Unboxings and First Impressions

[bookshop]

I take it back I opened this and immediately gasped "oh my god it's a rainbow" out loud *__*

 

 

I wasn't expecting that!!!!

 

@Saturn Celeste Sorry, they are the Tyldwick and the Malpertius Old Arabian Lenormand and Silson Lenormand. I had mentioned this on the other postman thread and just didn't want to keep repeating myself. : )  I had emailed the brother of Neil Lovell, the late designer of the Malpertuis studio, about an unrelated question, and in the course of the exchange realized that he still had a number of the studio decks for sale, including !! some remaining copies of the Tyldwick. I thought these were out of print, but he said he had about 10 decks left, so if anyone else wants a copy of the deck, you should email him!! He's selling it at or around its original price, I think. And there are still quite a few of the other stunning decks left, as well, if anyone's interested.

 

https://www.mysteryentertainerproducts.com/malpertuis-cards

[Saturn Celeste]

5 minutes ago, bookshop said:

I had mentioned this on the other postman thread and just didn't want to keep repeating myself. : )

Oh that's no problem!  Many people don't read back posts, they are interested in the new posts, I'm one of them!   So that camel is a Lenormand deck.  It looks wonderful!!!  I hope you enjoy your decks, I have the Tyldwick and even though I don't  use it much I am really happy it's in my collection.  I actually use it to help people find lost items, it comes in handy!  And I use an oracle of colors to see if I can pinpoint to a color it might be near.

[katrinka]

1 hour ago, Saturn Celeste said:

@katrinka I just came across this hardback book about the deck also.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1580056733?pf_rd_p=183f5289-9dc0-416f-942e-e8f213ef368b&pf_rd_r=NB8E0XVN4B01G65166WQ

Yes, I mentioned it in the blog post, but you may have missed it as it was at the very end.
It's not so much about the deck as related to it, kind of a sister project, I think. IOW, you don't need it to read the cards and it might not even add much (it's best to actually read the authors represented in the deck), but it's a fun, interesting book and if you like the cards, I'd recommend it for that reason. You can see some sample text here:
http://www.katyart.com/literary-witches-1

[Jewel]

It is so nice to live vicariously through you guys! 😆

[Grizabella]

My new Tarot of Casanova came today. I've wanted it for the longest time even though I'd never seen all the card images. It's a very intriguing deck, although I'd say it's definitely not a beginner's deck. Typically, Lo Scarabeo's decks are kind of unique in their illustrations and this deck is no exception.

 

First of all, there are only numbers on the cards, not titles. And the only difference between the numbers on the suits and the Majors are that the Majors are Roman numerals instead of regular ones. 

 

Also, the court cards are numbers as well, so it's 11=Page, 12=Knight, 13=Queen, and 14=King.  Sometimes its difficult to see which suit you're looking at because the art work is rather subtle about letting the suit indicators show very obviously. The sword or wands or whatever aren't done so as to immediately jump out at you. I've got cataracts so maybe it's just harder for me to see but I don't think that's entirely it. 🙂

 

Lo Scarabeo decks often don't use illustrations that are traditional for RWS and other clones, so if you're used to using pretty standard RWS images in your cards, you won't find them here. This is one thing I love about the LS decks. For several years I couldn't make heads nor tails of their decks but then I had a real "aha!" moment with the Sweet Twilight and ever since then, I can't get enough of LS decks. It was not only a breakthrough with LS decks, but also with reading any other type of deck.

 

This is definitely an erotic deck. Not blatantly, but obviously sexual. The nudity is 99% female. No penises show. There are plenty of naked women, though, with tidy little patches of groomed pubic hair as well as naked breasts and shapely bottoms. 

 

The LWB gives a little information about Casanova, which is interesting. For instance, the 8 of Swords image shows a man in a bed with a doctor holding the sheet up to look at his lower body and the book entry for that card mentions that Casanova once started a little epidemic of venereal disease as a result of his sexual escapades. The book also gives some information about the history of Venice and about Casanova himself.  The LWB gives pretty traditional RWS meanings for each card.

 

My first impression in going through the cards was "Hmmm, what have I done here?" but after exploring further, I love this deck as much as I love any other Lo Scarabeo deck. I find it rich with new cues for my intuition in a reading as well as being just a really beautiful deck. If I were to rate it like a movie, I think I'd rate it R. I'll do some readings in the Exchange forum with it and we'll see how that goes. I think it would be a good deck for relationship readings and I specialize in those so I look forward to using it for those. I also have the Romantic Tarot by LS that I use for relationship and romantic readings but this deck takes it one step further, entering into the erotic side of a relationship.

 

I'll post some images later on. I have to go shopping pretty soon, so I don't have time now. But I'll pick some of the less R rated images to share here later this evening or tomorrow.
 

[Raggydoll]

Yesterday I finally received the first copy of my own oracle deck! 😀 My goal was to create a personal intuitive deck that did not have any keywords, just evocative imagery that would tell stories when laid out in a row. That is why I am calling them Intuitive Reading Cards. I outlined the deck so that it would be balanced and multi faceted and I altered stock photos to fit my vision. There are many layers to each card and I am eager to discover more as I put them to use. I know that I will make a second printing because there are some minor changes and additions I want to make now that I have it in front of me. But this is a sneak peek at what it looks like! This is a fairly small deck - poker size - and it fits my hand perfectly. There is a total of around 70 cards at the moment. And I’m really loving it!

 

Here is the back:

 

 

And some cards. I have found that I like to read them in rows of three. Like you can see there are no borders and no titles/keywords. I do have initial keywords written down but they won’t have much impact on my readings since they are intuitive. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KaiNO]

Your deck looks amazing, @Raggydoll 😀😍 

 

Well done!

 

How great to create your own deck with images/illustrations that mean something special for yourself 👍

[Caerrha]

@Raggydoll That's nice! A photo-deck. You can just imagine the whole scene..

[Raggydoll]

1 hour ago, KaiNO said:

Your deck looks amazing, @Raggydoll 😀😍 

 

Well done!

 

How great to create your own deck with images/illustrations that mean something special for yourself 👍

Thank you! Yes it feels great having a personal deck to work with. You know, I’m currently working on a tarot deck too and once I have accomplished these two projects it will be two things off my bucket list! I’ve been wanting to do this for so long. And now I feel hooked 😆. The tarot deck a different vibe to it though, so I’m excited to share that too once it’s done! 

[Raggydoll]

3 minutes ago, Caerrha said:

@Raggydoll That's nice! A photo-deck. You can just imagine the whole scene..

Thank you! I’m glad you find it evocative too! 😀

[Caerrha]

I'm not very well in remembering meanings; so it's nice that I can see and feel it instead of remembering?

[Raggydoll]

9 minutes ago, Caerrha said:

I'm not very well in remembering meanings; so it's nice that I can see and feel it instead of remembering?

Absolutely, I agree. I love intuitive decks that force you to connect with the imagery on the cards. It’s still intense work for the mind but in a different, less analytical way. 

[joy]

@Raggydoll the choice of images is just amazing! They seem to fit so well together and I can see that every time you read with them you see something different and/or new. Well done How does the cards feel like? Are you happy with it? Oh did I say that I love the backs?

[Raggydoll]

34 minutes ago, joy said:

@Raggydoll the choice of images is just amazing! They seem to fit so well together and I can see that every time you read with them you see something different and/or new. Well done How does the cards feel like? Are you happy with it? Oh did I say that I love the backs?

The card stock is amazing! I went with the "standard smooth" option on Printerstudio and it is exactly the way I like it. So I am very happy with the quality. And I am so happy that you love the backs - me too!! 

[Danvers]

@Raggydoll it looks beautiful! The images are very evocative and I can see how they will work so well as an intuitive deck. Even though the images are very different they have a cohesion throughout. 

It makes me want to try making my own deck now. 

[Raggydoll]

6 hours ago, Danvers said:

@Raggydoll it looks beautiful! The images are very evocative and I can see how they will work so well as an intuitive deck. Even though the images are very different they have a cohesion throughout. 

It makes me want to try making my own deck now. 

Go for it!! 

[Danvers]

@Raggydoll maybe in the new year? That would give me time to ponder on things. Although it would be fun to design a John Wick deck, just for the hell of it 😄

[Raggydoll]

2 minutes ago, Danvers said:

@Raggydoll maybe in the new year? That would give me time to ponder on things. Although it would be fun to design a John Wick deck, just for the hell of it 😄

Yeah. Once you start pondering all the options then it’s really exciting 🤗

[Danvers]

My ToP deck has arrived. Totally love it. I'm glad that I bit the tarot bullet and bought them. Sometimes I loved the look of them and other times not so much but they kept drawing me back. 

As with all the Baba decks, the quality is great and the super big size is really impressive. The scarf is beautiful, I think I'll hang it somewhere on the house. 

 

 

[Danvers]

3 minutes ago, Raggydoll said:

Yeah. Once you start pondering all the options then it’s really exciting 🤗

I know! It takes a lot of time and effort to produce a fabulous deck so maybe one for fun would be best initially for me. And as it would only be for personal use it should be ok to do a John Wick or Dracula deck without copyright issues. Or not,  I would have to look into it I suppose 

[Raggydoll]

1 minute ago, Danvers said:

I know! It takes a lot of time and effort to produce a fabulous deck so maybe one for fun would be best initially for me. And as it would only be for personal use it should be ok to do a John Wick or Dracula deck without copyright issues. Or not,  I would have to look into it I suppose 

I used only stock photos with licenses that allow me to use them freely without any credits to the photographer. I can use them commercially as well (not that I’m planning on selling my deck as of now, but I wanted it to be a possibility in the future without having to rework it). So I definitely encourage you to look into copyright and licenses. Lots of stuff is free but some things still come with restrictions. 

[Danvers]

@Raggydoll yes I will check it out because I don't want to get into trouble. I suppose I could try drawing my own John Wick images, which would be fun to do. 

Copyright is very intricate and differs from country to country too. I'll be careful. 

[Flaxen]

I got this little beauty from a Kickstarter campaign: The Pathfinder Oracle.

 

It came with a spreadcloth, a yes/no token and a cute mini version of the deck. 

 

 

[Danvers]

@Flaxen that is such a beautiful deck! I like that it's square, it makes a nice change from the usual rectangular cards.

[Danvers]

I pre ordered the Splendor Solis tarot and hardback book a while ago and it arrived this morning. I am totally in love with the quality of the set, fabulous box and LWB ( but more than that). Really lovely cardstock and such a great matt finish, antique gold edges and gold foiling on the face of the cards. Has anyone else got their deck yet too?