The Whimsical Tarot

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 13 May 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Sam	13 May 2002
Hey everyone I just bought this deck literally ten minutes ago and i think it is really cool!:D :cool: In case you wanted to know, the deck is based on fairy tales, nursery rhymes, and other thing of the sort.:*

Jimilyn	14 May 2002
Yes, this is a really fun deck. I teach elementary school (first grade) and just had to have it. :cool: It's a recent addition to my collection, so I haven't done any readings with it. I have all these new decks and not enough time until summer break! Sigh. Jimilyn

fairyhedgehog	14 May 2002
I agree, it's a really great deck. It is so easy to read with as well, especially if you know the Rider-Waite meanings of the cards. The fairy tales add an extra layer to the meanings.

Maan	14 May 2002
I love this deck!!! It was a little hard at first because i did not know all the fairy tales. Not all fairy tales are universal :( But with a little help from aeclectic i know them all now!:) Thank you:)

Violet Gargoyle	14 May 2002
I like the deck as well, also for the story aspects of it. What better way to explain meaning of cards! I like comparing the choices from this deck with that of the Inner Child Cards, based off the same premise....goes to show that everyone sees their favorite character in different ways!

Kiama	15 May 2002
You horrible, horrible people! You've just made my wishlist longer! I WANT THIS DECK SO BADLY!!!!!!!!! Damnit. Ah, well... I've got birthday coming up soon. (MALACHITE! ;) ) And leaving school celebrations, and getting good grades in the exams celebrations... I've got it all planned! For every A grade I get in my exams, the boyf has promised to get me a new Tarot deck. Now there's a incentive if ever I heard one!) Kiama

WolfSpirit	20 May 2002
I think I just have to get a deck that has Puss in Boots on the Magician card !!

faunabay	20 May 2002
For people who have both - what's the differences between the Inner Child cards and the Whimsical tarot? I have the Inner Child and wouldn't want to get something that's tooooo similar.

Violet Gargoyle	21 May 2002
The major differences that I can point out is: The artwork is different styles, the Whimsical tends to use softer lines and pastels, the Inner Child Cards are bold in color and resemble oil paintings. The size is a major difference. The Whimsical is comparitive to a standard deck of cards. The Inner Child one are rather large in size (I can barely get my hands around them) The choices for each card rarely are the same. The magician for Whimsical is Puss in Boots, the Magician for the Inner Child cards is Alladdan's Genie, for instance. Whimsical sticks to the mother goose/Hans/Grimm Sets, the I.C. branches out into some pretty obscure tales here and there.

truthsayer	29 May 2002
i've been a mary hanson roberts fan for a couple of years now. i have the universal and the HR decks but i couldn't decide on whether i like the whimsical enough to get it. well, i've finally given in and quite happy that i did. it looks simple but looks are deceiving. i've studied the archetypes behind fairy tales for around 8 years and this deck was well researched. i knew most of the fairy tales. some aren't easily figured out by the picture but once i read the book i knew it. the LWB is pretty sorry so if you want this deck spend the extra money and get the book, too. it's well written and tells you what tale is which and provides a synopsis for the tale. i think i could give a reading from this right now i feel so in sync w/ this deck. :D i had an ulterior motive for buying this deck and the inner child which is on the way. i am in the process of designing a self-empowerment class through fairy tales. i have a friend who does workshops and she asked me to do this one. i rationalized that i needed the cards to help me focus and write exercises for the workshop since i don't have any other appropriate decks. i did one on self-empowerment thru mythology around 6 years ago and really enjoyed it. i hope i can get this one going, too. i want to sneak tarot into the class. i thought maybe i could somehow use the pictures for the class to use in some guided imagery or writing exercises. ;)

fairyhedgehog	30 May 2002
Quote: Originally posted by truthsayer i am in the process of designing a self-empowerment class through fairy tales. This sounds like a wonderful idea, truthsayer :) I wish I lived a bit nearer and could come to it. Quote: Sounds like an excellent plan. I had a tutor who used tarot cards in a similar way in my humanistic counselling course. I hope it goes really well for you, I'm sure the participants will get a lot from it. All the best, FH

Violet Gargoyle	30 May 2002
Truthsayer: Your class sounds really interesting. I can certainly see sneaking the Inner Child cards in at least for meditation purposes, since those cards do not have the traditional names on the card, just the characters name from the tale. For instance, the Fool Card for the IC is Red Cap (Red Riding Hood's Predecessor) but no where on the card will you see the words "The Fool" You only really know by the order of the cards (or the book if you are reading it). You can almost pass around that deck and no one would know that it is a tarot off hand. I would love to hear how your class progresses with this....I would love to be able to use my folklore studies in such a way. Incidentally, there is also a new Vertigo Comic book series (or graphic novels for us adults :D) called Fables. It just started this month. It focuses on what would happen to faery tale characters if they were living in a modern day New York suburb town. Everyone has a modern job, (Snow White is the deputy mayor, The Wolf- In human form here, is the chief of police) Pretty interesting stuff if you are into different takes of folklore. Its not for kids, though.

Jewel	30 May 2002
darn it Truthsayer!!!!! why did you have to speak so highly of this deck ~shakes head~. Well it is added to my wish list ... how many days do you give me before I break down and order it? *LOL*. And I will definitely need the book.

truthsayer	30 May 2002
i got the inner child cards today. the cards are beautiful and the book is really good. the difference i can see b/t this one and the whimsical is their perspective on fairy tales. the whimsical is warm and optimistic. the kind of fairy tales where there are always happy endings and you can put your kids to sleep w/o fear of nightmares. while it's not based on the disney characters, it reminds me of them. yes, there is a sense of the tarot archetypes but the shadow is barely present in them. not that that's a bad thing. this is a rainy deck for those days where i'd much rather forget the darker side of life. they just give me a warm feeling inside like christmas eve. in fact, the emperor is father winter/santa claus. the inner child take a more balanced look at fairy tales. the original fairy tales didn't give lots of warm fuzzies. bad things as well as good happened to ppl. some stories are a cover for bad things that happened. for example, when a family was starving, children were sometimes abandoned to the forest as in "hansel and gretel" so the rest of the family could survive. but the story rewrites this terrible truth to a way this horror can be overcome thru archetypal retelling thru a story. when i do a myth or fairy tale class we look at the fairy tales that have meant the most to us. we acknowledge the dark side of what drew us to the story then we look at the ending as an unspoken wish. then we rewrite the story except this time we write the story about us. in another class that used this exercise, i think nearly everyone chose the ugly duckling as the one they most related to. everyone had different reasons why they felt like the ugly duckling but we all wanted to be a beautiful swan. so we changed the story to how we grew up and became swans. it was a pretty emotional experience. i think to use IC right, i need to take the cards i don't feel comfortable w/ and face the dark side of the card. then accept the light side as something i want and rewrite my story to deal w/ the shadow and come into a new light. i can't really see reading for anyone else w/ them b/c i'd be asked to delve into shadows others may not be prepared to face. this would not be an issue w/ the whimsical. see the difference?

faunabay	31 May 2002
Thanks for that good explanation of the differences truthsayer! I have the Inner Child cards but not the Whimsical and have wondered if I need both? (yea yea I know Jewel!!! Of course I need both ROFL) I don't know if I'll get it right away but probably will end up with the Whimsical now too. LOL

truthsayer	31 May 2002
faunabay, yeah i think you need both b/c the whimsical is so different from the inner child. the whimsical uses soft warm pastel colors. all the cards even minor arcana except pages and aces are based on fairy tales. the inner child was probably done in oils and the colors are very intense. the colors aren't as well blended b/c you can see the artist's brush strokes. this increase the emotional intensity for me. the major arcana and court cards are from fairy tales. the suits are renamed: the magic wands, swords of truth, winged hearts, and earth crystals. wands are represented by fairies, swords are children, cups(hearts) are mermaids, and pentacles(crystals) are gnomes. the numbers cards are more general archetypal principals instead of based directly on fairy tales. well, i'll practically ritten a deck review here. i ought to do it since i've gone this far.

Jewel	31 May 2002
Quote: Originally posted by faunabay I have the Inner Child cards but not the Whimsical and have wondered if I need both? (yea yea I know Jewel!!! Of course I need both ROFL) WE need both! Truthsayer, why do you do this to us? ;) ... Faunabay let me know when we are going shoping, I have the book and deck on my wishlist at amazon.com *ROFLMAO* ... just a matter of time. I am seeing if I can resist until July *LOL*.

Violet Gargoyle	31 May 2002
For those who have the IC- Which is your favorite card from that deck? If you have both decks (Whimsicle and IC) does the equivalant of your favorite Whimsicle card the same? I love the Fool Card for the IC (Red Cap- and the Fool is my "totem" card if I were to have one.) I like the Whimsicle's choice for the same house, although it is not my favorite out of that deck, the feel I get from the Scarecrow is a much more light hearted fool . It is a lot like truthsayer was mentioning, the darker side of tales coming through in the bold colors on the IC. Red Cap is the fool who gets more banged around and weathered- she gets rescued only after she is devoured, and loses alot of innocence by the end of her journey yet is still glad to be alive. The scarecrow gets rescued from BEFORE he would have been devoured by flames, and he even then gets rewarded for potential bravery with a "brain", plus he runs the show in Oz at the end of his journey- barely affected that he nearly got torched.

Zhritza	01 Jun 2002
interesting that they used the Scarecrow and not Dorothy, I guess because he is more clownlike maybe? I wish I liked the Oz Tarot better because it almost seems worth the price of an entire deck just to have a Dorothy Fool card. She's so perfect for it, to me... I'm hoping to get the Inner Child Cards soon; I like the idea of a fairytale deck with darkness and light in it. And the colors look so glorious. Just so I can gauge how dark it gets, is Bluebeard in it anywhere?

truthsayer	01 Jun 2002
no, bluebeard isn't in it.

Zhritza	02 Jun 2002
okay, no really yucky things then? cool. it's near the top of my Extremely Long List (patent pending).

fairyhedgehog	03 Jun 2002
I have now been forced to order the Inner Child cards ;) I ordered them from amazon.co.uk and they take absolutely ages to deliver. So I could be waiting for them for a month. I can't stand it. Help! FH

cricket	04 Jun 2002
faunabay: Don't buy it yet!! Um.... unless it's too late. :D I've got it and will bring it by at some point in time for you to look at, along with the Vicytoria Regina if you want me to. Gives me an excuse to give in to the craving for Thai food. ;) Qulos: They might have used the scarecrow because of the song from the movie - "If I only had a brain" being his main line in it. IMO, the fool is the 'brainless' one, the one that hasn't learned a whole lot, and sort of fits.

catlin	04 Jun 2002
Ok, folks, some days ago I had a peep at the IC cards (I could not stand to order something for Jema without knowing what it is) and I liked the bold colours but, I still resisted as I want the Whimsical for myself, too but now you make me want both decks.

catlin	05 Jun 2002
My resistance did not last for long. I just ordered 2 Whimsicals (one for trade, one for me).

truthsayer	05 Jun 2002
you're not a weakiling, catlin! you are a proud member of an elite international chapter of tarot-holics! live long and prosper!

Jewel	05 Jun 2002
Well I resisted for almost a week (which is pretty good for me), but I just placed my order for the deck and for the book at Amazon ... Faunabay, I sent you a discount coupon so you can buy them too ;) *LOL* ...

The The Whimsical Tarot thread was originally posted on 13 May 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.