Using 'historical decks' with clients

I am by no means a professional reader. I would like to be but haven't quite figured out how to combine it with my other profession (I would like to keep the two separate).

Anyway, I was wondering if any of you use 'historical decks', such as Vacchetta, Mitelli, Sola Busca, or Ancient Minchiate for sitters in face-to-face readings. If you do, how do people take to them? And if you don't, why don't you?

Is the focus really on historical or non-scenic pip decks?

I often use a Swiss 1JJ or a Soprafino reprint (and if I'm in a really wacky mood, I'll bring out the Dussere Dodal). Sitters react just fine.

I've noticed that my clients tend to like the unusual, the different...they like my off-the-wall decks like the NOVT and Deviant Moon and, once it arrives, I'll break out my Tarot de Pumariega. That difference can be your edge, what sets you apart from other readers and part of why people would come to you versus the reader down the street.

Of course, if you're not comfortable with a deck (any deck), being different isn't going to help you.

Just my $.02.

T.

Umbrae said:

Is the focus really on historical or non-scenic pip decks?

I often use a Swiss 1JJ or a Soprafino reprint (and if I'm in a really wacky mood, I'll bring out the Dussere Dodal). Sitters react just fine.

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I meant reprints of historical decks. I would class reprints of the 1JJ Swiss and Soprafino as historical.

afrosaxon said:

That difference can be your edge, what sets you apart from other readers and part of why people would come to you versus the reader down the street.

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That's a good point. Thanks!

BrightEye said:

Anyway, I was wondering if any of you use 'historical decks', such as Vacchetta, Mitelli, Sola Busca, or Ancient Minchiate for sitters in face-to-face readings. If you do, how do people take to them? And if you don't, why don't you?

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Yup.

What I tend to do is have a few decks on display, the same Major Arcana card uppermost so that clients can pick the style of artwork they are most comfortable with. Most people will go with whatever they find visually appealing, and of those, most will go with modern decks (although two weeks ago, I had a red-letter day when my mini-Visconti was chosen by every single person).

There are some people, a small minority, who will completely disregard whatever their tastes lead them to, in favour of "authenticity". Of them, the vast majority have only ever heard of or seen images from the Rider-Waite, so they head unerringly towards that.

After a recent discussion, I think, in "using tarot" or possibly here, I started asking people who chose the RW, why they had made that choice, and it was all about using a "proper" or "authentic" or "old" Tarot deck. I have taken delight in pointing to the Visconti as 500 years older.

Who me? <innocent look> Mischievous? Not a chance.

The day the Visconti was incredibly popular, though, was all about it being particularly charming that day - even I noticed it and I'm a bit blase about my decks.

That's interesting, nisaba. Do sitters ask you how you see what you see in non-scenic pips?

BrightEye said:

That's interesting, nisaba. Do sitters ask you how you see what you see in non-scenic pips?

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Strangely, never. One woman did try to fight with me once, though, saying "That's not what Eight means! It's about prosperity!" (She didn't ask, she argued). I politely and quietly listened to her, thanked her for the information and suggested that perhaps if she thought I wasn't good enough she could book in to come in on a day someone else was reading, and I wouldn't charge her for the time I'd spent on her. She settled right down, even after the offer of half a free reading. She paid. I eavesdropped, and she told the girl at the till that I was "Rooly, rooly good!"

Also, the Visconti pips are quite well decorated, scrolls and embellishments everywhere - maybe they think that I'm picking up some kind of arcane symbols from that. I'm not. I'm working on a mixture of memory and gut-feeling. Another decorated-pip deck instead of an illustrated pip deck that I use is modern, the Veltrate, and the pips are really, really embellished in this one - I don't think clients even realise that they're not illustrated with meaningful images.