Hello :D

[laforza76]

Greetings Tarot community,

 

I'm a reader and collector with a wicked shy streak. Testing things out here; looks cool so far. Hope to chat soon!

[joy]

Hello @laforza76 welcome to the TT&M Family 

[earthywisdom]

hey there 🙂 welcome. im also new

what is your favourite deck? 

[DanielJUK]

Welcome to the community @laforza76  so glad you have taken the moment to not be shy and post 😊

[laforza76]

Hello all, and thanks for the warm welcome! We'll see if I can maintain some level of confidence here 🙂 earthywisdom, it's hard for me to pick just one, but I'm studying the RWS mostly, right now. My first deck was the Cat People Tarot so I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for her contribution to the canon. Which deck are you using most, right now?

[Scandinavianhermit]

Gods knows, that I have misgivings about RWS and Pictorial Key to the Tarot, but I've heard from friends, who are satisfied with RWS, that Eden Gray's books about RWS are useful. 

[laforza76]

HI Scandinavianhermit! I've owned Gray's Compete Guide for many years-- there's something about the way it fits in the hand like a trade paperback sci-fi book that I'll always love. Content-wise, it's limited, but a nice introduction to many paths. Which deck are you using most, right now?

[Scandinavianhermit]

1 hour ago, laforza76 said:

HI Scandinavianhermit! I've owned Gray's Compete Guide for many years-- there's something about the way it fits in the hand like a trade paperback sci-fi book that I'll always love. Content-wise, it's limited, but a nice introduction to many paths. Which deck are you using most, right now?

I'm glad to hear that you have found Gray's book to be a good introduction. I believe she wrote two books?

 

When I was a teenager and began my journey into playing-card cartomancy and tarot, there weren't many decks to chose from, and the most available and marketed ones were U.S. Games Systems, Inc.'s  Rider-Waite and 1JJ Swiss. As you might have noticed, there now exists reproductions of Pamela Colman-Smith's drawings in several colour schemes from several card publishers, but we weren't so lucky back then. The RWS aficionados, in the proper sub-forum, will be able to tell you how many versions Pam drew of her tarot cards. There was more than one set. 

 

I still occasionally return to two regional 18th and 19th century Swedish methods of reading playing-cards (Swedish pattern) and a post-war US method using the international poker deck for self-improvement, in part for nostalgic reasons. You will find me and @Raggydoll explore the subject of regional Swedish cartomancy now and then. There seem to have existed at least one French-inspired method and at least one method resembling Russian, Lithuanian and Polish methods, but I'm sure there is more to discover about past methods in the future. The English language and this forum assists people from the entire planet to discuss these matters. 

 

After a while, I realised, that what I hoped for was a deck that combined Etteilla's pip card meanings with the Milanese/Marseille sequence of trumps. It wasn't until many years later, in 2007-08, Paul Huson convinced Lo Scarabeo to publish his Dame Fortune's Wheel Tarot, which answers my long-held requirements, and as a bonus it is visually inspired by 15th century hand painted deck(s) owned by the north-Italian d'Este family. In fairness, I have to warn you that some tarot readers find Huson's colour shades a little too much, but I'm wiling to be patient. As divination goes, Dame Fortune's Wheel is my favourite. 

 

For non-divinatory contemplative practice I prefer untampered reproductions of Oswald Wirth's original trumps from 1889 (not later redrawings by Wirth himself or other artists; I find the latter rather ugly). French tarot enthusiasts 1780-1980 were bad historians, but some of them invented useful practices. 

 

More recently, I've begun learning tarot de Marseille by using CBD Tarot de Marseille, using another method of reading than my usual one. The marseilles deck published by Grimaud-France Cartes Cartamundi after the mid-1960s kept me away from marseilles decks for quite some time, because of its dark blue shade (introduced either late in the 1960s or early in the 1970s), limited palette and stern facial expressions, but CBD opened a new world to me. I'm sure you will find people in the Marseille sub-forum who attest, that Hadar's or Morsucci/Ottolini's or Robledo's Marseille decks did the same to them, respectively, so I don't want to be partisan about the matter. I'm also a Lenormand newbie. I'm not the right person to ask about Marseille decks or Petit Lenormand. 

Edited December 11, 2024 by Scandinavianhermit
I moved the word "occasionally" for syntactical reasons, and then added a link to The World of Playing Cards

[laforza76]

Scandinavianhermit, that's quite a journey, and thank you for the detailed response! A few thoughts:

 

Regarding the RWS, yes I've seen many editions come and go since I started shopping for decks in the mid '90s. I've landed on two that I really enjoy, for my everyday purposes and study: the Albano Waite, and the newly reissued facsimilie of the original deck by Taschen (book and deck set). Both suit my aesthetic and historic requirements nicely, and they are a pleasure to have in hand.

 

Dame Fortune's Wheel-- content wise I love it, but yes for me the colors are a bit much for me. I suppose that's funnny considering that I enjoy the Albano Waite, which also features some curious palate choices. But, such are the whims of individual taste!

 

I also own several Northern Italian/Marseille variants, as they are the pattern that I love the most. My tarot journey didn't begin with the Marseille style, but I came around to it in the mid 2000s, and stuck with it for a good long while. My long time favorite is probably the Jean Noblet Tarot, reissued by Flornoy in 2007, and it's a constant companion. A close second would be the Jaques Vieville deck-- large, and wild by comparison. We live in a wonderful time where self publishing is a profitable option for creators, and there are so many new artists making entries into the restoration/reproduction market. Artisan Tarot is also doing fine work from what I can see, and I'm also really impressed with the work of Midnight Tarot out of Hungary-- he's making some truly unique creations that are inspired by the classics, as well as refurbishing some classics outright, like the Tarot de Paris.

 

I'm hitting word limit, more to follow!

[Scandinavianhermit]

14 hours ago, laforza76 said:

I'm hitting word limit, more to follow!

We will meet in the forum sooner or later, and I look forward to this.