Experience with Victoria Regina

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 30 Apr 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Diana	30 Apr 2002
edited

truthsayer	30 Apr 2002
i got my vrt today. my experience has been different than yours. this deck blows me away w/ its uniqueness in art, history and research. i love the history and literature of the nineteenth century. you can see the roots of where so many things started. ppls from other countries were an oddity. the british empire was a world power more so than the usa at that time. i wasn't aware of the tremendous influence victoria had on changes during that time. royalty and their inter-relations has always fascinated me. victoria's obsessive mourning over albert surprizes me that she was fit to run the monarchy at all. her narcissistic behavior towards her daughters! i am so glad she wasn't MY mother. but the story of her rule and her family is a really unique and interesting tarot theme. another thing that interests me is the quality of the collage art. i have done pen and ink drawings so i know how difficult it is to do. i can look into the cards and see such amazing attention to detail. i'm so drawn in by the quality of the art that i didn't notice it being done in black and white for a while. i love color in a deck but color would destroy the depth of meaning you can see by examing the lines in the faces, clothing and backgrounds. the book is extremely well written. i would have expected it to be dry and boring. i skipped around reading tidbits. i have no doubt i'll sit down w/ the book to read more in depth later. the quality of the bag is amazing. i don't own a bag this nice. when i've seen them, the price was always more than i would pay for a tarot bag. i don't think this deck is for everyone but if you have an interest in the 19th century then i think this deck would draw you in. i don't know if i'll be able to read w/ this deck yet but it definitely has my attention! i have a feeling this deck might be like the tarot of the saints is for me. i don't read w/ it but i find it a great source for learning history and how things were done during that era. have any of you ever noticed how every deck is like visiting a country that you've never explored before? the excitement for me is like taking a great adventure w/o leaving my home!! bon voyage! LOL ;)

Umbrae	30 Apr 2002
I have had the VR deck for about a month (?). I love it. For me, it is pretty much an ‘in your face deck’. It not only gives me the keys, it shows me the doors and kicks me through them. Sure the book is nice, however I have not read or used it, just filed it away. Therefore, I am not ‘hung up’ on the history of the pictures, or persons. I guess the difference with my experience and what I see of others, is that most are looking and seeing who the folks are and the history of the pictures and blah blah blah. It is like trying to fit the cards into a box. My approach (with all decks) is to toss the LWB away (shelve them) and let the deck do its work without me interfering. I am reading back over this, and it is not what I really want to say, but close. Try to fill in the blanks please.

Lee	30 Apr 2002
Hi, truthsayer -- Read with it! Read with it! :D -- Lee

truthsayer	30 Apr 2002
Quote: Originally posted by Lee Hi, truthsayer -- Read with it! Read with it! :D -- Lee LOL i know that's what you're supposed to do w/ decks!! i want to completely absorb the deck at every level. part of what's fun about a new deck to me is to explore it. i could just read w/ it but that's not what i enjoy doing most w/ decks. i enjoy exploring new expressions of universal archetypes. i like looking at the history behind it and connect the dots to archetypes. i don't see that as limiting the deck. it expands my perceptions to the author's vision and beyond. then my experience w/ the deck becomes truly mine at an experential and intuitive level. it's hard to explain. i tend to see rws and clones as reading decks. they're pretty basic decks w/ few surprizes. others decks are experential and more interesting as that's where i find the most personal growth. when i meditate on an image i feel myself soaking up the card's essense like a sponge. for example, the lovers is such an alive card in the vrt. i find my imagination stirring and hear a story told about passion, love, and jealousy. the queen of swords is such a powerful card of deep emotional sorrow. i've never seen a card that i perceived the emotion behind the Q of S so well. different strokes for different folks. i use my decks more for self-exploration than reading these days. when i was learning to read tarot i was more interested in reading.

Umbrae	30 Apr 2002
Just did 2 readings for others with the VR deck. The deck was SOOOO on (accurate) it creeped the poor girls out.

truthsayer	01 May 2002
this deck definitely has a distinct personality. the lives of the ppl i sense in the cards--their hopes and dreams, their misfortunes and tragedies and the sense of the world at this time--it's a very different expereince. when i read it, my life feels intertwined w/ theirs and it feels very intense. it's like they want to speak and use me as a medium. i can relate to their feelings in my life situations and my answers feel more pragmatic than w/ other decks. the sense of sorrow from failed hopes and dreams is enormous. i feel this sense of connection w/ victoria as a person no one really knew but thought they knew b/c of all the amazing things happening. she appeared to have it all but she didn't. the british seems to love what she represented--not who she was. she was so isolated in the middle of these events. i understand those feelings. i can't read this deck as just a tarot deck. i feel involved w/ the ppl of the deck and their trials and tribulations. i see how no matter what our status in life, we are all the same in the skin. money and power makes no difference. we only have a limited amount of control over life. i don't know if anyone else reads VRT this way but it works for me!

Andryh	01 May 2002
The VRT is not just another pretty face...I have had only wonderful, meaningful experiences with this deck. It speaks to me in ways that no other deck has before. I have been reading for three years, but still struggled regularly with court cards. This deck has such strong, distinct characters and their personalities really come through. This makes the court cards a breeze to interpret. Also, this deck adjusts to my moods. When I'm happy it seems whimsical...When I'm a little down, it comes across as empathetic and serious. It is delightful in every way

baba-prague	30 Nov 2002
I've had this deck for about a month and like it very much - it's really well done. However, I wonder if some of the cards carry different nuances if you are from the UK (I'm Irish, but Northern Irish so brought up in an English/Irish background really). At one or two points I've been a bit taken aback by some of the imagery, because for me it carries some associations that aren't appropriate. This isn't to criticise - as I say, I think it's a great deck - but I'm curious to hear whether anyone else finds they get a bit distracted by personalities like Prince Albert (who I always associate with the Albert Memorial - an ugly and over-elaborate piece of monumental sculpture that was bang opposite the Royal College of Art, where I did my post-grad training!) On the other hand, I did a reading recently with this pack which was unnervingly accurate (and even more serendipitous - just as I was typing this my mobile rang to tell me that one of the things I predicted, a large upheaval and a quarrel in this person's life, just happened. It's interesting). I do love the VRT and I think I'll contrinue reading with it. Maybe I just need to sit down and meditate on all the associations with Victorian England that I'm carrying around in my head and see what it tells me?

Diana	30 Nov 2002
Since I started this thread quite a long time ago, I have traded my deck. In the end, I couldn't work with it. I don't miss it either. But the cards are pretty. I remember the 8 of Wands. Lovely card.

Emily	03 Dec 2002
I too loved this deck when I bought it quite a few months ago now but I can't work with it. I think its because the cards are so big and I can't shuffle them in the way I like so I don't use it. I do take it out and look through it though, still think its a very intense deck but for me, not usable.

allibee	03 Dec 2002
yaaaaaay.... got my VR today! Bigger than anticipated, but so is my Tapestry deck. I have spent a lot of time on the VR site getting to know the cards b4 they arrived, so I feel I already have a familiar knowledge with them. Maybe I'll try a reading on the exchange with them soon. allibee P.S. I've never had a bag for my cards, so this was a first, and the lwb turned out to be a BWB. All in all I'm really pleased.

The Experience with Victoria Regina thread was originally posted on 30 Apr 2002 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.