Today I came across some deck images. One of those not-very-good decks that's designed to be instagram-ready rather than functional. I'm not going to review it here except to say it's beyond wonky. No. 33, Cloudy Thoughts, is a monkey with tiny monkeys sitting on his head. There's a lady up in the clouds, but she's not Fortuna from No. 26, Great Luck - she's No. 23, Court. No. 28, AKA "Three months patience" is a King Charles Spaniel sitting on a jetty with a clock hanging over it. I get that the dog is waiting for somebody, but who leaves a toy breed dog on a jetty for three months?

And No. 19, A Death. It normally shows a coffin, and it's a lot like the Lenormand Coffin. This is from my blog, carefully compiled from German readers: "A “deadly” event, an ending. (Literal death only in certain combinations.) Close to the significator, a possible death in the family. If no. 21 is also nearby, it will occur suddenly and unexpectedly. A nasty shock. Above the Main Person, negative thoughts. Behind the Main Person, the bad time is past now. Under it, No. 19 says that they are going through a rough patch, but staying positive. Ahead, it’s a bad time yet to come."

 

They've renamed it "Metamorphose" and this is the image they used:

 

Cartomancy for the squeamish, sanitized and stripped of honesty. Made to be photographed with pretty stones and candles, and uploaded to instagram or facebook, but not to be used. (And really, if you want a pretty Kipper, Ciro's Fin de Siècle Kipper is lovely and it works.) 

I've learned to expect this kind of thing from the US. There's a gold rush mentality here, and people are quick to make decks they have a poor understanding of. I tune them out as best I can. But what's profoundly disturbing about this is that it's a German deck. I've always trusted Germany on Kippers. Even the Mystiches, wonky though it is, is a recognizable Kipper deck. This...no. Just no. New readers will be buying this thing because they think it's pretty. And they'll be asking what it means when you get, say, the monkey card with the unicorn card. Ummm - NO.

Another person out to make a buck. Now when we can convince Ryan Edward for a Kipper deck there would be where my money would go. 

Ryan would do a great job. I don't know if he reads Kipper or not, but even if he doesn't, he'd do proper research and draw a correct deck.

I don't own Ciro's Fin de Siècle Kipper but the victorian style fits well to Kipper!

Yes. Ciro's looks more British in places - some of the cards bring Dickens to mind - but it works well.
He didn't want to do a contemporary deck because it would look dated in a few years, like the Leidingkarten with its landline phone, etc. The Leiding is also a great deck, though. It did well when it came out, but now nobody talks about it much. I think in about 15-20 years there could be a big demand for it. People will want it because it's classic vintage. It's like the way things from the 40's and 50's, are once more in demand, women styling their hair in Bettie Page bangs, victory rolls, etc.

If Ciro had done a contemporary deck, it would have sold well for a few years, but then there would have been a 30 or 40 year slump. He didn't want that. Everybody loves Victorian so he went with that.

On 12/12/2021 at 3:14 PM, katrinka said:

Cartomancy for the squeamish, sanitized and stripped of honesty. Made to be photographed with pretty stones and candles, and uploaded to instagram or facebook, but not to be used.

I don't know how I stumbled on this old post, but what a turn of phrase. I feel this has happened to many Tarot decks also.

On 12/13/2021 at 5:26 PM, katrinka said:

Yes. Ciro's looks more British in places - some of the cards bring Dickens to mind - but it works well.
He didn't want to do a contemporary deck because it would look dated in a few years, like the Leidingkarten with its landline phone, etc. The Leiding is also a great deck, though. It did well when it came out, but now nobody talks about it much. I think in about 15-20 years there could be a big demand for it. People will want it because it's classic vintage. It's like the way things from the 40's and 50's, are once more in demand, women styling their hair in Bettie Page bangs, victory rolls, etc.

If Ciro had done a contemporary deck, it would have sold well for a few years, but then there would have been a 30 or 40 year slump. He didn't want that. Everybody loves Victorian so he went with that.

I tried to convince Hildegerd Leiding to get a translation to English of her book, but I did not succeed. Not sure if she even reads kipper anymore. 

Edited January 6, 20242 yr by Sar