Systems and Themes

[Rachelcat]

I thought I’d yammer a bit about my deck categories.  I hope it is interesting or fun to somebody.  (And it might be my topic for my tarot society presentation in July . . .)

 

I’m at 379 decks in my collection, which includes tarots, oracles, and historical reproduction playing cards, as of this minute, with 7 of those being on preorder.  (Can’t resist a Llewellyn coupon . . .)

 

I love organizing things (on paper at least), so I’ve categorized my decks as systems and themes.  Systems are tarots and oracles that follow a definite pattern, like minchiates, 72 angels, or 64 I Ching hexagrams.  Themes are more about things that aren’t a set system, like cat decks or a certain type of art.

 

My systems and themes are by no means exhaustive, they’re just what I have, like, or collect.  Or not collect.  I have italicized the systems and themes that are on my do not collect list, even though (or because) I already have a few of them:

·       RWS and close clones

·       Anthropomorphic animals (or as I like to call them, cats in coats)

·       AI decks (I only have one, a Halloween oracle.)

·       A woman on every card not goddesses (which weeds out the more “airy fairy” oracles out there)

 

Categories in parentheses means the category includes decks already listed in the higher level category, for example, the Two or Three Sets of Majors list includes all the same decks that are in the Tarot Majors list.

 

And for fun, I have included in some of the theme lists decks that contain one or a few cards in that theme, for example, a dream dictionary deck has a Vampire card, so I’ve listed it in the Vampire category. 

 

Without further ado (but where would we be without ado?), here are my systems and themes.

 

Systems

Bach Flower Remedies

Besançon Tarot (Juno and Jupiter)

Chinese Calendar

Egyptian Tarot

Etteilla Systems (tarot and oracle systems)

Golden Dawn Tarot Not Thoth

Hebrew Alphabet

I Ching

Lenormand including with extra cards

Mantegna

Maya Calendar

Merged Decks (decks I keep shuffled together)

Minchiate

Non-Scenic Pips Not Historical

Ogham

Phrenology

RWS and Close Clones

Runes

Shem HaMephorash (72 angels and demons)

Spanish Tarot, Eudes Picard

Suits

-----French-suited including tarot and playing cards

-----German-suited including tarot

-----Italian-suited not tarot

-----Unique-suited not tarot

Tarocchino

Tarot Majors (majors-only decks)

-----(Two or Three Sets of Majors)

Tarot Non-Standard Number of Cards, not minchiate, not tarocchino

Thoth and Thoth-Inspired

22 Non-Tarot Majors with Suits

 

Themes

Abstract

Affirmations

Alchemy

Angels and Demons

Animals

-----Animal Tarot one species per card

-----Cats

-----Mythical Animals

-----(Anthropomorphic animals)

-----(Dragons)

-----(Satyrs, fauns, Pan)

-----(Some mythical animals)

-----(Unicorns)

AI

Artists and Art Styles

Astrology

-----Moon

-----Sign Combinations

Crystals

Dream Dictionary

Erotic

Fairies

Food

Gods and Goddesses

Halloween

-----(Vampires)

Historical Reproductions, original published before 1909

Humorous

Landscapes

Love and Romance Not Erotic

Media

Native American

Photographic

Places

Plants

Prehistoric

Realistic Contemporary Setting

-----Animals in Realistic Contemporary Setting

Robots

Science Club

Seasons

Shapes

-----Heart

-----Landscape

-----Oval

-----Round

-----Square

Sibillas and Tea Leaves

Spreads

Text

Wicca

Woman on Every Card Not Goddesses

[Nemia]

I love that! So many different categories and themes. I wonder how you physically keep your decks, and what is more important in your sorting system: category or theme. 

 

Do you use Excel or another software for your collection? 

 

My own collection is much smaller. I keep playing cards, Lenormand, oracles and tarots in different boxes. For the non-tarot decks, I have one box for each category, and for the tarot decks, I have 15 boxes. Each box has a different theme. Some are stylistic (collage, abstract), others are iconographic (animals, medieval) or according to tarot system (RWS, Thoth, Marseille). 

 

When I started buying tarot decks, I kept all my decks in one box, but over time, I could see that they belonged to different categories. When I had enough decks to need four boxes, I put them into Fire, Water, Air and Earth categories, purely intuitively. 

 

Over time, four boxes were not enough, and that's when I came up with 12 categories that developed into 15. 

 

I love sorting and organising things, putting together what belongs together. And now I have a strong wish to go through my collections and find out to which sub-categories they belong, and make a detailed list.

 

 

[Rachelcat]

@Nemia Wow, I like the idea of elemental categories!  But I'm probably too literal for that . . .

 

I wish I had started with a spreadsheet.  But who knew buying and keeping decks would be so all-consuming for me!  I just have a Word list with everything (divided by tarot, oracle, and non-card divi items) alphabetical and then the category lists.  And a "received by me" doc with dates that I started back in 2020.  And a list of my decks of the week, also started in 2020 at the start of the lockdown.  Oh, and a list of my historicals in date order.  I started a list of decks that can be used as spread decks, but that's still iffy.

 

For storage, I have a drop-front desk that my father made for me when I was a kid (what a treasure!) that's stuffed full of my decks in bags and tuck boxes.  And my ex made built-in shelves in the living room that house my decks in kit and clamshell boxes.  And the companion books to the ones in the desk.  And the rest of the living room shelves have my esoteric books.  I was blessed by woodworkers of various abilities!  (Literature and other books are upstairs in the spare room on Ikea shelves.  And my son's books.  He lives in a small apartment, so my house is the library!)

 

Good luck with your lists.  Sometimes I think I spend more time fiddling with my lists than playing with cards, but it's all fun, so it's all good!

 

[Nemia]

It must be wonderful to have so many decks! I keep an alphabetical list of my decks, including time and place of acquisition, but I think I can add more details. Right now, this list is in UpNote (migrated from Evernote), and I'll turn it into a table with more details. 

 

Your house sounds like a tarotorium! And I loved reading about your desk, built for you by your father, and now housing tarot decks. 

 

I keep my decks in IKEA bookshelves, in their boxes by topic, and most of them live in little crochet bags, pouches, or cruciform wraps that I made for them. I used to put hand-written labels on them, but now that I have a nice little label printer, the bags and pouches get pretty new labels.

 

If the original boxes are too large, too flimsy or too difficult to open, I keep them on top of the bookshelves. My tarot and esoteric books are on the same shelves, so is my main shrine (where the cats can't get), and also reading maps, reading cloths, crystals and stones. It's all in my study, my favourite place in the house. 

 

My magnetic boards are in the same room, one for the tarot calendar and one for the weekly reading. So over the course of one year, I have displayed each deck at least once. 

 

How many of your decks are true reading decks? And do they belong to the same category or theme group? Do you feel drawn especially to certain types of decks? 

 

For me, the Thoth type decks and the decks with Inner Child imagery are probably my most "active" decks and the ones I reach for when I want to read for myself or others. 

 

 

 

[gregory]

I have a massive Access database. Categories never occurred to me and I am NOT starting now. I'm too old.

[Saturn Celeste]

@Rachelcat and @Nemia, I will be joining you when I reorganize my decks and set up a new bookshelf.  One of my priorities is going by deck box size and how they all fit on the shelves, since I'm using bookcases.  It's daunting, and I'm very nervous for the job but it will be nice to get my inventory caught up again.

[gregory]

Mine are stored primarily by date of acquisition (though big boxes are - on the same principle - on shelves. I couldn't cope any other way. My own fault !