TWISTED IN THE TWILIGHT.

Tarot of Sweet Twilight
@Lo Scarabeo &Cristina  Benintende

One of my favourites decks, is a most youthful deck with art by Christina Benintende and images that remind me of an extremely colourful Tim Burton. The Tarot of the Sweet Twilight is  full of quirk. The concept of twilight where we are not quite in the shadows but light is fading so the deck is a reminder to delve the shadows. And delve we can with such interesting takes on the traditional Waite Rider. In this post I will highlight some of the fabulous concepts Cristina Benintende comes up with for interpreting a traditional tarot.

Lets begin with Swords.

How cool is this Knave of Swords? Knave is a replacement for Page. The pages are played around with in evolving modern tarots. They often switch to feminine in modern decks becoming princesses or daughters.  In the Sweet Twilight they become Knaves. I love this guy, I would follow him being fairly convinced he has no idea where he's going but armed with his sword of ideas I'd imagine we would begin an adventure.
The journey of the swords is fairly traditional but presses the point. Everything is amplified. In the two of swords the girl is blindfolded as in most twos of swords but added to her predicament is the water and the height of the chair. There is much to untangle here to reach a decision. It seems like an unconquerable decision. In our three it is impressed upon us that we stick the knife in our own hearts and cause ourselves the pain which is probably the truth of all three of swords but not  usually depicted as such. In our eight of swords we are chained above the swords below us which have a part order to them. Our characters here face huge challenges just moving from card to card.

Tarot of Sweet Twilight
@Lo Scarabeo & Cristena Benintende

Tarot of Sweet Twilight
@Lo Scarabeo &Cristina Benintende

Tarot of Sweet Twilight
@Lo Scarabeo &Cristina Benintende

Tarot of Sweet Twilight
@Lo Scarabea &Cristina B enintende

Next we meet our Queen of Wands. Well she is trippy. I feel I could drop by and chill out with her munching on her flowers or the like. Very youthful and so up beat. The whole deck is a plethora of zany characters, you could be forgiven for thinking you had wandered into a science fantasy novel or this is a tarot concept of a science fantasy journey. The minor cards of the wands stray from the traditional Waite Rider. To a less experienced reader one could get lost here but as an open minded novice, this suit of wands could take you into interesting interpretations.  
Reading the interpretations from the little white book is really interesting. They were done by Barbara Moore who has written tarot interpretations to so many varying decks. She would be an absolute expert at adapting and creating meanings.

Tarot of Sweet Twilight
@Lo Scarabeo & Cristina Benintende

For example the six of cups.
 Stepping outside the
confines of social structure, we can find ways to connect with others. These others may be ones we normally overlook.
We certainly are stepping outside of social structure to connect. This is one of my favourite cards. I love the interaction between the slip of a girl and the huge ruby rust bear. This is a big step away from a traditional six of cups where we have sentiment and fond memories. Im sure such a meeting with the bear would also give fond memories but this deck has an extremism to its imagery.

Tarot of Sweet Twilight
@Lo Scarabeo & Cristina Benintende

The delightful 3 of cups traditionally card of happiness also has an interesting interpretation. 

Sometimes all it takes is a soft night, a rhythmic swing and  delightful creatures and suddenly life is exquisitely perfect at least for the moment. 

Barbara Moore - Little White Book.

Tarot of Sweet Twilight
@Lo Scarabeo & Cristina Benintende

Even though this deck is full of its own quirks, I love it. It is a deck that inspires me to write, I tend to forget tarot traditions and just join in with a band of colourful characters that seem to be part of life's up and downs. It's incredibly unexpected. It is full of colour and not necessarily positive outcomes. There is a sense of battler to these characters. They are like protagonists that give it their best shot.
It tends to make a reader aware of the challenges of life and the need for effort to create outcomes that one may require. There is an exaggeration to the journey of life.
It is a youthful deck, the abstract and absurd I think has an appeal to more youthful readers although its not an easy deck to learn, the interpretations by Barbara Moore are perfect and reflect the themes of the deck.

I feel totally comfortable with these adorable characters.

OF INTEREST

When buying any tarot deck there is always a Little White Book of meanings inside.

On the box of the Tarot of the Sweet Twilight is the intro to the poem by W.B.Keats.

Into the Twilight.

OUT-WORN heart, in a time out-worn,
Come clear of the nets of wrong and right;
Laugh heart again in the gray twilight,
Sigh, heart, again in the dew of the morn.

 This whole deck wreaks of creativity. Its a deck of the arts.

Deck available #Lyndallstarot  #Daylesford.