Getting To Know Tarot of Pagan Cats
Journey with the enlightened feline and welcome their unique secrets. Cats cute, mysterious, mischievous, or aloof seem to live in a world between worlds, a realm of magic and power. Access their unique wisdom with this beautifully illustrated deck, featuring traditional Rider-Waite imagery and Pagan symbols.
It may be said that cats are the archetypal theme for tarot decks, for there seems to be something that links the two together. It is easy to imagine the tarot reader accompanied by a cat, purring at their side, gently pushing at a card with a softly furred paw. The Tarot of Pagan Cats by Lo Scarabeo brings, not for the first time, the world of tarot and cats together in a beautiful and charming deck. The deck instead it endeavours to see the tarot from a cats eye view and imagine the meanings of the traditional cards to a cat.
A cursory glance at the deck serves to reveal that although the Pagan Cats follow the pattern of traditional decks closely they also bring something new to the cards, something that is more than just the introduction of a cat in place of a person, for the subtle (and not so subtle) differences are far more important than the obvious similarities. It must also be stated that the cats in this deck are not anthropomorphic, they do not stand like humans, act like humans, neither do they wear clothes or hold implements in the hands they do not have.
They are cats and they are drawn as cats. Lola Airaghi's beautiful and delicate art work captures dozens of different felines in a myriad of poses. These cats leap, sleep and play; they fight, fall and hunt their prey just as their real life counterparts do. There are a few instances where a cats twinning tail is used to hold a staff or wand; or a hat, collar or suchlike is added to the image for symbolic purposes such as the head gear on the Emperor and Empress, but on the whole such props are avoided and one is left with the impression that these are real cats performing true actions in a symbolic landscape.
The title of the deck announces the cats as pagans and this affiliation is more hinted at than overtly explained. All cats are pagans by their very nature and this is indicated throughout the deck by the inclusion of numerous, subtle pagan symbols including a cauldron that appears both as a background detail and as a symbol on a number of cards. The elements, both in their triangular symbolic forms and as the suit symbols and elemental magical weapons also recur throughout the deck, sometimes as a set of four, sometimes in lesser amounts that seem to hold some significance with their placement and numbering. Indeed different ways of imaging the elements is a prevalent feature in this deck. Furthermore such items as magical grimoires and ritual knives, magic circles and lunar symbolism lurk in plain sight amongst the background details of the cards, all indicating the pagan nature of these cats.
The Mustic Cat Tarot Circle | May 2017
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