Decks you want to love but...

[Marina]

Over the last few years, I have downsized my deck collection a lot. At some point I had up to 140 decks - now I have about 30. There are a few of them I never really use, and they are in my list to-be-relinquished list, but... I have this conflict. I actually like these decks' art and/or ideas, but form some reason I just don't find them useable.

 

To give an example, I have the "The Triple Godess Tarot" by Isha Lerner and Mara Friedman. I really like the art and the idea, and I love the Chakra Cards that come with it. But I never really manage to use it successfully. For one thing, although it comes with a complete book, the writing about the cards is rather vague and too mystic babble to for me. Not saying I need a deck to give me concrete GPS instructions in readings, but becoming "fully immersed in my flaming wisdom bliss" is not the sort of advice that helps me much. Also, as beautiful as I find the card, I don't seem to respond to them intuitively (so at least I could use the deck ignoring the book).

 

Do you have any decks that you really want to use and to love, but for some reason just... can't? 

[legendaryelement]

Tarot Familiars by Lisa Parker (Fournier)

 

I love her art! I love the size & feel of Fournier decks in my hands! I love pips/playing cards!

 

But, I expected each Major to have its own species.

 

They sit in a grouped order in their box:

 

0, Fool & the Knaves - cat, cat, owls, raven, wolves

I, Magician & the Aces - cat, cat, owl, raven, wolf

II, High Priestess; XI, Strength; XX, Judgement & the Twos - cat, wolf, cat

III, Empress; XII, Hanged Man; XXI, World & the Threes - horse, raven, owl

IV, Emperor; XIII, Death & the Fours - stag, cat

V, Hierophant; XIV, Temperance & the Fives - owl&cat, unicorns

VI, Lovers; XV, Devil & the Sixes - Red Riding Hood/wolf, wolf

VII, Chariot; XVI, Tower & the Sevens - unicorn, owl

VIII, Justice; XVII, Star & the Eights - cat, 3 cats

IX, Hermit; XVIII, Moon & the Nines - cat, hare

X, Wheel; XIX, Sun & the Tens - cat, hare

Wands: Knight, Queen, King - all a cat

Cups: Knight, Queen, King - all an owl

Swords: Knight, Queen, King - all ravens

Pentacles: Knight, Queen, King - all wolves

 

*sigh* I tried “feeling” Harry Potterish/wizard school with them too.

[Raggydoll]

Yes I have several decks like that. And I’ve downsized my collection too. I think one example would be the Dark goddess tarot. I want to love it because I adore tarot of the Crone (same creator). It just doesn’t work for me, and it’s basically because I don’t feel it works as a tarot deck and I also don’t like how it only displays certain aspects of divinities. I have realized that I also have a personal problem with the ‘quick-and-easy-smorgasbord’ approach to divinities from many different cultures. 
 

There’s other decks too. Like the Green wheel Oracle. I adore the art but the Celtic feasts doesn’t resonate with me and I’m struggling to connect with the lunar cards. I mostly just use the animal cards. 

[Marina]

19 minutes ago, legendaryelement said:

Tarot Familiars by Lisa Parker (Fournier)

 

I love her art! I love the size & feel of Fournier decks in my hands! I love pips/playing cards!

 

But, I expected each Major to have its own species.

 

*sigh* I tried “feeling” Harry Potterish/wizard school with them too.

 

I didn't know this deck! The art looks enchanting!

I agree that the owls in some cards do like a bit Harry Potterish though, lol! 

 

I love animal decks, but I never found one that I could truly use consistently.

It's ok for a deck to have some cards with animal symbols, like the Lenormand has, but deck comprised entirely of animals never really worked for me.

It's like... animals are too pure to represent messy human issues, lol.

 

 

2 minutes ago, Raggydoll said:

Yes I have several decks like that. And I’ve downsized my collection too. I think one example would be the Dark goddess tarot. I want to love it because I adore tarot of the Crone (same creator). It just doesn’t work for me, and it’s basically because I don’t feel it works as a tarot deck and I also don’t like how it only displays certain aspects of divinities. I have realized that I also have a personal problem with the ‘quick-and-easy-smorgasbord’ approach to divinities from many different cultures. 
 

There’s other decks too. Like the Green wheel Oracle. I adore the art but the Celtic feasts doesn’t resonate with me and I’m struggling to connect with the lunar cards. I mostly just use the animal cards. 

 

Oh, I know what you mean. Many "goddess cards" have this problem, of mixing deities from many cultures without clearly marking or respecting the cultures in which they originated. 

 

I didn't know the Green Wheel Oracle, the art is very pretty. I usually have a problem with decks that are too "seasonal", because they tend to focus on the way things are in the Northern Hemisphere, and that means I can never quite relate to what is being depicted. It's also a problem with the majority of moon-related oracles as well.

 

 

[euripides]

For me that'd be the Old Path. It's lovely, and I love the medieval theme, but... somehow it's just too cleanly illustrative, too much white space... I don't know - I just can't connect with it. I should probably move it on to someone who will actually use it.  I also used to have a quite lovely Wiccan themed deck - I can't for the life of me remember its name [Edit: Well Worn Path]- kind of had a sort of fake wood trompe l'oiel theme going on - but it was just way too Witchy for me at the time. I wonder if I should have kept it.

Edited September 18, 2021 by euripides

[Flaxen]

On 9/18/2021 at 4:43 AM, Raggydoll said:

I think one example would be the Dark goddess tarot. I want to love it because I adore tarot of the Crone (same creator). It just doesn’t work for me, and it’s basically because I don’t feel it works as a tarot deck and I also don’t like how it only displays certain aspects of divinities. I have realized that I also have a personal problem with the ‘quick-and-easy-smorgasbord’ approach to divinities from many different cultures. 

Yes, this is one of mine too! I love the art but the applications of goddesses to tarot just feels a bit superficial. Multi-faceted beings are here in a more narrow interpretation which misses nuance. 

 

I love the artwork of the Mary-el tarot but I just don’t really click with it to read with. It’s one with a different system to usual and as a result I never really feel like I’ve delved deep enough. 

 

 

[Marina]

On 9/18/2021 at 6:31 AM, euripides said:

For me that'd be the Old Path. It's lovely, and I love the medieval theme, but... somehow it's just too cleanly illustrative, too much white space... I don't know - I just can't connect with it. I should probably move it on to someone who will actually use it.  I also used to have a quite lovely Wiccan themed deck - I can't for the life of me remember its name [Edit: Well Worn Path]- kind of had a sort of fake wood trompe l'oiel theme going on - but it was just way too Witchy for me at the time. I wonder if I should have kept it.

 

I remember the "Well Worn Path", it was HUGE many years ago. TEH 0N3 PAGAN DECK!!111 I had it at some point, it was very pretty, but I never really managed to use any "witchy" decks successfully. The only exception is "The Wicca Pack", by Sally Morningstar, but it's due to the fact I loved it very much when I was younger, so I have an emotional attachment to it. It's by no means an extraordinary deck in itself.

 

16 hours ago, Flaxen said:

I love the artwork of the Mary-el tarot but I just don’t really click with it to read with. It’s one with a different system to usual and as a result I never really feel like I’ve delved deep enough. 

 

Yes, I have a similar problem with the "Elemental Tarot" by John Astrop and Caroline Smith. I really LOVE Astrop and Smith's ideas for decks, and Smith's art style is so original! BUT... it's a rather unique rendition of the tarot, and whenever I try to actually read with it, I feel way out of my depth. I feel like I oughta put all my decks aside for a couple of months and focus solely on it just to start getting something from it.

 

Actually, I have even been thinking about starting a "Tryna Love This Deck Challenge" or "Last Chance Challenge" lol. The challenge would be to consistently use the deck for a few days - like, a couple of weeks - and see if my relationship with it evolves. If even after trying to work with it regularly, I find that it still makes no sense to me... then I should consider letting it go, or accepting it's just going to be a piece of art, rather than an useable oracle. 

 

 

[katrinka]

Has no one mentioned this one yet?

https://marykgreer.com/2011/11/12/tarot-of-the-holy-light/

It's stunningly beautiful and brimming with alchemical symbolism. Even the stock is sumptuous, it's linen.
It also requires a deep dive into Payne-Towler's theories, something I don't really agree with. So I may never get the full benefit of it.
But I can't bring myself to let it go. I'll just continue to muddle along and do the best I can with it, without the deep dive.

 

[katrinka]

35 minutes ago, marinaoracles said:

I remember the "Well Worn Path", it was HUGE many years ago. TEH 0N3 PAGAN DECK!!111 I had it at some point, it was very pretty, but I never really managed to use any "witchy" decks successfully.

LOL. I had that one. It was a nice walkthrough of pagan concepts, but for reading - well, not no great.
I don't even know what happened to my copy. Did I gift it to someone? Misplace it? I have no idea.

[Marina]

9 minutes ago, katrinka said:

Has no one mentioned this one yet?

https://marykgreer.com/2011/11/12/tarot-of-the-holy-light/

It's stunningly beautiful and brimming with alchemical symbolism. Even the stock is sumptuous, it's linen.
It also requires a deep dive into Payne-Towler's theories, something I don't really agree with. So I may never get the full benefit of it.
But I can't bring myself to let it go. I'll just continue to muddle along and do the best I can with it, without the deep dive.

 

 

 

GAH YES, this deck is gorgeous! I remember wanting to buy it at some point because I love Alchemical art, but I never did... probably due to budget constraints or something.

 

It does look like a deck that is very complex... in the long run, I do wonder if such complex decks end up becoming reliable oracles for anyone. Myself, I always end up going back to my basic ones - common Tarot decks, playing cards, a couple of love oracles... And as for the the ultra-elaborate decks with unique systems and artwork, I just look at them and sigh. 😕 

[katrinka]

I love experimenting with the uber-complex ones for myself sometimes. It's like doing puzzles. I just don't use them for paid readings, or even for when I need a crystal clear reliable answer for myself.

[DanielJUK]

My deck for this would be the Gypsy Palace Tarot by Nora Huszka. I think these days it would be more appropriate to say it was bohemian palace deck by an artist who is a true bohemian free spirit!

 

She got people to back her deck across the net some years ago and had a deck creation thread on AT and loads of us signed up to the crowd funding page for it. It sounded wonderful and she was sweet and interesting. When the decks arrived, it was a gorgeous set and the artwork is beautiful. But I find it utterly utterly unreadable! It's the only deck I have ever owned or seen that I just cannot crack for reading. I just can't work out her intentions for each card, it's just art with no link to the card meaning. I was annoyed by this but it turned out everyone in the original AT thread had the same problem. She did listen to us and promised a book of meanings. I have never seen it for sale but I notice people who got review decks to write about publicly like Benebell Wen, got the meanings book, hand made by her with the deck but it never seemed to materialise for us.

 

Here is an example from the AT deck page, this is The Tower, how on earth would you read that without knowing any details of the artists intention?.....

 

 

Someone revealed on the AT thread that they don't think she originally created the art for a tarot deck, she was an graduate artist and just took some of her portfolio of art and made it fit a tarot deck. So the original intention wasn't to take a card and make art for it but instead squeezed into it. I don't know if it's true or not but they don't seem to have a connection to the card titles. Also you can only understand what the intentions are if you are Nora, that is why I so wished I had a book of what each card meant to her.

 

I love the artwork so much but it's just silent to me and unusable 😞

 

[Raggydoll]

@DanielJUK I’ll give it a go… the tower card is saying “Take this as a cautionary tale: Alicia grew her neck very long to impress a dodgy looking dude, and now she is fully dependent on him to hold her head up. This situation cannot last; she knows it. Soon she’ll come crashing down, vertebrae by vertebrae, and he’ll move on to another woman.”
 

Does that help? 😁

[Seren]

I have bought (and sold) so many decks over the years. The deck I wanted to love was Ciro Marchetti's Guilded Tarot.  it is so beautifully illustrated and I did try and use it for a while but it just never felt right.  I have kept a copy, but once you get past the genius of the digital artist that created it, it just doesn't connect on an esoteric level. 

 

Then I purchased the Wildwood Tarot as the illustrations were so exquisite, but again I just couldn't work with it.  I loved to look at the images, but felt absolutely no connection. I ended up selling it on Ebay for more than I paid for it.  I do hope the new owner has better luck with it than I did. 

 

So it was, is and will be the Rider Waite for me, and certainly when it comes to readings. I carry it about with me like my phone and wallet.  

 

 

[DanielJUK]

5 hours ago, Raggydoll said:

@DanielJUK I’ll give it a go… the tower card is saying “Take this as a cautionary tale: Alicia grew her neck very long to impress a dodgy looking dude, and now she is fully dependent on him to hold her head up. This situation cannot last; she knows it. Soon she’ll come crashing down, vertebrae by vertebrae, and he’ll move on to another woman.”
 

Does that help? 😁

 

🤣 I think if we both study the cards we might be able to publish a deck companion guide between us

[Raggydoll]

3 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

 

🤣 I think if we both study the cards we might be able to publish a deck companion guide between us

[ladedadedum]

I bought The Wild Unknown Tarot Deck and I was so excited to get started with it. The cards are beautiful, but I couldn't get "into" them if you know what I mean. I just did not feel connected to the deck. I've used them maybe twice and didn't feel the deck and I responded to each other well. If that makes sense.