression of creativity and growth, forward momentum due to nurturing and long caring for something. Her meaning hasn't expanded too much, only grown more concentrated in its focus.

Judgment, whom I have been pulling for just over a week now almost consistently in my own personal readings, highlights the two groups in this card, the complete physical bodies as they ascend and those that don't quite make the cut. A sobering card indeed, but it touches on the idea that if we want something, we have to strive for it. Entitlement gets us nowhere. It is what we do to get to that end result that matters and as the angel sounds his horn, there is a sense that both groups in this card knew that. This is all knowledge we have, how we utilize it will differ and that matters.

The Ace of Wands now bears the hand and the salamander. The book suggests that the hand is either the Magician's or God's, and while both fit—especially once we consider Pamela Coleman Smith's strict conversion to Christianity in 1912, I like to think that the hand belongs to the Magician. It is he that is cradling the spark, getting ready to call it forth and usher in a new beginning. Show me your passion, it seems to say. And use that passion to create some magic.

All three of these cards together present a gorgeous message of dancing to the beat of your own drum, encouraging your ideas to flourish as they will, mothering but not smothering them. And when the time comes, allowing them to flow from your control to their own autonomy in this world. A metaphor for all of humanity, I suppose but one that I connected once again to my creative work and my need to let go once I get the ball rolling. The ideas are there and don't require constant hen-pecking in order to flourish.

Final Thoughts

This deck is so worth getting, both as a collector and a reader, I love the expanded insights into the classic images. I will be using this deck in future and if I feel up to it, I will most definitely do a dual reading with this and it's progenitor. Now that is sure to be fun.

Grab your copy, especially if you love RWS, and have some fun!