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Created By: Paolo Barbieri
Publisher: Lo Scarabeo
Number of cards: 36
Card size: 5 x 3.5 in
Box size: 5.30 x 3.75 x 1.25 in
Guidebook pages: 128; 53 in english
Purchased or gifted?: Gifted by Llewellyn (Lo Scarabeo’s US distributor)

Absolute favorite card: A Mad Tea Party
Other favorites: The Little Mouse, Down the Rabbit Hole, A Splendidly Dressed Rabbit, The White Queen, The Mad Hatter, Painted Roses, The Duchess
Notable detail: four different languages in guidebook
Season: Spring
Sabbat: Ostara
Sign: Aquarius
Element: Earth
Tarot Deck compliment: Nicoletta Ceccoli Tarot

First Impressions

I’m not a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland but I love the idea of Alice in Wonderland. Alice I can do without but all of the other outlandish characters are archetypes I absolutely adore. So I was intrigued when I saw the deck and while I don’t care how Alice is depicted, I love pretty much everything else about the artwork. Not to mention, Lo Scarabeo makes some of my favorite decks so I’m always curious to see something new come out of this publisher.

The Packaging

The box is nice and sturdy; two pieces. It features a pretty range of green colors and is perfect for housing the cards. Nothing particularly special about it. It's just like any other Lo Scarabeo box if you’re familiar with the brand. Their cards tend to be a bit on the thin side but easy to shuffle. These are just a touch thin for my liking; I’ve already bent a couple of cards and you can see where they’re starting to warp from shuffling even though I’ve only used it a handful of times. That’s the downside with thin cards, they definitely don’t last quite as long.

There is a small string to lift the cards and guidebook out of the box and the guidebook matches the cover. The guidebook isn’t in full color either. So it's your standard packaging. It's perfectly adequate but nothing groundbreaking.

The Guidebook

It's a pretty nice guidebook although when decks are very specific to things like Alice in Wonderland, I do wish more background could be included. The Bee Tarot for example is full of information on bees and I wish I had something like that here. But there’s still some good information. You have a small section about Alice in Wonderland, what’s included for each card, rituals to do before using the cards, how to use the deck and six card spreads.

Each card includes a meaning, a question to draw out the meaning a bit more and what part of Alice in Wonderland the card is based on. One thing the author recommends is to watch Alice in Wonderland in whatever version you prefer and I agree with that. I think it helps to refresh your mind about the story and I actually want to watch it again while pulling cards. Doing so makes this a truly immersive experience that I think will add a lot of richness to the deck as a whole.

The Artwork

Oh my god, the artwork is so fun! Everything is whimsical with just a touch of grotesqueness and I love it. I didn’t choose scorpio for the zodiac sign of this deck but I can see some scorpio here as it does correspond with the taboo. All of the images feel just a bit sinister although wrapped up in pretty roses and lush plants. Things are twisted and obscure and I find it just so intriguing.

My absolute favorite card is A Mad Tea Party. I talk a little bit more about it when I get to Aquarius down below so be sure to read all the way through. A close second is the Little Mouse. My goodness I just love this image so much. The color palette is sooooo good. I’m a little jealous and wished I had painted it first, lol. There’s so much to pull out of this card from the firefly to the little necklace hanging under the mouse’s house in the tree. The reflection of the mouse in the water and the unique curve of the tree trunk. It's one of those images you can sit and contemplate for a long time.

“Aren’t we all like Alice, struggling to make our way through this dizzying and destabilizing whirlwind called life? Aren’t we all trying to make sense of everything that is happening to us?”

The Duchess is the same way. At first it just looks like a woman sitting in a chair while holding a baby but look closer and you’ll see she’s actually sitting on a turtle and the baby she’s holding is a piglet. The turtle’s head is holding up her teacup and there’s broken china all over the place. You get the sense shit is hitting the fan and I found myself wondering what the heck is going on here. I’ll leave the guidebook entry for you to discover but I think this card is just so amazing.

I didn’t really care for the steampunk or I guess goth version of Alice though. I don’t mind her being revamped but I feel like this character doesn’t read quite as innocently as the original story. Perhaps if there had been some explanation about why she looks the way she does versus more true to the original version, then I would’ve been more convinced. Also, there is a complete lack of diversity in this deck. You won’t find different ethnicities here at all which is a shame. You already changed Alice so why not go the whole distance and add some different races too?

Purchase Alice in Wonderland Oracle

Reading With this Deck

These cards are quirky and they read that way. My deck’s personality is obscure and promised that it isn’t always forthcoming with the truth. Not sure how I feel about this if I’m honest. I don’t want a deck that is going to lie to me or bend the truth. However, what surprised me is how much my first readings talked about emotional intelligence. I’ve pulled a lot of cards about communication when I guess I was expecting something more outlandish. But ultimately, I enjoyed my readings with this deck. It's a bit frustrating though, at least in my experience. There are definitely times when I feel like the deck is making me dig deep for the answers rather than just telling me like it is. I feel like this deck is going to make me have more self-responsibility than I’d like. It's definitely proving to be a get out of your comfort zone sort of deal.

Collective Pull

I pulled Down the Rabbit Hole for you. You may have experienced a challenging time recently as a result of taking what some might call a needless risk. And for the time being, you’re wondering if you did indeed make a stupid choice. But don’t give up so soon. Taking a leap of faith doesn’t guarantee a soft landing. The tumble might have left you with some bumps and bruises but that doesn’t mean you’ve gone the wrong way. Do you think an explorer never met a challenge or that the world’s greatest inventors didn’t have their own mountains to climb? This card guides you not to give up. This is the start of your journey, not the end. All will be well in due time.

Season, Sign and Sabbat

I knew this deck would be Aquarius right away and then I saw “A Mad Tea Party” card and immediately I thought, the mad hatter is an Aquarius. I always joke that Aquarius is about waiving your freak flag and this guy has his out loud and proud. He’s weird in the best possible way from the butterfly cage hat to the funny braids to the big yellow glasses. I feel like I want to be friends with this dude and there are many other outlandish characters spread throughout the deck that make it obvious, Aquarius is the right sign.

However, I also love Libra for this deck. You don’t always hear about Libra being associated with dictators and authoritarians but there is a connection there. The same qualities that make a great diplomat–Libra’s domain– can just as easily be found in a dictator. I have always believed genius and insanity are two sides of the same coin. The hero and the villain aren’t all that different and those who can persuade can do so for good or bad. I feel the whole story of Alice in Wonderland straddles this line: what is wonderful may also be grotesque and vice versa. But ultimately, these cards are about seeing things from a new perspective which is 100% Aquarian.

There’s so much green in this deck so I immediately thought of Spring and Ostara. But the artwork has that muted tone that I associate with early spring. You know the time when it's still very cool and things are only just starting to bloom? That’s what I thought of when I saw the artwork. I also find the transition from winter to spring to be the most dramatic. There’s something about going from cold and stormy to lush and bright that really feels like a new beginning and I feel that way about Alice going down the rabbit hole. It's a fresh start and a chance to see the world in a whole new light. To me, spring is the earth’s way of restoring balance after you’ve gone through the rabbit hole and can now take everything you’ve learned with you.

I chose earth for the element because of all of the lushness. I wanted to choose an earth sign for the zodiac but I knew this deck belonged to Aquarius although there is an obvious earth connection that I wanted to include. With the landscape and all of the animals, it just didn’t seem right to give this to any other element.

Who is this deck for?

Well obviously if you like Alice in Wonderland then you should get this deck though keep in mind, Alice is not portrayed the way you might usually imagine. You should also know that I found this deck to be a trickster of sorts. Not in a malicious way but to get you to see things from a new perspective. This deck will frustrate you in its attempt to get you to think outside the box. If you want something that is soft and gentle and open then this deck isn’t for you. If the idea of working with the Mad Hatter in oracle deck form intrigues you though, then by all means, this is the one for you.

Tarot Deck Companion

It took me a while to pin this one down because I felt it needed a companion that had the same beautiful but slightly off, slightly weird energy. Then it suddenly hit me all at once while doing the photoshoot. The Nicoletta Ceccoli Tarot dropped into my brain and I knew right away that this would be the perfect companion. If you look at the photos down below, you can see there is an obvious connection in the tones. Alice in Wonderland oracle has a muted green palette with pops of pinks and red. Nicoletta Ceccoli Tarot has a lot of greys, blues and blacks as well but much of it is almost identical to Alice in Wonderland. Both decks are published by Lo Scarabeo and you can see the similarities easily.

But what I really love about the match is how there’s a slight grotesque energy to each of them. Nothing completely disturbing like American Horror Story by any means but there’s little details that are just a bit off putting. I only have the mini version of Nicoletta Ceccoli Tarot but I really want to get the regular size specifically to work with Alice in Wonderland. It's now one of my favorite pairings.

Thanks for reading all the way through. If you found this review to be helpful, informative or entertaining in any way, please be sure to leave a comment down below. It really helps me know what you’re enjoying so that I can provide more content based on what you love. In the meantime, please enjoy a variety of photos from this deck.

And of course, if there is something you’d like me to consider reviewing, please comment below or email me at hello@spiritelement.co