COLDEST reading deck(s) you've ever had

[GreatDane]

I must admit, I did like the DEATH card!  But the ones with drawings of people left me....cold.

[Tanga]

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

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...

 

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

 

 

Such an interesting thread.  I've never had that push-me pull-me thing about a deck that @Chariot describes...

And... different results from exactly the same copies?   Well...

 

Anthropomorphize away!  I'm on the edge of naming some of my decks.

 

3 decks of the "WOW" - but then disappointment that I cannot easily read with are:

https://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/illuminati/

Illuminati Tarot.  Loved the shear volume of colour - but - it physically gave me a headache to read with. LOL. So... I think it ended up

in a charity bag.

 

https://www.ellistrations.net/the-ellis-deck.html

I really like some of the cards in this deck.  Hey ho - just can't smoothly read.

 

https://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/modern-spellcasters-tarot/

And this... I was just soooo disappointed that Fire and Air are swapped around from what I'm used to. That one thing means I can't read 

with this fabulous deck. Pooooh.  

 

I do have a collection. Some I have just out of curiosity, because I wanted to have an actually copy of X, or because it's rather unusual.

No readers there. Some I've bought because I love the artwork though I know it will never be a reader.

 

HR Gieger & Deviant Moon - Ewwwww. No.  (Autobiography of DM is interesting).

 

Presently a dark deck I have that I find fascinating is this one - The original is black&white, & I don't really do no colour decks.

But this one had a sepia with red thing, which made it work.  Now - I cannot read with it.  But that may be a "Yet".

I know, that if I read with it I will end up going down chasms a little too deep to deal with right now.  

But I do just love to look at the images.

 

 

AMurderOfCrows.pdf

[Chariot]

1 hour ago, Tanga said:

 

 

3 decks of the "WOW" - but then disappointment that I cannot easily read with are:

https://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/illuminati/

Illuminati Tarot.  Loved the shear volume of colour - but - it physically gave me a headache to read with. LOL. So... I think it ended up

in a charity bag.

 

https://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/modern-spellcasters-tarot/

And this... I was just soooo disappointed that Fire and Air are swapped around from what I'm used to. That one thing means I can't read 

with this fabulous deck. Pooooh.  

 

 

I have to agree with both of these.  I still have my Illluminati deck, but I find it far too 'busy' to read with very easily.  I need to start reading more often with it, or give it away.  It's not a bad deck...just not an easy one for the wrong reasons.  It's hard to distinguish the different images, and nearly impossible to work with them reversed for that reason.  The artwork is lush ...maybe too lush.

I stuck with the Spellcasters for quite a while, but then ended up giving it away.  I just didn't feel a connection to that deck, although it is beautifully done.  A few of the cards were quite off-putting for me.  The High Priestess stands out, as she has a face like a seedless black grape.  (Didn't connect with me at all ...I couldn't get past the grape-head image.)  And I seem to recall that the Hanged Man was a grey coffin/box of some kind chained to the trunk of a tree, right-side-up.  Ummm.  Didn't work for me at all.  (Although I'm just relying on memory here ...there is a possibility that image came from a different deck.)  And the 3 of Cups image, with the three figures leaping into a swamp while staring upwards at their raised cups didn't do it for me either.  (The meaning of that card isn't usually 'look before you leap,' but that is what the image kept bringing to mind.)

Edited November 10, 2023 by Chariot

[Tanga]

1 hour ago, Chariot said:

1) I have to agree with both of these.  I still have my Illluminati deck, but I find it far too 'busy' to read with very easily.  I need to start reading more often with it, or give it away...

2) I stuck with the Spellcasters for quite a while, but then ended up giving it away.

The High Priestess stands out, as she has a face like a seedless black grape...

And the 3 of Cups image, with the three figures leaping into a swamp while staring upwards at their raised cups didn't do it for me either...

1) I waited for the next deck they made and bought that:

https://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/tarot-apokalypsis/

Still wildly colourful and busy.  Sometimes I can read with it, sometimes it's too busy.  At least I don't get headaches.

 

2) 😄 a seedless grape... and now I can't find my copy to look at this again (recenty all re-organized, haven't gotten used to the new order).  No - I think of an obsidian mirror here.

And it never occurred to me that those guys are leaping into the swamp, plus not one of them is actually staring AT their cup either.  Interesting isn't it?

 

Looking at those Cosmic Tarot dancers - Uughhhh - drama whatever!  those dancers are just annoying!  imo

Edited November 10, 2023 by Tanga

[GreatDane]

Tanga, I found it interesting you used the words "too busy".  That is sometimes the issue for me too.  There are decks like Shadowscapes that I think have BEAUTIFUL art, but they just aren't decks I feel inclined to read with.  There is so much going on.  Now for some, I get that could be a plus.   Some decks just have images I see as distracting as far as reading.  For those who read strictly intuitively, I get any deck they feel drawn to the art, they read.  For me, not so much.  

[Tanga]

1 hour ago, GreatDane said:

Tanga, I found it interesting you used the words "too busy".  That is sometimes the issue for me too.  There are decks like Shadowscapes that I think have BEAUTIFUL art, but they just aren't decks I feel inclined to read with...

Yeah, with the Shadowscapes Tarot - I just end up looking at alllll the tinyyyy little deeeeetails... and get completely sidetracked off the reading itself.   Waaaay to busy.   But beautiful.

[Guest]

Earlier this year I had a deck that broke my heart. 

 

I was thrilled when I finally had the Golden Tarot of the Tsar. Everything about it is perfect - the art, the theme, the meanings and ideas behind each card, and yes, all that gold - everything called to me. I loved it, but when I tried to read with it, it's like I was outside freezing from biting winds, staring at the majestic face of a stone monastery that will not open its gigantic wooden doors for me anymore. It wouldn't budge - it was one of the decks I've had the hardest time reading with, ever. 

 

One thing though - it gave me some reassurance that I can try again one time, and if that time is right, it would yield its gates and thence its treasures to me. It was still hard because I WANTED to read with it so very much, but I guess patience is a virtue I simply had to learn. I had no choice. 

[Misterei]

@Akhilleus

OMG!!! I literally JUST posted a spread I did with my Russian St. Petersburg deck ... talking about how I'm thinking of donating it.

SO FUNNY.

As much as I want to like the St. Petersburg deck and as much as I like the idea of the deck ... the only Russian themed decks I've truly connected with are Golden Wheel and Fyodor Pavlov.

 

I looked at pix of Tsar Tarot and I get what you're saying. But so weird I was literally reading with my St Petersburg deck [first time in like 2 years] while you were posting about Tsar tarot.

[GreatDane]

I had that deck MANY years ago.  WANTED to love it.  Just not a reader for me.  My maternal grandparents were both Eastern European, born and raised, and I have some Lenormand decks with russian titles.  Love those Lenormand.  But the St. Petersburg....just crickets.  Not talking to me.

[Misterei]

5 hours ago, GreatDane said:

I had that deck MANY years ago.  WANTED to love it.  Just not a reader for me.  ... I have some Lenormand decks with russian titles.  Love those Lenormand.  But the St. Petersburg....just crickets.  Not talking to me.

It reads ok for me ... but it's in the Donations pile, anyway.

The pictures are too small. My eye sight is worse and worse ... its stupid to have a deck I must squint just to see the picture!

And the black background on every card started to feel too heavy. Great concept ... but not a keeper as you say.

[Scarlett]

The one that immediately comes to mind is Mystic Mondays, which I received as a gift. Freezing cold! I get nothing from this deck. I only keep it because it was a gift from someone I love.

[euripides]

For me this is the AG Muller Tarot of the Old Path. It's lovely, I enjoy its themes, but for some reason I just find it static and cold and impossible to read with. It's a pity, it's a lovely thing.

[GreatDane]

Like euripides, I thought the Old Path lovely, but just wasn't a reader for me.  We didn't bond.