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I just returned from a family gathering and can't wait to give this a try. Thank you for sharing, @Nemia !

This one is proper, extremely so. Uncluttered, direct, advantageous for the reader - and the cell-analogy! I like this a lot.

I had that happen too! Decided to keep it, it was a palm reading thing. Not sure why one would need a deck for that, but... who knows! Not in the mail, but I went to a Vintage fair last Sunday and found an Ancien Tarot de Maresille deck (Grimaud). Nothing unusual in itself, the reference number implies it was printed between 1970 and 1980. The box itself had some water stains, but the cards are untouched. They had been shuffled, inexpertly, because the cover cards had been shuffled into the deck. All the cards are present and accounted for, and I doubt it has actually been read with.

I might have considered it - had I been able to see what I would be getting. Why not load my "plan" without requiring the email, and not let me actually DO it without one ? But more seriously - the appearance doesn't help; does this draw anyone in ? ? Headings would have been easier to assimilate.

We now move on to the major arcana. I assigned two majors to each of us because we're complex beings, and our life topics and issues often stem from inner conflicts, or inner drives that push and pull us into different directions. I have to add that I was completely blown away by the cards - each single card in this reading gave me key insights into our family dynamics and what motivates and moves each of us, and I learned a lot about my children. So this is a very rich layer. Again, thinking back to my biology lessons and the structure of a cell, we might call these majors the mitochondria of the cell - each member generates energy by the conflicting forces within him. One of my sons has the Hierophant and the Magician to propel him forwards in life, and indeed I see both tendencies in him. Now we come to the more intimate part - the behaviour within the family, the things we share and we fight about. And wow, in spite of my peaceful Queen of Cups and Empress, my behaviour is reflected by the Ace of Swords - I can wound with words. Of course, this Ace is also about truth, honesty and clarity, but looking at its shadow side confronted me with an uncomfortable truth about myself. After you feel that you have explored the personalities involved, start interpreting the relationships between them. For example, what is the relationship between my middle children? My son comes into the family dynamic with a Five of Pentacles, feeling deprived and neglected, while my daughter brings her prosperous, self-assured Nine of Pentacles. (In this deck, this card depicts two people which deflects from the Splendid Isolation we see so often on this card.) As I said above - if I wanted to go into more depth here, I could definitely draw more minors to get the nuances and special relationships, but in my case, these six minors gave me a wealth of information. (I could have used two minors: one for what each of us gives, and the second for what we receive and take in.) The central card is the nucleus of the cell, where the DNA and shared characteristics sit, but also the ability of the cell to survie or not. I decided to use a major card for this position. Lo and behold, it's the Wheel of Fortune. Now the whole reading looks like a machine that moves slowly, all its parts are connected and interdependent. If there are problems between two members, nothing works properly. This is a close-up on one person (my husband). We have the upright cards: his court card personality (Queen of Swords), the majors (Hermit, Lovers) and the minor: Four of Pentacles. I interpret them in upright position first, and then I look at the shadow aspect. Using the Tarot of Oppositions, this is easy, but as I said, it will work with any deck that you know well. I hope this spread I crafted for my family can help you do something similar for yours, or for any other group of people. I used simple stick-it notes with names for the spread positions, but the reading may be even more powerful if you use pictures. I also have tiny wooden game figures that I might have used. But a simple piece of paper works as well. Another variation might be that you don't draw cards but pick at least part of them, for example picking the court cards according to zodiac signs and age. However, I decided to draw cards and wait for surprises. Have fun with this!

We could probably all write a doctoral thesis about family relationships; we're all experts on that specific topis, and even people with complex, absent or alienated family histories know a lot about families and how they work. For my reading, I used the Tarot of Oppositions, a very special deck that depicts the light and shadow side of each cards. Obviously, you can use any deck that you like, and keep in mind to look at the reversed meaning of each card. Remember that within a family, others see our weak points, shadow, and some see ONLY the dark sides of their other family members. So look at every card, and reverse it. If it's reversed, turn it upright during the reading. Interpret each card as upright AND reversed. I found that the Tarot of Oppositions is a very powerful tool for this kind of reading. I wanted to create a spread that allows me to uncover some deep-seated, recurring patterns of conflict and harmony between my own core family (my husband, me and our four adult children), and perhaps others may take ideas and inspiration from the spread that I have developed. You can take its basic idea and adapt it to your own situation, goals and questions. Inspired by Nancy Hendrickson's work with ancestors, I used a split deck for an in-depth reading about family dynamics. (Of course, any other close-knit group of people can be explored using this technique, you can use it just for yourself or a two-people relationship. I find it especially helpful for family relationship as the connections within the family are complex, conflicts can have deep roots, and we know each other well, but none of us knows everything about the other.) The court cards represent the personality and character traits of the person in question. Two majors represent their life topics, conflicts, deepest interests and life journey. One minor card represents the behaviour in certain situations and within the relationship pattern of the family group. As always, it's possible to adapt the number of cards, to use only one major or add another minor. I didn't want to get a bloated reading, so I restricted court cards and minors to one, but for the important life topics, one card didn't seem enough. We ar six people, so a six-pointed star seemed a good geometric pattern for the cards. There is a male triangle for my husband and two sons, and a female triangle for myself and our two daughters. This is how it looks. My basic geometric body for our family - depending on the size of the group that you wish to explore, you may wish to adapt star-shaped, square or round shapes for this spread. I recommend using a shape that has a defined center - I put a major arcana for the main topic of the family, or the current situation, or the challenge we are facing right now. For our family, this is how it looks: a male triangle, a female triangle, and a center. You can also see that there is an outer shell (the roles we play, the personalities that also person outside of the family recognise), and we go more and more inside as we continue to read the cards. These are the court cards for each of us. Indeed, if I remember my biology lessons, this outer shell of court cards works like a semi-permeable membrane that separates the family from the outside world. Some of the feelings and secrets are kept inside, but influences from the outside reach us all the time. I'll split this post into several chapters to make it more easily digestible.

I am excited about this project, and I am really hoping this will be my very first Etteilla deck. However, it is going to be a close race to the finish line, and the project needs our help to reach its funding goal: 👉 Etteilla: Fortunes and Adventures of the Arcana on Kickstarter The campaign runs until October 2, 2026. It might be difficult to hit the pledge goal without some extra community support, so every backer or share makes a huge difference right now. If you want to see the cards in action, The Hermit's Cave has done a fantastic flip-through of an advanced prototype here: 🎬 Watch the Prototype Preview on YouTube I really hope some of you find this project as beautiful and intriguing as I do. Let's help make this deck a reality! 🙏

Thank you so much for sharing your experience. Certainly, if you do not plan to use an app, we cannot function without an email address. Thank you kindly.

Oh, geez. What a pain, and what a disappointment.

I just received a package from the other side of the world with... the wrong deck in it. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Just venting. Sigh.

OK I started to give it a shot. It annoyed me when I'd put in all my stuff that it demanded an email. I didn't choose to give it, nor would I until I could see what I - personally, not by blurb - was likely to get into. I went back just now to add more commentary, and it immediately remarked that it had been a few days since I had created my plan, and was I ready to carry on. Also all the ENDLESS photos of mobile phone screens are just clutter to scroll past. Especially as I wouldn't be using a mobile device My personal feeling too, is that there is just too much self promotion. Not for me, I'm afraid.

I’m an English lecturer… A literary oracle? What wonderful thing is this??? — I think reading the cards is very similar to reading a book. And I totally identify with stress buying decks. I’ve done my far bit of that recently. The Hanson-Roberts I’m using this week is one of them. It’s not the original US Games deck but a reprint by Peter Pauper Press that comes in a nice box. The cards in this box set are very flimsy and the colouring is slightly different, but I’m glad I bought it as a deck for using. It lives in my work bag at the moment. My US Games HR in the red box I never use for fear of wearing it out. As a result, I never really looked at the images. It’s a much underrated deck in my collection. I’ve done a couple of readings with it this week, but I am enjoying just reacquainting myself with the images.

Goodness that sounds difficult and unnecessary. I wonder where they would stand with Etsy readers now advertising "BRUTAL READING! RIP THE BANDAID OFF! IS HE COMING BACK OR NAH? FIND OUT FOR CERTAIN - READING GUARANTEED IN 0.8 FEMTOSECONDS OR LESS". I wonder if/why touchy feely readings have stopped being trendy? 🤔 -*- Like many folks in this thread, I agree that life is about taking the rough with the smooth. It does worry me when I see spiritual folk being all "love and light, don't let the negativity get to you, only invite in good thoughts xoxo" because ignoring the bad stuff means ignoring injustice, suffering and heartache. Both the types felt personally and internally and the external types writ large in the world. You can't deal with the inner stuff by ignoring it. And you can't speak crucial truth to power about the external stuff by locking it away in a brain-drawer either.

Thanks for your help! At first, when I tried to attach as usual, I got a message that my files were too big, and I reduced some and sometimes that worked. And sometimes it didn't. But now I don't get an "attachment" choice at the bottom at all, only "Other Media." And when I click on Other Media, the only choice is "Insert existing attachment." Thanks again!

Ignore the 403, that is a seperate issue (I'm getting it too,) but do you have any other errors pop up when you try to attach? I have it set to Unlimited for TT&M Family group.

I will look into this!

I just figured out why I can't attach more photos: I've reached some sort of limit. But when I go to my profile and click "My Attachments," I get an error screen (403 Frobidden). Do I have to or is there a way to delete some of my old attachments to make way for more? Thanks for any advice!

OMG, I'm obsessed with Puss in Boots, and your Tad makes a great one! I love that you've caught him just pulling them on. And a tuxedo is perfect for a private eye: noir with a heart of white spots.

I wonder how many of those of us who are tarot readers are also book lovers too. 😊 My current bit of fun is drawing/painting our three cats as literary figures. I've done the two boys - Tad as Puss in Boots and Figaro as John Blacksad, P.I. The next one will be Lia, the only dame, and she'll be Graymalkin from Macbeth.

Welcome back @Bodhiseed, @BrightEye, and @Rachelcat!

I am a firm believer that tarot (and other cards) cards are tools. We use them for what we need them for. While I've never removed 'negative cards' from a deck, when doing a reading for myself, I do occasionally remove all the court cards. I haven't got a problem reading court cards, but sometimes I just want insight into an issue WITHOUT dealing with personalities as well. I think if you want a reading but KNOW you can't deal with negativity at the moment, it's perfectly okay to remove a few cards you definitely don't want to get. Tarot will find a way to tell you what you need to know, anyway. If you know you're going to have an over-reaction to a negative card ...just take it out. I'd rather do that, than assign some happy clappy meaning to a scary/negative card. Just me, I guess. These removing a card actions don't apply when I'm doing a reading for others, though. With any luck, I can read calmly and not over-react if a negative card comes up. I'm less likely to catastrophise a reading for someone else, if a negative card appears, and often the personality cards are the most useful when pinpointing particular people. I usually look for the most helpful meaning of any card, when reading for others. When reading for myself, though ...I can do whatever I want!

@Nemia You can do some proper fortune-telling with 'em Tarots, too, as you are well aware, I bet. But... I noted that I did apparently feel entitled to flippantly diss the "Only Positivity"- stance in the end, despite my initial effort to leave it some room, which made me wonder what it is making me go "Can't! No!" - and arrived at a most peculiar answer. It undermines our instinctive understanding of form and pattern, forming part of each informed readers approach to cards. Whether instinct is present and aligned with heart, soul and understanding is what makes an approach informed in the first place. And part of that is that you just look at a card and feel something. Take XIII, TdM-style, look at it without thinking for a moment. "Look good and long, and let it step in through the inner door, now do you dare? Ah. What a nice fellow we have here, don't we?" -made up on the spot- And here is why I go "Can't!": The feeling each card evokes inside of us is an essential part of how we approach its core, how we align with it. It is part of where we go looking for what's most useful - Very often, once we are entirely clear about our resonance with the core, the character of the card has settled, too, and we say "it clicked" for us, and each "click" is so precious to us that it enriches the entirety of our craft. Here's where I arrived at: I'll discourage the above discussed praxis, it's prone to lead into accidents down the road. If someone feels the need for a purely positive read and would feel the need to make the troublesome cards less or not so to arrive there, the more beneficial approach will likely be to exclude them from the pack in their entirety for the period one is in need of affirmation. It's better for the mind, you need not doctor around with stuff and can be honest with you about not feeling up for troubling impact. There's a good chance that it will feel like you've grown a bit once you feel ready to take them on once more, too.

Good morning my friends. I hope all is well with you. Stress shopping has brought me two new decks, so another new deck this week, The Literary Oracle Deck: A Guide to the Hidden Lore of Classic Literature. Each card is a character from literature with an archetype-ish label. The booklet has additional keywords, “guidance,” a rather verbose affirmation, a brief summary, and a short quote. It also has a checklist at the end to check off the books you’ve read. I’ve taken the challenge and even made a spreadsheet of what I’ve read, what I need to reread, and what I haven’t yet read. So wish me luck in my new project! I just finished rereading Alice from the old book my mom used to read it to us, and I’m deep in King Lear today. (My son and I were both English majors, so I guess it’s not too surprising how many copies on the list are on my upstairs bookshelves. And on my Kindle of course.) A few cards are characters from the same book (Marmee and Jo from Little Women and Elizabeth and Darcy & Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice) and some from the same author (P&P and Emma; Huck Finn and A Connecticut Yankee; A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, and Great Expectations; and Iliad and Odessey). But generally it has a good variety for 55 cards, including a book of poems, two plays, and two nonfiction. Let’s see what these characters have to say. [I'm having trouble posting photos . . .] What is your most important characteristic? Destruction, Colonel Kurtz, Heart of Darkness That doesn’t bode well! The deck is deceptively subversive and can destroy preconceived notions, of literature and life. What is your strength? Rebirth, Rebecca Sharp, Vanity Fair Becky reinvented herself, sometimes by nefarious means. Again, it’s a subversive deck, but one that will help me make needed changes. Your weakness? Empathy, Mary, The Secret Garden Ok, now we’re going to fight. Being chronically online makes me bristle when anybody says anything negative about empathy. People are so eager to get people to hate the people THEY hate. Maybe the deck’s weakness is showing empathy as small and childlike instead of as a force to be reckoned with? What can you teach me? The Journey, Sacajawea, Journals of Lewis and Clark Reading is about the journey, not finishing off a list. But I still want to do that. (The thing I remember most about Sacajawea is that basically she was expendable to her people, so they sent her off as a guide, but that made her as much of a great explorer as her employers.) So not so much about a journey, but she can teach me that one’s value and accomplishments aren’t limited to what other people think about you. How can I learn it? The Underdog, Oliver Twist I’m relatively privileged. If people of much less privilege can become explorers, or whatever they want to be, so can I. What will be the outcome of our work together? Obsession, Captain Ahab, Moby-Dick I’ll be obsessed with my reading list! The deck really doesn’t pull any punches, starting with Destruction and ending with Obsession. We’ll see if it’s so stark this week.

Very true - I should have written, what use would a TAROT deck without these cards be. I tried to work with Lenormand many many years ago, using a German book and the good old Blue Owl deck, and I liked it. However, I always return to tarot... One great thing about Lenormand is the many layers of meaning in one card. I keep thinking: I have to get back to it. Lenormand is proper fortune telling ;-) not all this self-reflective stuff. However, I seem to be in need some self-reflective stuff, so there we are...

I will work with the Hanson-Roberts this week.