I've just received my copy of The Labyrinth Tarot by Spanish fantasy artist Luis Royo. Scans of the cards can be viewed here. The packaging consists of a standard cardboard box, containing 78 cards and a small booklet listing the basic card meanings in English, Spanish, German and Portuguese.
The card stock is rather thin and bends easily, but seems sturdy enough to withstand daily use provided it's not handled too roughly. The cards themselves are disappointingly small and narrow in size. The gorgeous drawings by the artist would have stood out so much more on a larger card size. This is my only real complaint about this deck and the reason why I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.
The Major Arcana images are drawn in monochromatic, gentle and soft sepia tones, whereas the colors in each suit of the Minor Arcana are, by comparison, quite vibrant and strong. Each suit has its own specific color: Forest green for the suit of Wands; a deep dark red for the suit of Cups (see image at right); sapphire blue for the suit of Spades and a rich gold for the suit of Pentacles. The uncharacteristic colorful focus on the Minors instead of the Majors makes this deck rather special. Most artists usually seem to work a lot harder to make the Major Arcana cards as striking as possible; Luis Royo has done the opposite. The very subdued Majors, while artistically flawless, become almost invisible when seen next to the more flamboyant Minors. The King and Queen of Cups, for instance, literally overshadow the Emperor and Empress, when these cards are placed side by side.
The artist was obviously inspired by the Tarot of Marseilles when creating this deck. There are many details that follow the Marseilles school of Tarot:
The Fool has no number, unlike in most modern Rider Waite or Thoth style decks where it is usually numbered 0. In this deck the numbered cards start with the Magician at number I. Justice and Strength are numbered VIII and XI respectively. Card number XIII, as is traditional in most Marseilles inspired decks, has no name. "L'Arcane sans nom" (Arcana without a name) is more commonly known in Rider Waite style decks as "Death". The Minors, again following the Marseilles tradition, are unillustrated pips, featuring medieval dangerously spiked clubs in the suit of Wands, large cups and bowls in the suit of Cups, swords in the suit of Spades and golden shields engraved with a pentagram in the suit of Pentacles.
The Court cards are a mixture of Marseilles, Rider Waite and Thoth inspiration. Here we have female Jacks (Princesses) and very young Queens, featuring beautiful topless women; Knights, whose faces are all hidden behind masks, in full battle gear on their dark horses; and finally, Kings sitting on their thrones, quite old, weathered and wise looking, with the exception of the surprisingly young and defiant King of Spades.
The elements of Air, Fire, Earth and Water traditionally associated with Spades, Wands, Pentacles and Cups respectively, seem to have been switched around a little in this deck. I haven't yet received the companion book written by the artist, so I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that, according to the colors he has chosen for each suit, he has attributed Fire to both the suits of Cups and Pentacles and Earth to the suit of Wands. The suit of Spades seems to have retained its traditional element of Air. In this interpretation, the element of Water would be missing. Another interpretation that occurred to me, however, would attribute both Fire and Water to the suit of Cups. The combination of these two opposite, but complementary elements in a suit that deals with the complexity of human emotions as well as romantic love is one that has always appealed to me. If this is what Luis Royo intended to convey, then I am in total agreement with him. I absolutely adore the suit of Cups in this deck. Red is my favorite color and Fire my favorite element. The many references to this element match what I have always felt was present in a lot of the Cups cards, most especially in the Ace and the Knight.
A small detail that has often been mentioned by other reviewers about this deck, is the printing error on the Emperor card. It is named as The Empress in the English caption, in the upper right hand corner. The other captions in Spanish, German and Portuguese are all correct, so this was obviously not intentional. It appears that this error was present in the first limited edition printed in 2005 and was apparently never corrected in subsequent editions.
Despite its small size, this deck is truly a feast for the eyes. The artist used all my favorite colors and the artwork does not disappoint, although some of Royo's fans will find that the imagery is a lot less aggressive than what they may have previously seen from his work.
I am very much looking forward to doing readings with this deck and will probably add to or edit this review, once I have gotten to know the cards a little better. I am especially curious about how the mixed up elements in some of the suits are going to affect my readings.
Beautiful and intriguing deck overall, well worth adding to any Tarot collection and a good modern alternative if you like Marseilles style decks.
