card clutter -- or not?

pasara

I am just curious how you all feel about key words on cards. (i'm not talking titles here, but the extra stuff.) i often find it distracting and limiting. there are several decks out there that i would like much much better if they hadn't littered them with letters. the only deck where i actually appreciate the words is the osho zen. i don't know why, just do. How 'bout you folks? How do you feel about key words or phrases on your cards? Do you feel it adds to your read, detracts, or you couldn't care less?

yirabeth

I feel like they're training wheels...I know I'm new, but I really want to try to figure these things out on my own, and develop my intuition. I think having the printing right on the cards would make it near impossible to really develop, because you'd see those words whether you needed to or not.

Then, once you know like so many here, you wouldn't need those and probably find them to be distracting/a PITA...

So I wouldn't buy a deck with keywords on it.

~Yira

pasara

there are several decks out there that have keywords with the intention of being "training wheels." these decks, it seems to me, are more for the folks who look at Tarot as a game or fun thing to do with friends, but who aren't really interested in studying it deeply.

other decks though, i don't think that is the intention at all. i think the artist/designer had an "idea" and labeled it.

yirabeth said:
So I wouldn't buy a deck with keywords on it.

I wouldn't reject any and all purely on this criteria. There are quite a few decks out there that are really great despite the labels. Haindl for example is one of them. (I trimmed mine, though.)

Alta

I think that any tarot deck that has any words has 'keywords'. To me 'Knight of Swords' represents a keyword. However if you mean beyond that, depends. The Thoth for example the keywords are okay, also the Magickal and some others that have been deeply thought out and open rather than close the mind. And yes, the Osho Zen, too. But if they only represent the creators agenda (wiccan, feminist, gay etc), or, as given above, are meant as training wheels then I would prefer to do without them. They try and guide the interpretation too much.

victoria.star

Sometimes I like keywords. Sometimes I don't.

For the most part, I find, FOR ME, they are distracting.

The deck I long for mostest in the widest world has NO words on the cards and I think that is part of my attraction to it...

nisaba

pasara said:
I am just curious how you all feel about key words on cards. (i'm not talking titles here, but the extra stuff.)

I don't even notice them, much less get bothered by them. Unless I suddenly think "I wonder what the creator of this deck intended by this image?" and deliberately look. Or if the font is particularly shocking.

yirabeth

pasara said:
there are several decks out there that have keywords with the intention of being "training wheels." these decks, it seems to me, are more for the folks who look at Tarot as a game or fun thing to do with friends, but who aren't really interested in studying it deeply.

other decks though, i don't think that is the intention at all. i think the artist/designer had an "idea" and labeled it.

I wouldn't reject any and all purely on this criteria. There are quite a few decks out there that are really great despite the labels. Haindl for example is one of them. (I trimmed mine, though.)

Very good point there..I'll amend my feelings on that, to saying I'd probably put it away to use after I felt more like a "real" reader as opposed to a complete newbie *g* I'm afraid getting such a deck now would stunt my growth, hold me in place instead of advancing.

I'd say I'd trim them, but I'm as likely to trim my fingers off as not...hehe

~Yira

nisaba

victoria.star said:
Sometimes I like keywords. Sometimes I don't.

For the most part, I find, FOR ME, they are distracting.

The deck I long for mostest in the widest world has NO words on the cards and I think that is part of my attraction to it...

Cary-Yale Visconti? Magnificent.

greycats

Absolutely! Keywords are card clutter for me. Usually I can ignore them. If I can't ignore them, then that deck will have a looong boring shelf life. IMO, keywords are why we have Little White Books.

WingspreadPhoenix

Do you mean like how some cards on the Thoth have words on the bottom? I feel that's sort of distracting and limiting. And it might also make the person being read for try to make up their own "readings" using those words, which I don't feel is too good an idea.

Then again, since I've never seen or used an actual deck with keywords on them, I can only really guess. It just doesn't seem like my thing, though.

card clutter -- or not?

pasara

yirabeth

pasara

Alta

victoria.star

nisaba

yirabeth

nisaba

greycats

WingspreadPhoenix