WHY do you read with RWS decks, more or instead of, TdM or Thoth?

[Scarlet Woodland]

Honestly, because it's so easy to learn and there's so much more choice out there.

 

I can read pips fine but based on RWS meanings. Some of my most powerful decks are either thothy or fusion but there's soooo much to learn with thoth, that I feel I'm not doing the decks justice with a rather shallow reading, when I can't comprehend all the nuance and symbolism. Learning the thoth properly is certainly on my to do list but it looks overwhelming from the outside.

[Guest]

I like the system, and since the minors are illustrated it's not that difficult to learn and dive into. I also like the very images themselves, finding them deeply resonant. 

 

I'm also resting my Thoth for a while, and I'm a natural when it comes to the RWS so yeah. 

[Misterei]

On 1/19/2019 at 7:24 AM, GreatDane said:

I am always curious why someone has a type they prefer, or only use.

*  Started with an RWS deck, so now it's just familiar

*  I'm visual (in other words, I like there are illustrated images that correspond to each card)

*  TdM decks I find BEAUTIFUL, but the pips don't inspire me to read with them

 

KUDOS to all who are "multi-lingual" when it comes to switching effortlessly between RWS, TdM and Thoth.

So...if you are primarily, or only, a reader of RWS decks, WHY?

Thanks @Aliki for reviving this thread.

 

I read ONLY with RWS for 15 years. Totally monagamous relationship. I tried Thoth ... but honestly never could connect with it in spite of liking the artwork and liking Lon Milo Duquette's books. In the end ... I just applied what i learned from reading Crowley and DuQuette to my general Tarot knowledge.

 

I never liked the artwork on French TdM ... so never even bothered reading with it. But recently something happened to me. I was doing all this historic research for my course manual ... and got exposed to more and more Italian Tarocchi decks ... and found that I loved them. I found that I love reading with them, too.

 

Mostly I still use RWS decks for clients. It's just SO EASY to point to the picture and the client immediately connects with the explanation.

 

Mostly I use Tarocchi style cards or modern Pip deck like Keymaster to read for myself. It feels special. Different than reading for a client. A "me space". Ocasionally I use a Tarocchi deck with a client b/c i DON'T want the client putting their own interpretation on the card. I want them to really listen to what I'm saying. But this is rare.

 

I also use different spreads with each type of deck. Celtic Cross or 7-card V for RWS and French Cross for Tarocchi or Pip styles.

On 8/26/2019 at 7:09 PM, katrinka said:

I use the RWS for discussion purposes, mostly, since it's the one everyone knows and most popular contemporary Tarots are based on it. It's the lingua franca between me and a lot of other people ...
I do like to use TdM/pip Tarots. I've spent these last few years unlearning a lot of stuff I picked up that wasn't working well for me, and substituting more predictive, cartomantic ideas. It's almost Lenormand-like now, just good old roots cartomancy. I like that. 😉

That's a great way to put it. RWS has become the Lingua Franca of Tarot.

And yes ... after 40+ years with RWS ... there was a bit of UNlearning ... or at least a refreshing shift of perspective to start reading with Tarocchi and Pip sytle decks. To me not more like LeNormand than any other tarots ... but definitely a different cartomantic language. An older one ... yet new to me.

Edited December 15, 2022 by Misterei

[Rupicapra]

10 hours ago, Scarlet Woodland said:

 Some of my most powerful decks are either thothy or fusion but there's soooo much to learn with thoth, that I feel I'm not doing the decks justice with a rather shallow reading, when I can't comprehend all the nuance and symbolism. Learning the thoth properly is certainly on my to do list but it looks overwhelming from the outside.

I like how you said that, it very much reflects how I feel - I'm so glad it's not just me! Some day 🙂 

 

 

[TarotSparks]

RW is classic to me, it's my first deck and I love the images and meanings that accompany them. I get confused with any other deck. Thoth seems too new age for me, the TDM seems too medieval on the other hand 🙂  Maybe this has a lot to do with the person's character. I am actually quite 'old school' although I thought of myself as being very progressive, but nope, I am not.      

[Richard]

I read with the RWS because there are so many versions to choose from.
My favourites would be:

The University Press - because of the enhanced colours.  Yes, I'm an old hippy.

Frankie Albano - because of the enhanced colours.  Did I mention I'm an old hippy?

The Trippin Waite is ridiculously colourful. Probably too much ... unless you're an old hippy ... in which case it's Fabulous. (I've never read with it😁)

But the Rider Blue Box (strictly not a 'version', I know) is my all time fave because of the thick card stock and the silky light lamination.

[Chariot]

I am not religious, or into the occult, nor do I follow any particular philosophy, or invest in magic systems, or have any clue as to the nature of God, gods, creators, Grand Puppeteers, etc.  I like the RWS-based decks because they give me the kinds of pragmatic answers and realistic outlooks that I can work with in the here and now—both for myself and anybody else I read for.

I am a believer that there is an awful lot 'out there' that we don't understand and probably never will—mainly because I've experienced things in my life that I can't explain. I have come face to face with predestination and other forms of 'torn curtain' activity that we might call 'supernatural.'  And I do believe that tarot taps into something that's bigger than me and my own life. It's just that I don't mind not knowing what that is, or where the tarot's voice comes from, or whether we reincarnate after we die, or move on in another form, or just simply cease to exist.  And I have no urge to buy into or make up some 'explanation' for the mysteries of the universe, or go through rituals connected with deities or forces I don't know anything about. I'm content to, as Iris DeMent puts it, 'let the mystery be.'   And listen to it, when it speaks to me via the tarot. 
 

So the RWS deck, especially in its more modern interpretations, suits me.  

Another thing I really like about the original RWS decks is that the imagery is clear.  By that, I mean the pictures are clear to see, even from a bit of a distance. The flat, bright colours make it easy to distinguish between the various cards. It's very easy to look at even a complicated reading and be able to tell instantly ...even when the cards are reversed ...what cards are there and their relation to one another in the spread. There are some gorgeous RWS-based decks which I do use, but sometimes it's not instantly obvious which card I'm looking at, because the artwork is too complex, or there isn't strong colour differentiation. So even though the RWS images are somewhat crude and simplistic by comparison, the crude simplicity actually works well.  That's another good reason it's the go-to deck for most beginners, I reckon.

So it's RWS for me.

[MustaKissa]

I am reading with RWS decks mainly, because I was never attracted to TdM or Thoth. First thing for me when I choose a deck - do I LIKE it? If I don't like it aesthetically, then I don't buy. Then it's not calling me. And if I try to use it and I just don't like the images - likely it won't work, but also there are so many beautiful decks out there that there is no need to force yourself to work with something you don't like...
And most decks these days are based on RWS, and most books are written for such decks. 
Never say never though... Maybe once I'll look to the direction of Thoth or TdM if my intuition gives a nudge.

[GreatDane]

So many of your answers are SO close to how I feel.  I have multiple incarnations with the basic RWS images and they just read for me the best.  They're the "warm sweater with a cup of coffee on a cold day deck".   I know many of you have been reading a lot longer than I have.  I've just been going at it about 15 years.   But looking at decks then and now, I notice so many don't even seem to follow any of the major systems.  Or they so LOOSELY follow the image, I would have to guess at what it is.  For those who read any image just intuitively, I guess not an issue, for those of us who like RWS..... 

[RickInBakersfield]

~ It was the very first deck I started with long ago.

~ It was the deck most talked about in my tarot books.

~ I am just not attracted to other decks, well except my Psycards deck - which isn't tarot.

~ My current deck is the RWS Radiant Wise Spirit deck that I have been using for the past 15 months.

~ I also think when one thinks about tarot, they think of the RWS deck.

~ The querents also find the symbolism in the cards interesting & fascinating.

 

Rick,

[Morwenna]

I'm in the RWS camp. I had books before I had decks and most of them were based on the RWS imagery. I do have a few pips decks (in fact my very first deck was a pips deck, the Stairs of Gold), but learning with the illustrated pips of the RWS was so much easier; then I became aware that the system for TdM was actually different, and I never got around to properly learning that. If I use a pips deck now, it's with RWS meanings. 

 

And of course the variety of RWS clones speaks so greatly to my artistic sense! I think most of us who consider our decks to be an art gallery do so because of all the RWS-derived decks out there, Not all, of course; there are acres of gorgeous pips decks out there, especially the historic reproductions. 

 

As for Thoth, I never got into it because (1) I didn't like the art, (2) I knew the reading system was different and at the time I first came across it, I was in no mood to try learning a new system even before I felt solid enough on the one I was already learning. And I never went back for another look.

 

Now, of course, everyone's talking about Etteilla and so on... my brain is full... 

[Deian]

I only use RWS and one not so popular deck last 20 years or so, although to be fair I don't use tarot very often.
Before that I used a lot and I usually used arthurian deck, at least that was the name in my language, don't know in English.

Why RWS... Because the others, in my humble view, doesn't align with what they are made to align with.

One example. In many of the old decks, there was the idea The Devil connected 2 aspects of the other systems they use. One was showing "True Self", the Center of it all, related to the Sun. The other was showing "Search for meaning" in physical / mental aims and pursuits connected to Mercury.

Problem is, that while with some imagination we can say searching for meaning in relation to our true self is very bad, in reality it isn't. Science is aimed at that, all worthy metaphysical systems are aimed at that. The moment we view that carry the Images of the Devil, that is just not true. Not historically why the idea of "The Devil" was introduced, there was nothing related to "true self" or "center" of anything... So to say "the devil" was connected to a Sephira translated as Beauty /Balance is just sad, and suggests giant misunderstanding of how this whole thing is suppose to work.

 

Anyway, this is technical stuff, but short answer would be, because I don't think the other decks can work for deeper work then Divination. And for Divination this one will work by creating its own symbolism on top of other influences, not because its symbolism was valid all along.
(meaning as many have used it it has created its own domain separated from what it was made based on, but that is bad, not good).

 

 

[gregory]

Smith/Waite. Because I like to have pictures on the pips.

[Celine]

When I started reading on Tarot it was with Rachel Pollack, so it had to be RWS. At first I felt like no other deck could compare - I went online and looked for the cards in other decks and felt that they missed the point (arrogant, I know) or at least didn't provide me with enough material to support reading. TdM is too soon for me (or may not even happen as I love RWS-based decks) and the traditional pips intimidate me. As for Thoth I simply don't feel drawn to it at all.  Now I think that maybe some decks reveal more layers as you study them, but then I'm surprised to read so many people talking about this and this new deck they got and how long are they going to study them as well as their first RWS ? It still makes me curious and in a few months I will probably get a different deck to see how it works for me. 

[Chariot]

On 11/1/2024 at 1:52 PM, gregory said:

Smith/Waite. Because I like to have pictures on the pips.

That's it, for me, in a nutshell.  

[hjasmine]

I like the images of RWS more. I find them beautiful and like to look at them.