Your experience with circular tarot decks

[Marisa Kirisame]

Hello, TT&M!

 

Today, a close friend of mine had messaged me that he had found a little shop with spirituality-related items in his city, and was surprised to see a decent assortment of Tarot and oracle decks on display there (decent for similar shops in that particular city, but still a very joyous occasion). Among these was a Circle of Life Tarot deck, the main quirk of which is it's circular cards (I've looked it up on the Internet and also found a similar deck, Daughters of the Moon).

As I've previously taught him my approach to Tarot, my friend though that I would be interested to know about these decks, as the shape of the cards allows them to have an arbitrary rotation in any spread, which is an interesting source of information to interpret together with the symbols that this card and it's position in the spread provide.

 

Those of you who had experience with Circle of Life, Daughters of the Moon or similar circular card decks - did you make use of this? If yes, how did you read the rotation variable? How did you decipher it?

 

P.S. my friend had also bought himself a copy of Ostara Tarot (the one drawn by a collab of 4 artists, each working on an 1/4 of the deck, he says, so different visual styles in a single deck - I wonder if there are any decks where each card was drawn by a different artist as a massive collab project. Perhaps we at TT&M can make one?). I hope to visit him soon to take a look at the art.

 

P.P.S. I see you already have a collab deck. I'll check it out 😃

Edited April 21, 2021 by Marisa Kirisame

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

One of my favorite decks is Songs For The Journey Home. If I read for others very often I would probably consider orientation, I don't when using round decks for myself. 

I've had Cloisters and Circle of Life, both passed on to others as not my cup of tea. In the end the images need to speak tarot, not all do. 

[Marisa Kirisame]

6 minutes ago, AJ-ish/Sharyn said:

One of my favorite decks is Songs For The Journey Home. If I read for others very often I would probably consider orientation, I don't when using round decks for myself. 

I've had Cloisters and Circle of Life, both passed on to others as not my cup of tea. In the end the images need to speak tarot, not all do. 

I see, it's a circular deck too. Did you use the additional information from the card's rotation? If yes, how did you read that information, and how did you interpret it?

[ilweran]

I have a few round decks, the only one I've really used is the Daughters of the Moon, it's quite large which makes it awkward to shuffle!

 

I've not been able to find this anywhere, but I'm sure one of them came with instructions that included how instead of just straight forward upright and reversed, you took into account how far from upright/reversed the card was. I sort of implement that a bit, I don't really read reversals usually, but it's such an interesting idea for a round deck and fun to consider.

[Marisa Kirisame]

Yes! I, personally, giggle a little when I think about the possibilities: the exact rotation of the card has quite a bit of information, and there are multiple approaches you can already consider without thinking too deeply into it, for example, four cardinal directions (with either a varying effect on the card's main meaning, or perhaps an association with the North, South, West and East). Or eight directions. Or a whole subset of extra symbols you can assign. Or even writing down the exact rotation angle for every card and interpreting the number/the angle.

[AJ-ish/Sharyn]

22 hours ago, Marisa Kirisame said:

I see, it's a circular deck too. Did you use the additional information from the card's rotation? If yes, how did you read that information, and how did you interpret it?

well you asked about round decks... Like Ilweran, I don't use reversals so it's a moot point really. But if I were seeking a way to shake up my readings, I'd consider how far to the tipping point the cards were. The companion book is sizable but small print and I'm recovering from eye surgery and can't read it. Give me a month and I'll get back with what if anything the book says about rotational readings. 

[Saturn Celeste]

23 hours ago, Marisa Kirisame said:

Yes! I, personally, giggle a little when I think about the possibilities: the exact rotation of the card has quite a bit of information, and there are multiple approaches you can already consider without thinking too deeply into it, for example, four cardinal directions (with either a varying effect on the card's main meaning, or perhaps an association with the North, South, West and East). Or eight directions. Or a whole subset of extra symbols you can assign. Or even writing down the exact rotation angle for every card and interpreting the number/the angle.

The rotation of the cards is why I read with circular decks.  My favorite one is The Gorgon's Tarot.  Even though it is black and white it is stunning!  I have other round decks like Motherpeace, Circle of Life, Shining Angels, Creature Teacher an oracle and I think a couple more but I've packed my circle decks away except the Circle of Life and my Motherpeace.  I'd have to look up the other ones I have.  @AJ-ish/Sharyn mentioned the Cloisters deck and I always wanted that one!  I found it too late, it was on Amazon but by then it was too much money. 

[Marisa Kirisame]

2 hours ago, Saturn Celeste said:

The rotation of the cards is why I read with circular decks.  My favorite one is The Gorgon's Tarot.  Even though it is black and white it is stunning!  I have other round decks like Motherpeace, Circle of Life, Shining Angels, Creature Teacher an oracle and I think a couple more but I've packed my circle decks away except the Circle of Life and my Motherpeace.  I'd have to look up the other ones I have.  @AJ-ish/Sharyn mentioned the Cloisters deck and I always wanted that one!  I found it too late, it was on Amazon but by then it was too much money. 

Nice to hear! How do you read and interpret the rotation?

[Saturn Celeste]

11 minutes ago, Marisa Kirisame said:

How do you read and interpret the rotation?

My typical way is looking backwards, looking forward.  You can do subconscious/conscious or the degree towards a reversal.  If the deck is at the 3 - 5 position like on a clock, that is almost reversed so you can read it accordingly.  Positions 7 - 10 can be coming out of a reversal.  I've done different ways depending on the deck and the question I'm reading for. 🙂

[Marisa Kirisame]

8 minutes ago, Saturn Celeste said:

My typical way is looking backwards, looking forward.  You can do subconscious/conscious or the degree towards a reversal.  If the deck is at the 3 - 5 position like on a clock, that is almost reversed so you can read it accordingly.  Positions 7 - 10 can be coming out of a reversal.  I've done different ways depending on the deck and the question I'm reading for. 🙂

So a difference in the rotation degree from upright/from reverse as in a proportion between the main and reversed symbolism, or as a proportion in which the symbol applies to conscious/subconscious, correct? I think I'm not getting the "looking backwards, looking forward" part, though. Would you kindly explain it in detail?

Edited April 22, 2021 by Marisa Kirisame

[Saturn Celeste]

1 hour ago, Marisa Kirisame said:

So a difference in the rotation degree from upright/from reverse as in a proportion between the main and reversed symbolism, or as a proportion in which the symbol applies to conscious/subconscious, correct? I think I'm not getting the "looking backwards, looking forward" part, though. Would you kindly explain it in detail?

Ok, if I have a card that is leaning over to the left and I'm doing subconscious or conscious, if the image leaned to the left, I would read it more as subconscious instead of conscious.  If the card is totally upside down, that is a reversed.  But if the image is almost upside down but leans to the left or right, that can read as going into a reversed position or leaving a reversed position.  Now, if you want to put the subconscious/conscious to the card, if it is almost reversed but is leaning to the right, then I would read that as going into a reversal and the sitter would be conscious of it.  But if the card was leaning upside down but leaning more to the left like in the 7, 8 or 9 position of a clock, that would be read as coming out of being reversed and it would be subconscious.  If  you want to do past present, if the image is a face and it leans to the left, then they are looking to their past and if the image leans to the right, they are looking to their future.  It all depends on what you're looking for in your reading.

 

These sample readings are from the Motherpeace deck.  I think visually this will give you a better idea.

https://exemplore.com/fortune-divination/AstrologyTarot-Cards-Advice-and-Readings

 

I notice the page does the past and future different from me.  But it's the directions that you give to your deck and continue to use those directions that will make the reading consistent.

Edited April 22, 2021 by Saturn Celeste

[Marisa Kirisame]

10 hours ago, Saturn Celeste said:

Ok, if I have a card that is leaning over to the left and I'm doing subconscious or conscious, if the image leaned to the left, I would read it more as subconscious instead of conscious.  If the card is totally upside down, that is a reversed.  But if the image is almost upside down but leans to the left or right, that can read as going into a reversed position or leaving a reversed position.  Now, if you want to put the subconscious/conscious to the card, if it is almost reversed but is leaning to the right, then I would read that as going into a reversal and the sitter would be conscious of it.  But if the card was leaning upside down but leaning more to the left like in the 7, 8 or 9 position of a clock, that would be read as coming out of being reversed and it would be subconscious.  If  you want to do past present, if the image is a face and it leans to the left, then they are looking to their past and if the image leans to the right, they are looking to their future.  It all depends on what you're looking for in your reading.

 

These sample readings are from the Motherpeace deck.  I think visually this will give you a better idea.

https://exemplore.com/fortune-divination/AstrologyTarot-Cards-Advice-and-Readings

 

I notice the page does the past and future different from me.  But it's the directions that you give to your deck and continue to use those directions that will make the reading consistent.

 

So discrete conscious/subconscious (or past/future) and upright/reverse states, as if the rotation circle was divided into 4 parts? An interesting approach, thanks for the description! The example the link provides also mentions the rotation being interpreted as a passive/aggressive modifier - something to consider as well.

 

P.S. I've just had a thought that in a geometric spread with connections (think Grand Tableau) a rotation can be used to determine how much does a card affect the nearby cards (or how much is it is affected by the nearby cards). Though you would lose the ability to read reversals in this case without the upright/reversed being tied to affecting certain card positions (e.g. if you consider a card to affect the card it's top points to the most, you won't be able to have a reversed card significantly affect a card that is directly above it in a spread). So you will have to either omit reversed part of the symbol alphabet, or design the spread in a specific way where this inability from my example would make sense in the context of the spread.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Marisa Kirisame