Fin de Siècle Kipper

[cirom]

Several years ago I was requested by the German publisher of the original Kipper to redesign this deck. Despite its heritage and place in German cartomancy circles, its popularity, appeal and sales were dwindling. They wanted to inject some new life and style. After some initial doubts, I accepted the challenge on the condition I could transfer the setting of the original Kipper Karten from post Napoleonic war Bavaria, to Victorian Britain. I felt that the historical context of that era would provide a richer means of addressing the social conditions interaction and emotions that kipper deals with. As an example, the following is a summary of my thought process behind this particular card. 

BEHIND THE CARDS

Explanation, perspective and context behind the images of past cards. In this case the THIEF from my Fin de Siècle Kipper deck.

Charles Darwin's publication of Origin of the Species, and its radical proposal of man’s evolution from ape, was met with predictable outrage, not only by the church, but by society in general. However its rejection was an uncomfortable and incomplete, scientifically there was enough hint of possibility to the proposal, that it needed to be disproved by action not just debate. It has been proposed that a contributing factor to the extreme attitudes regarding sexuality of those times was in part an academic one rather than the more obvious religious one. It was argued that the indisputable factor separating Man from all other of God’s creation was that of “will” and control over instincts. Self discipline through self control over our basic animal instincts was that factor and indisputable when demonstrating the absurdity of Darwin’s provocative theories. However, this seemingly shallow logic along with supportive encouragement from the church, contributed to dictating the standards of social behavior between the genders, how they dressed, met and generally interacted. But scratch, and not too deeply, beneath the surface of that facade and there is clear evidence of not practicing what was preached. It is estimated that during this period there was a prostitute for every twenty men. The infectious scourge that we refer to as small pox was so named only as a means of differentiating and comparison to the "large" pox, namely syphilis, the true scourge of those times. (This real world reality and context is hinted at in my depiction of card 24, the thief)

Edited July 5, 2020 by cirom
grammar

[katrinka]

This never got any replies? Wow.

And yes. Dickens wrote about people just like this. Child pickpockets and prostitutes.
Here's my favorite movie version. No singing and dancing, just the story, please. 😉
 

 

Human nature was the same then as it is now. They just didn't talk about it.
If a woman had insomnia, irritability, or melancholy, she might be diagnosed with Female Hysteria. The cure? A doctor with a vibrator. I'm serious, google it.
He didn't simply prescribe a vibrator. He...well, you know.
People in those days were pervy. Oh well, I guess it was one way of avoiding the large pox, if it didn't go any further.

[Sar]

I love this deck, but would prefer the gentleman card faced the lady card.

[WizardintheWoods]

Artistically - by far my favorite Kipper deck and My favorite of all of Ciro’s Deck I do think as well. As Sar stated the 2 Significator facing each other was an issue, but part of it. I read very directionally at this point having only learned from Toni Puhle’s method. This is not to say her method is the “one right way” of course but it is what I use and for me it works. 
That said I handled the issue by finding a silver sharpie marker and marking off the directions I felt were appropriate on those cards that needed them. You hardly notice the markings, they are just small dot on the boarder of the card. 
 

The Victorian age is IMHO what made this deck. It is for some reason an age I like to explore, I wouldn’t call it a study, and it’s history does seem to suit the Kipper energetic. 
 

I don’t use the extra cards as I don’t feel they are needed for my readings but I can see the value of them. I guess lastly, it is the renaming of cards that might be off putting to the new Kipper student. 
 

All in all I love the deck and I wish that Kipper had a more lively forum here on T,T and M.

[RunningWild]

On 9/13/2021 at 8:19 AM, WizardintheWoods said:

All in all I love the deck and I wish that Kipper had a more lively forum here on T,T and M.

 

Give it time.  Yes, I know no one has posted here since last September but I only just received Fin de Siecle Kipper as a gift, today.  I look forward to learning the system.

[gregory]

Start threads.... (I can't'; I know NOTHING. But start threads.)

[Guest]

On 4/22/2022 at 7:01 AM, RunningWild said:

 

Give it time.  Yes, I know no one has posted here since last September but I only just received Fin de Siecle Kipper as a gift, today.  I look forward to learning the system.

 

I've ordered a deck a waiting for it to arrive! I felt drawn to this one too, most probably because I'm drawn to Victorian England. I'll be happy to discuss with you once my deck arrives (mid June... shipping to Australia from the USA.... apparently going around the world a few times in the process given it's estimated to take a month lol 😉 )

[RunningWild]

@Kliz I've been watching some of The Card Geek's youtube videos on the Kipper cards.  The booklet that comes with the deck is okay but doesn't really say much about how to read the cards.  I might, eventually, purchase her book but that could take a while.

[RunningWild]

Update:  A friend is buying Toni Puhle's book for me.  I've spent hours scouring Aeclectic's archives already and haven't yet found much to sink your teeth into.  Most of the links are, so far, broken. 

[DanielJUK]

I love the Kipper cards (from various decks) but most info about it is from German authors. A lot of Lenormand stuff went into English but Kipper never followed. Did you get a little book with the deck from Ciro? I always want to get Puhle's book but some people are not completely happy with all her ideas. Have a good read through this forum section, some people have worked on the cards and also Katrinka has reviewed Puhle's book in a thread.

 

If you search google some people have blogs where they have gone through the cards. I have found it hard to find English text interpretations apart from Ciro's info with the deck and Puhle's.

I love the system though, prefer it to Lenormand with the further people cards included.

 

There are some sites for info listed in this thread....

 

 

 

[RunningWild]

Hi Daniel.

 

I've read the the posts here including Katrinka's comments.  The booklet that comes with the deck is ok as far as giving someone an idea as to single card interpretation but, just like with Lenormand or even Tarot, there are subtleties that need further description.  With Ciro's deck it seems that with a few of the cards it can be more difficult to determine direction, IMO.  I suppose that's the fun part of a new system.

 

I've been avoiding using Lenormand-like understanding of the cards even though there are some similarities.  I like how personal Kipper is and can imagine sitting in a parlour sipping tea (read: coffee since I don't drink tea) while reading about the people in someone's world.  It's really very intimate even perhaps more so than Lenormand.  Between Tarot, Lenormand, and Kipper I've created a type of categorization in my mind. 

 

The other book on Kipper cards available in English would probably annoy me if it's not well-translated so I opted to not ask for that one. 

[Guest]

On 5/17/2022 at 6:53 AM, RunningWild said:

@Kliz I've been watching some of The Card Geek's youtube videos on the Kipper cards.  The booklet that comes with the deck is okay but doesn't really say much about how to read the cards.  I might, eventually, purchase her book but that could take a while.

 

I'll check out the videos once my deck arrives. Thanks 🙂

[Scandinavianhermit]

THANK YOU, @cirom! This deck will appeal to one of my friends. I will check out the Königsfurt Urania website, or will I find it at Altenburg?

[DanielJUK]

You can find it everywhere and on all online bookshops, it's a mass-market deck 🙂 

[Scandinavianhermit]

7 hours ago, DanielJUK said:

You can find it everywhere and on all online bookshops, it's a mass-market deck 🙂 

Thank you. Yes, but the main online bookshops in my region offer the English language version. Like me, my friend knows bits and bobs of English, German and Latin, but, unlike me, he definitely prefer German. Happy new year!