KalynkaFilly Posted January 24 Posted January 24 Hello, to whoever is out there. o=(HUG)=o As kids, my sister and I had an interest in tarot, unaware our babusya (nana) was a tarot reader in Ukraine, before she and the family moved to Australia, and all these years later I find myself with a deck of cards I need a manual and AI to navigate! I'm very spiritual, develop instant connections with animals, especially horses and cats, who have always been my healers throughout my life (I don't know how I could have coped without my ponies and horses); and I've always had an uncannily strong intuition able to warn me about ominous people or things, but have struggled with sensing if someone/thing is "good." All the extended family insist I'm exactly like nana, to the point they thought photos of me were photos of her when she was younger, so I found it amusing when dad said she used to read tarot for a living, and that was the moment that spurred me on to get a set of cards and learn. Bizarrely, I think I feel a stronger connection to her now she's passed away, many years ago. There are a lot of things I sense that are difficult to explain, but some things I wonder if it's just my imagination, so I came here hoping to discover other spiritual people who could perhaps help me understand more, develop a more fine-tuned intuition and navigate my way through the fascinating world of tarot. ^_^ Thanks for reading my introduction ^_^ Усього найкращого вам у 2025 році, друзі! (All the best to you in 2025, friends!) o=(BIG HUG)=o
DanielJUK Posted January 24 Posted January 24 Welcome to the community @KalynkaFilly 😀 Glad you have found us here on your journey.
Scandinavianhermit Posted January 24 Posted January 24 (edited) I've only been a user here a year, so I'm not sure if I'm suitable for saying the first 'welcome', but welcome! Which tarot decks were popular in Ukraine during your grandmother's era? I'm aware that Gregory Ottonovich Mebes designed a Russian one, and that Pierre de Lasenic designed a Czechoslovakian one, but I'm afraid I don't know anything about tarot in Ukraine. I'm sorry! Which tarot do you use? Edited January 24 by Scandinavianhermit I added an '
JoyousGirl Posted January 24 Posted January 24 Welcome! I wonder if you have your Nana's cards? Enjoy the boards.
Saturn Celeste Posted January 24 Posted January 24 Welcome horse and cat lover! I too love those animals! Welcome to the forum and ENJOY! 🐴
doubletaurus Posted January 27 Posted January 27 What a fascinating bio! I'm pretty new here myself, so from one "newbie" to another, I'm glad to meet you! 💐
KalynkaFilly Posted February 3 Author Posted February 3 Sorry for the late reply, everyone. I just wanted to thank you all for the kind welcomes! I hope things are going well for you all! Kindest regards 🍀🌻🦄
KalynkaFilly Posted February 3 Author Posted February 3 ScandinavianHermit --- Oh goodness no, don’t be sorry! I’m the one who should be, for not acting on my interest sooner and learning from nana. Unfortunately, I don’t know of anyone who may have designed decks either. Because of what was happening during her time period in the east I think many tarot readers would’ve made their own decks, or imported them from further west, possibly of the people you mentioned, and because I never knew nana was a tarot reader I never asked. The designs would’ve definitely included Slavic and Ukrainian folklore, Cossacks on horses, sunflowers and kalyna trees/berries! When I get some spare time, I’m going to try and track down some Ukrainian tarot readers and if I find any, ask them of the history of it in Ukraine. If I learn anything I’ll make a post for people to read here ^_^ I do know of a modern Ukrainian artist, Mykhailo Skop, (not a fan of the style of his art), but I thought it hilariously brilliant he drew things like the Chariot as a tractor (re: Ukrainian farmers towing Russian tanks with their tractors), and the Tower as Putin falling out of a broken Kremlin, etc. His art style is too simple for my taste, but his concepts are so relatable and appease my sense of humour that’s become very dark over the last few years. I was allured by the artistic talent of Luis Royo when I saw some of the Dark Tarot cards using his artworks, so I invested in a deck of those and love it. His artistic detail is just visually stunning, even if one of the cards is particularly cheeky! (I’m just glad it didn’t show ‘anything more’ or it could’ve ruined the deck!) What do you use?
KalynkaFilly Posted February 3 Author Posted February 3 JoyousGirl --- Hi! Thanks for the welcome! Unfortunately, no, I don’t have any of her cards, but I’m hoping I might be able to track them down.
KalynkaFilly Posted February 3 Author Posted February 3 Saturn Celeste --- Thanks for the welcome! I reckon it makes sense tarot people are attracted to horses and cats, and vice versa, as they’re such spiritual creatures! 🐴🐈😁
Scandinavianhermit Posted February 4 Posted February 4 22 hours ago, KalynkaFilly said: When I get some spare time, I’m going to try and track down some Ukrainian tarot readers and if I find any, ask them of the history of it in Ukraine. If I learn anything I’ll make a post for people to read here ^_^ I suspect that good old fortune telling with a playing card deck with 36 cards was also around, back in the days. Most of the popular cardgames only needed 36 cards (A, 7-10 and the court cards), and a 36 card deck was cheaper than a 52 card one. @Raggydoll is working on a theory, that some (but not all) regional playingcard reading methods in Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Poland share a common ancestor (sharing the same inland sea, the Baltic one), and I'm curious about that theory, too. It would be interesting to know, if that proto-method spread to Ukraine, Belarus and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, too. My educated guess would be, that the Traditionelle Wahrsagekarten* from Piatnik, Vienna (but not the present re-drawing), might have been circulating in Galicia-Volhynia in the past. What I'm trying to say is, that card readers probably not limited their use to tarot only. If your grandmother lived outside Galicia-Volhynia, it's less likely she encountered this type of deck. 22 hours ago, KalynkaFilly said: What do you use? I'm fond of Dame Fortune's Wheel Tarot and CBD Tarot de Marseille for reading tarot, after many years of trial-and-error with other decks I use Oswald Wirth's original 1889 trumps (no re-drawing, no suite cards)** for meditation exercises I use very standard Swedish playingcards for old style fortune telling (A link to the The Swedish pattern is here) * They were known under an impolite name in the past, for commercial purposes. Alleged association with the Roma people without any basis in reality is a very enduring method to promote cartomancy decks (similar to how Egypt is used in association with tarot, and how German Lenormand decks are re-styled as 'French'). This type of deck has been re-drawn several times, and seems to go back to a cartomancy deck in Saxony during the napoleonic age. Its popularity was great in the regions now forming Austria, Hungaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and neighbouring parts of Ukraine. ** There exist several re-drawings by other artists calling themselves "Wirth decks", but they aren't. They give the Wirth tarot a bad reputation. Wirth himself only drew 22 card, but he drew one set in 1889, another in 1926.
DanielJUK Posted February 4 Posted February 4 The Introductions area is not really meant for full discussions on divination topics and so let's continue this discussion about Russian / Local Cartomancy traditions over here - Some of the discussion posts here on this have already been moved over 😀
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now