Royo Dark
Dark fantasy art tarot with compelling symbolic imagery and surreal aesthetics.
by Luis Royo · Lo Scarabeo · 2012
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The record
I'’m trying to get my head around this Tarot deck. I’'d been warned by different reviewers that decks published by La Scarabeo tend to be quite fetishy and not so symbolic for reading. I’d seen images for Royo Dark online and found the scan for The Magician card quite compelling, and loved that the minor arcane seemed to be as detailed as the major. At first I was simply overwhelmed and bewildered by the seemingly endless parade of nude female figures. Reviewers had mentioned this aspect of Royo Dark, but I’'d scoffed. “Nudity! Pah! I’'m a pagan and a liberal, what’s a little nudity!” I’'d naively assumed that Tarot nudity would have a certain sacred, reverent quality, and since I liked the elegant depiction of The Magician, I thought other cards would follow suit. It’'s not so much the volume of nudity in the deck which is difficult to swallow. I could probably get on board with an entirely nude deck, if done a certain way. Unfortunately in this case I found a lot of the nudity somehow very modern looking and rather pornographic in terms of style, especially as other aspects of the deck were quite mystical and ancient looking. I feel like this deck should have been one thing or th
The cards
