COLDEST reading deck(s) you've ever had

[GreatDane]

I think we've all likely been there.  Gotten a deck that caught our aesthetic eye only to not be a "reader" for us.

 

Disappointing!

 

I've had more decks I've moved along than kept.  The decks that are the "warmest" and best readers for me are the ones I go back to. 

 

JUST a couple on a long list....and BEAUTIFUL decks, Tarot of Prague.  Just wasn't a reader for me.  And I find a lot of what I think of as collage decks, aren't.  Mystic Dreamer, thought was "pretty".  Then I realized photographic decks not really readers for me (I thought it was made up of paintings/drawings until I got it).

 

So if these are two of your fav decks, I can see why, very nice decks, just cold readers for me.

 

Anyone have any decks that read "cold"?  Didn't flow?  Moved along?  

 

[Misterei]

1 hour ago, GreatDane said:

...  I find a lot of what I think of as collage decks, aren't.  Mystic Dreamer, thought was "pretty".  Then I realized photographic decks not really readers for me (I thought it was made up of paintings/drawings until I got it).

Yep. Photoshopped decks just don't hit for me. Pixie's LeNormand was the same. I thought I would like a lenny to match my RWS decks ... but reading with Pixie's LeNormand seriously creeped me out. I call them Frankenstien decks. Cobbled together with dead peices of other things. Yuck.

[GreatDane]

Most of them feel like not intentional decks, but borrowed bits.  I read with variations of the PCS tarot deck.  That is my go to.  I can read with the Pixie's Lenormand, but I understand what you're saying, it's not like she originally did it to fit in with Lenormand images.   I like decks that feel clear and intentional.  I don't have many tarot decks and the one that are readers for me have to have clear PCS images.  Same with Lenormand as I don't want to take even seconds to GUESS which card.  Lenormands that have more than one Lenormand image in the same card, just no for me.  Like a child with a dog, a woman wearing a ring, etc.  But that's just me.  I figure whatever resonates best with the reader is what they should use.

[Chariot]

This Llewellyn Tarot.  I loved it.  Loved the book that came with it.

I'm very much interested in Welsh mythology, as I am part Welsh myself.  So I was very disappointed when it didn't work for me.   At all.  I tried and tried and after a year or two, I gave up on it and passed it on.  I'm not sure what went wrong, but it just didn't work for me.  I interviewed the deck, and here is what I wrote after the interview:  "This deck tends to have a pessimistic state of mind, and all readings need to be dug into."

Digging into the readings proved to be too much work, especially as I never got a useful result.  Strange, to be so attracted to a deck that just doesn't work for me.

@Misterei - Yeah, I had exactly the same reaction to "Pixie's" Lenormand ...and dumped it like a hot potato.  It just felt 'wrong.'  And a clear ploy to snaffle money from RWS fans!

Edited September 29, 2023 by Chariot

[Arania]

1 hour ago, Chariot said:

This Llewellyn Tarot.  I loved it.  Loved the book that came with it.

I'm very much interested in Welsh mythology, as I am part Welsh myself.  So I was very disappointed when it didn't work for me.   At all.  I tried and tried and after a year or two, I gave up on it and passed it on.  I'm not sure what went wrong, but it just didn't work for me.  I interviewed the deck, and here is what I wrote after the interview:  "This deck tends to have a pessimistic state of mind, and all readings need to be dug into."

Digging into the readings proved to be too much work, especially as I never got a useful result.  Strange, to be so attracted to a deck that just doesn't work for me.
 

 

I had a completely different experience. Whatever spirit or energy is in mine prefers to read on the lighter side of things - need to check if that's still the case though. Not used it in a while because of that.

[DanielJUK]

I've moved this thread to the tarot decks section 🙂

[DanielJUK]

I wrote about it in the past here but it's the Gypsy Palace Tarot for me....

 

These days it would be better to call it a Bohemian deck because the artist is a true Bohemian person and free spirit. The deck is the only deck I have or have owned and is utterly unreadable. We all backed it as a crowdfunder on Aecletic and she was a lovely, quirky lady who answered our questions in the thread about it. When it arrived (after a longer wait than expected), no one could read the cards! It's been suggested online that she had an art project and painted the pictures and then fitted them into tarot cards, at a later date to make the tarot. I am not convinced the cards were made for each card archetype but then I cannot read them so who knows! 🤷‍♂️

 

I keep the deck because the artwork is utterly beautiful, it's an art deck for me from an artist. Some people have kept the deck and managed to get readings out of it by hard work of learning each card. The artist had a lot of feedback about the deck and announced there would be a small book with her meanings for each card and what the art made! I think one was made which was her handwriting on the pages (I guess copied for each book) and a fabric outer. There seemed to be a limited release. Without the book or ebook of her meanings of the cards, you cannot understand the artwork, her thinking of the cards or get into her world 🙂 . Beautiful though but unreadable for divination!

[Arania]

9 hours ago, GreatDane said:

 

Anyone have any decks that read "cold"?  Didn't flow?  Moved along?  

 

We don't often give away decks as we also collect, but yeah... Cold is not an issue, I sometimes prefer them very unemotional, blunt or even rude. And sometimes the energies change later and it workd fine. It is also a challenge to be able to read with everything. In theory.

 

I did not get on at all with an oracle called Moon Cycle or the like, long ago, it was confusing emotionally, overmuch in colors and generally didn't seem to like me. I gave that one away.

 

The Gypsy Lenormand and me didn't get on either. Images move for me, usually, and even Lenormand cards can take on a different meanings for me than what's generally accepted. Nope, not this one. No movement, and totally static meaning. Can't use that at all and passed it on.

 

Tarot of the Trance - I'm usually all for colorful but the way the colors kept moving for me didn't work, and it almost always talked just about psychological stuff instead of dealing with the questions. Neither me nor my housemate could really get into the way figures were drawn either, it always felt insubstantial, too. Maybe you really need to be on a trip to used it, idk. I don't remember what we did with it as we both ended up disliking it, it may still be in a moving box somewhere but it might have ended up with a cousin.

 

Margaret Peterson Tarot. Images are great but they never made a story, just snapshots of time not even connected. I exchanged it for another deck within the family.

 

Those are the few I remember we didn't keep in the collection, there were probably others.

 

I do have issues with decks not related to the design but the energy stuck to it, but those I can cleanse, usually.

[Chariot]

1 hour ago, Arania said:

 

I had a completely different experience. Whatever spirit or energy is in mine prefers to read on the lighter side of things - need to check if that's still the case though. Not used it in a while because of that.

I actually think that the hot/cold aspects of a deck have a lot to do with that particular deck, not the deck design!  I have two copies of Ciro Marchetti's Grand Luxe Tarot ...and they both read totally differently!  One does nothing but politics! No matter what question I ask, I get the latest political situation—and accurately, too!  So it's been relegated to political topics only.  I loved the design of the deck so much that I bought a second copy—which reads beautifully on personal issues.  Go figure... 🙂 

[Arania]

Haha yeah I have some decks only wanting to do politics, science, romance.. haha. I do have a double of 2 or 3 decks because of it. And one only works as I want it in a printed out version. But that may also be because the original cards are hard to shuffle.

 

 

[Bodhiseed]

When Llewellyn re-released the Primordial Tarot after it had been out of print for quite a while, I jumped at the chance to buy it. And though I LOVED the art, the deck as a reading tool left me with no inspirational insights. I had to rely on the booklet for meanings, so I passed it along.

[GreatDane]

So been there, Bodhiseed! And I get it, Arania!  Well, Chariot, for me was the art, I DO understand what you're saying, and if I FELT something off from a deck, I could understand that dissuading me from using it.  

 

OH thought of another and again, BEAUTIFUL, and fyi HUGE BABA fan.  I even had some of their merch.  Victorian Romantic, gilt edged.  Moved along.  I still have the Touchstone even though not an easy shuffler, love the artwork, but ONE card bugs me, just thought didn't come close to the artwork and detail of the other cards.  It frustrates reading when you don't want a card or two to come up because you can't stand the artwork, which puts it in the unreadable for me.  I CAN read with it, MOST of us CAN read with deck styles we're familiar, but not wanting to, puts in it cold for me.

 

[Misterei]

14 hours ago, Chariot said:

... Yeah, I had exactly the same reaction to "Pixie's" Lenormand ...and dumped it like a hot potato.  It just felt 'wrong.'  ...

Glad I wasn't the only one! Many ppl adore that deck ... and here I was shuddering every time I touched it!

11 hours ago, Chariot said:

I actually think that the hot/cold aspects of a deck have a lot to do with that particular deck, not the deck design!  I have two copies of Ciro Marchetti's Grand Luxe Tarot ...and they both read totally differently!  One does nothing but politics! No matter what question I ask, I get the latest political situation—and accurately, too!  So it's been relegated to political topics only.  I loved the design of the deck so much that I bought a second copy—which reads beautifully on personal issues.  Go figure... 🙂 

That's so weird. I've never experienced it before. I have 2 copies of Eduord Dotti, Pam's Vintage, and RWS Centenial [one at office and one at home for each of them] and they feel the same. I wonder if it might be more possible with a modern deck like Grande Luxe but it doesn't happen with such old school decks ...? Hmmm.

[Arania]

Oh it happens with all sorts of decks. Whatever you would call it that attaches itself to the decks won't care. I used to have several RWS a long while back due to that, although I mostly only used one so it didn't make much sense and I got a more diverse selection instead.

 

It has probably more to do with the reader's approach to the decks, or where they have been before or the environment or all of it.

 

Closer to the original topic, I wonder if the other way round can also be true, a deck which you dislike, maybe even to the point of hate (artwork, topic) yet you can read fine with it. Harder to know I guess as most of us wouldn't have those decks anyway, For me this is the Deviant Moon and that related deck in art style I forgot the name of. Probably also depends on the specific deck though, but I tried them once and could read with them. Still wouldn't get them because what's the point if they are ugly to me and i have way more decks than i could ever need.

[Saturn Celeste]

On 9/28/2023 at 8:12 PM, GreatDane said:

Gotten a deck that caught our aesthetic eye only to not be a "reader" for us.

Y.E.S.  My HR Giger deck!  I was so excited to get it, one of the first special decks I bought not from Amazon.  But as much as I love his art, the deck was way too "horrific."  What I loved about his art did not transfer well to tarot and I felt disturbed when I tried to read with it.  I have removed it from my tarot collection and keep it in a drawer by itself, no tarot around it.  It made me feel really creepy!  Ironically I see it is now available on amazon for $264.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Saturn Celeste

[Chariot]

6 hours ago, Arania said:

For me this is the Deviant Moon and that related deck in art style I forgot the name of. Probably also depends on the specific deck though, but I tried them once and could read with them. Still wouldn't get them because what's the point if they are ugly to me and i have way more decks than i could ever need.

I have never swithered more about buying a deck than I have over Deviant Moon.  I still  haven't bought it. There is something fascinating but also incredibly repellent about that deck that keeps me swithering.  It gives me the feeling that it would bring me personal bad luck if I bought it!  It's a very strong feeling, so I haven't.  Probably never will.  But it is SO interesting and, in some instances, amusing.  I actually like it a lot, but don't want it in my home!  Dang.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Chariot

[Nemia]

Ethereal Visions. It's gorgeous but whenever I try to read with it - nothing. It's asleep and I can't wake it up. I can't get it to notice me. At all. 

 

 

If I read with it, I have to rely on my knowledge of the cards and I'll still get something, but it won't be from the deck itself. 

 

Another disappointment for me was the William Blake Tarot. I love the concept, I love Blake, I love how the deck looks. It all makes so much sense. 

 

Until I try to read with it. 

 

 

Well, I didn't try it for a long time so maybe I should give it another try? Maybe I have grown into it by now? Maybe I didn't try hard enough to make it work for me? It actually intrigues me right now. I hope I'm ready for it now. 

 

Oh and this one left me so cold that I never even really tried to work for me? The Cathar Tarot. It looked great online and I'm very interested in heretic movements, but then I saw that the medium was a pretty clumsy computer graphic mishmash. It's a clever deck and at first sight looks beautiful but no, it doesn't work for me. I just look at the cards and feel that it's a wasted opportunity. The book by John Matthews is great, and I like other work done by Wil Kinghan, but this deck fell just totally flat for me. 

 

 

 

A great deck for cold, objective and snarky readings is the Housewives. It simply tells me the truth as it is, and it's cold as a stone, but it resonates with me. It's like a not-quite-friend who can tell you devastating truths that you have to accept. 

 

 

Then there are the decks I let go because they left me totally cold. The Tarot of the Holy Light - I confess that now I regret letting it go after not getting along with the book. I felt there were too many hypotheses without proof and that made the deck unworkable for me, I couldn't follow the author without a thousand question marks. And the deck was too busy, too cluttered, the colours were all wrong for me. 

 

 

I was simply not for me. Maybe the black-and-white version would have worked better for me? I don't even know whether it's still available. 

 

The Hudes was another dud for me. 

 

 

I passed it on to someone else and hope they get something out of it. 

[Arania]

51 minutes ago, Chariot said:

I have never swithered more about buying a deck than I have over Deviant Moon.  I still  haven't bought it. There is something fascinating but also incredibly repellent about that deck that keeps me swithering.  It gives me the feeling that it would bring me personal bad luck if I bought it!  It's a very strong feeling, so I haven't.  Probably never will.  But it is SO interesting and, in some instances, amusing.  I actually like it a lot, but don't want it in my home!  Dang.

 

That sums it up very well. It is like the whole energy going into creating it was off. I know people who swear by it and it was interesting to try it out but I'd not want it in my home. Same with the deck imitating it. I am even somewhat afraid to get it in one of the used bulk sales as they often don't list all the decks. 

[Arania]

29 minutes ago, Nemia said:

Well, I didn't try it for a long time so maybe I should give it another try? Maybe I have grown into it by now? Maybe I didn't try hard enough to make it work for me? It actually intrigues me right now. I hope I'm ready for it now. 

 

 

Maybe for a different type of reading? Or just for meditation?

 

The Hudes was very static for me and when it talked to me at all it was like shrugging shoulders and telling me "who cares?" A deck to get depressed over. I forgot about it as I passed it on quickly.

 

And that also reminded me of the Enochian Tarot. For some reason the deck I had shouted "serial killer" and "sex offender" even after cleansing it and letting it sit for a while.for a while I couldn't even look at images without a shudder. And to my knowledge the deck was new, although it did come in a bulk buy it didn't feel used, and most decks of that collection were never read with. I would be very interested in meeting another deck though to see if it is the energy of the deck as a whole or just this particular one.

 

As for books not making sense, this is why I normally ignore them and go with intuition and only later check, if at all, what the meanings are. I was eyeing the Tarot of the Holy Light for a while but it wasn't among my bulk buys, and I'm not again buying new decks I might not be able to work with.

[akiva]

On 9/29/2023 at 1:12 AM, GreatDane said:

Anyone have any decks that read "cold"?  Didn't flow?  Moved along?  

I've only ever experienced this twice, both times were a bit weird too.

 

The first was the Noblet TdM (which soon became my favourite) it just used to give me really snarky, mean readings. It was practically unreadable too, which is really strange as I could read my other TdM's fine!

Then one day it just stopped and it started giving nice, wholesome readings. I can trust it now to give accurate/on the point readings (feels weird talking about decks like this).

 

The other was just a normal deck of playing cards that cost £1. I reduced it down to piquet size and wrote my meanings on it, back when still learning.

My word were the readings so negatively charged... Everything was doom and gloom! I'd ask how x event would go, and would draw every negative card out the deck almost every time. It was really jarring.

I tried reiking the deck, cleansing with incense and sound, left it on the windowsill with selenite for about a month, even tried begging it to be nice, but it didnt work. So in the bin it went 😅

[akiva]

13 minutes ago, Arania said:

And that also reminded me of the Enochian Tarot. For some reason the deck I had shouted "serial killer" and "sex offender" even after cleansing it and letting it sit for a while.for a while I couldn't even look at images without a shudder. And to my knowledge the deck was new, although it did come in a bulk buy it didn't feel used, and most decks of that collection were never read with. I would be very interested in meeting another deck though to see if it is the energy of the deck as a whole or just this particular one.

I have this deck 😊 it was my first ever tarot deck! Surprised you got it in bulk as it's worth a fair bit now 😯 it does give off a weird vibe. But the enochian spirits are very weird, and quite fearsome at times. There's a lot of shady stuff associated with them.

[Arania]

3 minutes ago, akiva said:

I have this deck 😊 it was my first ever tarot deck! Surprised you got it in bulk as it's worth a fair bit now 😯 it does give off a weird vibe. But the enochian spirits are very weird, and quite fearsome at times. There's a lot of shady stuff associated with them.

 

Yeah I did expect weird but... oh well. I was really excited about having it, especially as I like untraditional decks, and Dee has interested me from a historical point as well. Considering this is one of the decks I'd only use for rituals, the vibes I got were especially strange. At the moment the cards are in a specially decorated box hidden away. I wonder if I should just print the images out and put them alongside the cards in the box to transfer the bad vibes and then burn the printouts. I would need a working color printer first though.

 

Many bulk buys come from estate clearances or other inheritance. A lot of interesting stuff, also in books and paintings, you can get this way. People throw stuff out without checking, as they just want to get rid of "clutter." My dad has a centuries old menorah he grabbed from a bulk waste collection loot night back in the 70s.  Recently, sales are mostly done online though and you get decks from people first collecting like mad and then getting out of it again.

[DanielJUK]

1 hour ago, Nemia said:

Another disappointment for me was the William Blake Tarot. I love the concept, I love Blake, I love how the deck looks. It all makes so much sense. 

 

Until I try to read with it. 

 

 

Well, I didn't try it for a long time so maybe I should give it another try? Maybe I have grown into it by now? Maybe I didn't try hard enough to make it work for me? It actually intrigues me right now. I hope I'm ready for it now.

 

I feel the same way about the Golden Tarot of Klimt. I love his paintings (same with Blake) and the gold and opulence and the rich people always look miserable. But both these decks were never made by the artists. They never released a tarot deck. After their death, someone has shoehorned collages of their artwork into cards. They are just collages of reproductions of their work in a tarot archetype. I don't think they work to be really honest, I am yet to be convinced about them.

 

6 hours ago, Saturn Celeste said:

Y.E.S.  My HR Giger deck!  I was so excited to get it, one of the first special decks I bought not from Amazon.  But as much as I love his art, the deck was way too "horrific."  What I loved about his art did not transfer well to tarot and I felt disturbed when I tried to read with it.  I have removed it from my tarot collection and keep it in a drawer by itself, no tarot around it.  It made me feel really creepy!  Ironically I see it is now available on amazon for $264.

 

Giger was quite open about his mental health and that he suffered depression and other problems. There are interviews where he talked about having nightmares every night as a child and then terrifying visions as an adult. His Mother had a very difficult birth with him and he claimed that a lot of the terrifying things were traumatic memories of going through the birth canal. His art was all about getting it out of his mind I think. I guess this is why his tarot deck became what it is. I think it's so OOP and expensive now because a/ he has a lot of fans and art collectors b/ it was not reprinted after a time and so everyone wants it now! But it is scary!

 

2 hours ago, Chariot said:

I have never swithered more about buying a deck than I have over Deviant Moon.  I still  haven't bought it. There is something fascinating but also incredibly repellent about that deck that keeps me swithering.  It gives me the feeling that it would bring me personal bad luck if I bought it!  It's a very strong feeling, so I haven't.  Probably never will.  But it is SO interesting and, in some instances, amusing.  I actually like it a lot, but don't want it in my home!  Dang.

 

This one doesn't leave me cold as in you cannot read it. The deck really gets inside me when I look at the pictures and it annoyingly goes straight to my subconscious. I haven't felt like I wanted to a buy one because it makes me feel uncomfortable. However dear friends have read with me with it over the years, in the circles and privately and it gives me excellent spot on readings but also readings which made me feel uncomfortable. I feel like I need to buy it one day because it would help me work on my shadow side but decks are just card. Art doesn't bring bad luck, just our feelings about it 🙂

[Nemia]

That's interesting about the Klimt. I'm not really a fan of Klimt, I prefer his landscapes to his seductive golden ladies that are so much more popular, but I like the work Atanas Atanassov has done both with the Klimt and especially with the Golden Botticelli. Yes, they are curated decks and use artwork that was never intended for tarot. However, he showed respect for the artwork by copying it in another medium (to me, it looks like coloured pencils) instead of just collaging it.

 

And both Klimt and Botticelli had a mystical streak. Botticelli was really into Early Renaissance mysticism, obviously strongly Christianized, and as far as I know, he knew Pico della Mirandola and other Neo-Platonists in Florence at the time. And Klimt was a Symbolist, influenced by the mysticism of his time and place: decadent Vienna at the turn of the centuries. 

 

Both artists are actually interesting choices. I don't mind the "depressed faces" of Klimt's figures, knowing Egon Schiele, I know it could have been much worse 😄 and as decadent European, I don't need wholesomeness or optimism in the tarot. It's the Fin de Siecle spirit, and I'm okay with it. A world dying and people just going down with it. 

 

I will always prefer a deck made by a tarotist like Anna K. or Lisa Hunt or other creators who actually create decks from scratch, according to their own visions. But I find the Botticelli very readable, and the Klimt quite usable, too. Let's say LoScarabeo has sinned much more against the pure spirit of tarot in other commissioned decks that I won't mention here 😉 

 

But it's always interesting to see what works for goose won't work for the gander 😄 

[akiva]

1 hour ago, Arania said:

Yeah I did expect weird but... oh well. I was really excited about having it, especially as I like untraditional decks, and Dee has interested me from a historical point as well. Considering this is one of the decks I'd only use for rituals, the vibes I got were especially strange.

It's an unusual energy. They're incredibly old and powerful spiritual beings. Most people who work with the Enochian spirits say that they're unlike anything else they've worked with. Nobody can even agree on what they are. Dee said they're angels, but they're definitely not Abrahamic in nature. Not sure if you read about Dee's cuckhold situation? 😅

 

I've only done a small amount of work within the system. Mainly the watchtowers. They definitely made their presence known.

 

1 hour ago, Arania said:

At the moment the cards are in a specially decorated box hidden away. I wonder if I should just print the images out and put them alongside the cards in the box to transfer the bad vibes and then burn the printouts. I would need a working color printer first though.

This could work. Have you tried meditating with the deck? And maybe using the deck to read on why it feels so strange?

 

If you do sigil work, you could create a sigil that acts like a sponge to draw up the off energy, then burn it after a certain amount of time? Cheaper than buying a printer 😆

 

I hope you are eventually able to work with it. It's like no other deck, and it's very powerful!