So I came home with a new deck today (Tarot Familiars, artwork by Lisa Parker) and while I was in the shop I got chatting with the shop assistant about decks with fully illustrated pip cards (like the standard RWS) and decks without illustrated pips (just a picture showing the number of the suite - e.g. 5 cups shown for the 5 of Cups).  The Tarot Familiars is a deck with unillustrated pips, hence the discussion.

 

She doesn't like them because she just can't read them because the picture doesn't give her any clue what its about, but I'm fairly happy with them (partly because I've briefly ventured into playing card cartomancy in the past) even if I occassionally forget how the numerology works and have to remind myself.

I thought this could be an interesting discussion.

 

What's your opinion on pip cards?  Do you like them fully illustrated, not illustrated or don't care?

I need to have pip cards that are fully illustrated because I base a large part of my readings on the images on the cards.  I like to read intuitively, and I can't do that if I don't have a picture to go on.  Also, I'm not really up on numerology, so cards that just show the number of the suit don't hold much meaning for me.

Hello,

 

As I use the cards to lead my clients, fully illustrated pip cards make it easier to guide them through an image.

 

Greetings

 

Shade

I want that deck, but I can't read pips.  Gives me zero intuitive hits.

I'm constantly going on about being an intuitive reader using the imagery as a guide, but the only pip deck I have gives me insanely clear messages. I consider my background in numerology to be shaky at best and my deck doesn't use traditional suits (nor even suggests how they align) so it isn't memorization or anything like that. It's more like "oh that arrangement of shapes looks pretty shady, I'm not gonna be trusting that what you see is what you get in this situation".

 

So pips. I dig em!

I love TdM style pips. Interestingly, I still get clear intuitive hits from them - it could be based on the arrangement of flowers/symbols, how the image changes/moves from one card to the next. My intuition is in some ways less ‘boxed in’ than with fully illustrated cards.

I don't like 'em. I second Little Fang's thought.

 

 

I like the TdM pip decks myself. I like using numerology even with the Majors. The numbers and then the suits make a good blend to me based on the question and the spread.

I have to admit, I am a very visual person so my preference in reading decks leans strongly to the illustrated pips.  With that said, I do not have anything against unillustrated pips.  With knowledge of basic numerology and elemental correspondences they can provide a lot of information.  I absolutely love decks that are somewhere in between, ones I call "Moody-Minors" because they set a tone.  I find the Thoth and Cosmic Tribe for example to fall in this category.  The arrangements of the suit icons and the colors actually play a huge role along with numerology and elemental correspondences.

I love pips! But, I also like to see creative arrangements of them. My recent image searches for playing card pip patterns show that some deck designers are offering interesting takes.

 

I do like touches of color to help jolt correspondences out of me.

 

Regarding the deck Tarot Familiars, my only quibble is that I expected each Major to have its own unique animal. Cats are on ten of them. Unicorns are on two. Wolves & owls are on three. I am using the deck to play with the Tarot Constellation concept- keeping the groups that reduce numerologically together.

The less the better, imo. [emoji28]

 

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk