Dark Grimoire Tarot Review
Review by Casey Douglass
Many
years ago, I bought the Dark Grimoire Tarot, a tarot deck that takes
as its inspiration a variety of dream worlds, dark grimoires, and the
horrific visions that they are reputed to lead to. The star of the
show, for me at least, is H.P Lovecraft’s Necronomicon, and
it was the Lovecraftian imagery that drew me to this tarot deck more
than a decade ago. I’ve finally given it a more serious perusal,
and this review is the result. I also gave myself a very amateur
tarot reading with the deck, which begins about half way through the
review. I hope you’ve got your Great Old Ones slippers on...
Michele
Penco is the artist that created this set of tarot cards, and a fine
job he did too. When I think of Lovecraft’s eldritch stories, I
think I’ve nearly always seen most of them in my mind’s eye, as
blandly coloured landscapes, with the people looking grey and unwell
as they struggle with existential horror. Penco’s colour palette
and eye for detail pretty much nails this aesthetic. The shadows are
deep, the colours are muted, and the images carry an otherworldly
melancholy that’s certainly intriguing to look at. The back of each
card features a stern painting of Lovecraft himself, with an
assortment of creatures looking over his shoulder.
Accompanying
the cards is a small booklet that gives a very brief introduction to
the deck and the various associations and meanings that the deck
contains. It also details a simple Magic Pentagram card layout, in
which you draw five cards, each giving a particular insight into an
aspect of the issue or question you bring to them. If you have a
deeper interest in learning the tarot, you’ll certainly need a
heftier tome to gain a decent understanding. I’ve dabbled with the
tarot before, many years ago, so I thought I would follow the
technique mentioned and see what the deck had to say.
I
like to view tarot as a way to plumb the subconscious depths. I also
think that the universe is a very strange place and uncanny things
can happen, or events might be linked in ways that we don’t yet realise.
I’m happy to sit in this “don’t knowingness” as I consult
this deck, and if I enjoy the experience or feel I gained an insight,
that’s just a bonus. With this in mind, I decided to ask the deck
“Why do I feel so doomed?”
Yes,
I like to start with the light-hearted stuff. I’ve been struggling
with a variety of things lately and they could all fit quite nicely
into the general bracket of “feeling doomed”. Consulting a
darkness-themed tarot with such a question also seems quite apt to
me, especially as many of Lovecraft’s characters ended up
struggling with just such a feeling. I'll paraphrase the parts of the
companion booklet’s insights that seem to apply, and I'll flesh out
the various meanings of the cards with my own impressions and
ponderings of the imagery too. I'll say again, I’m no tarot expert,
but I can certainly wing it with prompts to set my mind off
in the right direction.
I
shuffled the deck while thinking about my question, because...
quantum/occult/theatrical reasons. I then drew my five cards. The
first is meant to relate to the purpose of the query. The second, to
illustrate the past that led to the current state of affairs. The
third is said to show how things will progress if I continue on this
path. The fourth is meant to warn of possible difficulties to
overcome. The final card should deliver a way to overcome said
difficulties. Here are the cards I was given:
1
– The Magician. This card appears to show Abdul Alhazred writing
the Necronomicon. That’s a nice, big-hitting card to get
things started! I was more drawn to the view through his window than
anything though. As I write these notes, I’m sitting about the same
distance from my own window, which is an enjoyable synchronicity.
When I look at the image, I get the impression of life passing
someone by as they sit and turn inwards. This is pretty much my own
default state. Are we both approaching the same doom or both trying
to escape it by turning inward?
2
– Knave of Pentacles – This is the card that is meant to tell me
how I came to this current situation. The Pentacles relate to the
physical body, our attachment to it, and the things around it, such
as our possessions. The knave means “presage of oncoming
transformation”. I also notice the gold disk that the character is
holding, with their back turned to the far more interesting view
behind them. In this card, I can kind of see my situation, how
chronic illness has caused me to live a far more limited life, and to
also become fearful and more attached to the few things that give me
security.
3
– Ace of Swords – So how will things progress if everything
continues unchecked? Swords are the element of Air which relates to
our intellectual centre. It relates to our thoughts and how, if
allowed to run loose, they can become demons and actually hinder us.
The Ace aspect means a beginning or concentration of forces. Well I
know how thoughts can be a pain, I’ve struggled with OCD since I
was ten years old. I guess this card could be telling me that if I
follow my obsessions and fears down that rabbit hole, my mind will
end up creating some kind of anxiety-fueled black hole, something
that would go very badly for me.
4
– Two of Swords – As far as any difficulties that might need to
be overcome, it’s interesting that the next card is also a Sword,
which again, is an intellectual/mind-based card. The “Two” means
forces facing off against each other. I was really taken with the
imagery of this card, the blindfolded musician playing in front of
strange creatures. I initially thought that they were trying to attack
him but on closer examination, they look enraptured by his music. A
big source of my “doomed” feelings are the hang-ups I have about
my writing. It’s quite funny to see a card drawn that seems to
scream “Do it anyway and ignore your fears!” Maybe I should type
while wearing a blindfold?
5
– Inverted Five of Swords – When I read through the small
booklet, I couldn’t find any mention of “Inverted” (upside
down) cards and their meanings, which is something I’ve previously
used with other tarots. When I shuffled the deck, I made no effort to
randomly rotate the cards at all, so they should have all come out
facing the same direction. This card didn’t, and I just felt it was
worth going with my feelings and keeping it inverted. From my very
meagre experience with other decks, an inversion tends to carry the
opposite meaning to the usual associations. The Five of Swords is
another “mind” card, and again, it was the image that struck me
the most. It depicts a man running from a mob of creatures. He is
calm, as if he has been doing this for so long, that it’s everyday
humdrum to him now. With the inversion in mind, I pondered if,
instead of running away from his fears, he should turn and run
towards them. I guess if nothing else, it would mark a change of pace
for him. So for me, again, this card was about approaching fears
rather than running away.
So,
there we have it, a review of a tasty tarot deck and an amateur
attempt at giving myself a reading from it, all in one article. My
reading told me what I already know about anxiety, fears and
acceptance, but it’s nice to have this endorsed by the dark gods
too. If you enjoy the dark imagery that the Dark Grimoire Tarot
contains, and you also happen to be a bit partial to Lovecraftian
horror, I think it’s a fantastic card-set to own, even if you never
intend to give it a run-out for a bit of tarot-reading fun.
Visit
the Lo Scarabeo site for more information.
I’m
off to run towards my doom now. Only kidding, I never run anywhere...
Item: Dark
Grimoire Tarot
Artist: Michelle
Penco
Instructions:
Giovanni Pelosini
Publisher: Lo
Scarabeo
Released: 2008
Price: Around
£18
