Old English Tarot

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 28 Jun 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Moongold	28 Jun 2002
Hello dear Colleagues, Does anyone know if there is a guide to this deck? I acquired one by accident and like the gentle art work. I guess I would like to hear Maggie Kneen speak about her work. I find the deck entrancing because it makes me think a lot more about each card and draw on my very new knowledge of Tarot symbolism. There are some obvious parallels between different decks. The Seven of Swords in Rider Waite, the Mythic Tarot, the Witches Tarot and the Old English all show clusters of swords although in differing contexts. The Old English is the most obscure to me in terms of meaning however, possible because people are not so evident. The Seven of Swords in the Old English Tarot speaks more of enmeshed, and entrenched patterns or a person who values order. In the other decks, there is a sense of people 'doing' something with the Swords. I'd love to know if anyone has written about this deck. I saw some earlier posts about it here. Moongold

MeeWah	29 Jun 2002
Moongold: I have been drawn to this deck ever since I saw some of its cards & have looked for information on it. Unfortunately, there is apparently no book, just the LWB. I still plan on purchasing it from Tarot Garden. There is a review of Old English at: www.artoftarot.com/oldenglis.htm Webpress Tarot Reader is a website that uses the deck on free readings: www.webpresspro.com/tarot

Starfish	29 Jun 2002
What lovely cards in the Old English deck - the colors are so soft in color. I'm not normally drawn to the "old" style looking cards, but am off to go and order it! :TFOOL Starfish

wavebreaker	29 Jun 2002
I bought this deck because I loved the artwork. I don't use it for readings though, it somehow doesn't work for me. But I do look through it every now and then, just to enjoy the beautiful pictures and I also use it for spells.

Starfish	29 Jun 2002
Quote: Originally posted by tarotlady But I do look through it every now and then, just to enjoy the beautiful pictures and I also use it for spells. Can you recommend a good book that deals with learning how to do this? :TFOOL Starfish

Keslynn	29 Jun 2002
Quote: Originally posted by Starfish Can you recommend a good book that deals with learning how to do this? :TFOOL Starfish Do you mean spells that use tarot cards? If so, then you should check out Tarot Spells by Janina Renee. You can find copies of it pretty cheap on eBay and probably also half.com. It's a good book with interesting ideas. I haven't delved into it too much yet but I plan to try some of them. I can also see that it provides a lot of jumping off points so you can make your own rituals, etc. :) Kes

Starfish	29 Jun 2002
Quote: Originally posted by Keslynn Do you mean spells that use tarot cards? If so, then you should check out Tarot Spells by Janina Renee. You can find copies of it pretty cheap on eBay and probably also half.com. It's a good book with interesting ideas. I haven't delved into it too much yet but I plan to try some of them. I can also see that it provides a lot of jumping off points so you can make your own rituals, etc. Cool! Thanks Kes. I'm off to check out some sites. This is something I have wanted to read up on for a while. :TFOOL Starfish

Umbrae	29 Jun 2002
I love this deck. I use it though, for older ladies who do not want to see “bad cards”. It reads just like a RW, or Marseilles. If you have to think about card meanings I cannot recommend it (learn to read with a Marseilles first).

purplelady	29 Jun 2002
Are you Sure the older ladies don't want to see "bad" cards?

Moongold	29 Jun 2002
Quote: Originally posted by MeeWah Moongold: I have been drawn to this deck ever since I saw some of its cards & have looked for information on it. Unfortunately, there is apparently no book, just the LWB. I still plan on purchasing it from Tarot Garden. There is a review of Old English at: www.artoftarot.com/oldenglis.htm I couldn't open this page today but will go back to it. Webpress Tarot Reader is a website that uses the deck on free readings: www.webpresspro.com/tarot Thank you for this reference. I visited the page and found it very useful to see the interpretations.

Moongold	05 Jul 2002
Hello Friends, I was given some more very helpful information about the Old English Tarot on another web site which will most likely be of interest to those of you here who are interested in this deck. Many thanks to Christine! "Hello Moongold! There seems to be no separate book besides the LWB which comes in the box with the cards, but you can ask your library to get ahold of the book _Mirror In Parchment_, which is about the Lutrell manuscript where Maggie Kneen got her inspiration. This book also can be purchased at Amazon, either singly or as a collection with another book about the life and times of the peasants living around an English manor in the 1200's, which is the provenance of this manuscript. There is a great chapter in _Mirror in Parchment_ about how the clerics who were translating the Bible made up all kinds of little demons and elemental beings, the product of their fertile imaginations as they excised the sense from the antique Greek and Latin to be cut-and-fitted into Old English. One can see these little demons outside the formal margins of each page, and in some places on the Old English Tarot Kneen has carried them over to the cards. It is very revealing to realize that at this time in Europe, there was a very strong suspician that images were inherantly magical, and of course we know they believed that words were too. I got the feeling that these translators felt themselves wrestling with the *living sense* of the Holy Word, and then trying to fit letters and syllables back onto the divine Ideas in the "modern tongue" of Old English, which had not even become a standardized language yet. No wonder they imagined that the word-snippets which got lost in the translation would wiggle towards each other at the margins of the pages and hook up in amusing or bizarre ways! I got a lot of mileage out of the book even though it does not talk about Tarot at all. You would get a *much* better sense of what you are looking at in the deck, especially if you sprung for the 2-book set at Amazon. This is not ~ just ~ a beautiful piece of art! I hope that helps -- Christine

Umbrae	05 Jul 2002
Quote: Originally posted by purplelady Are you Sure the older ladies don't want to see "bad" cards? Some do, some do not. I admit to using a hasty generalization, however I do believe you yourself know the type, and understand the context. On the other hand, it is not a deck to use for Goth Gurls.

Moongold	21 Jun 2003
This was the third deck I ever purchased. It is not the kind of deck a new person would use. The Majors are illustrated but the Minors are not in a meaningful way and I think you need some understanding of elements and numerology to be able to use the deck. I picked it up again a few weeks ago and have been using it for personal readings just lately. I really love it. Because the Minors are not illustrated it is easier to let other interpretations come to mind. Does anyone else use it?

Mimers	21 Jun 2003
Moongold, Yes I use it often. I too prefer the non illustrated Pips, and the artwork is lovely. I find this deck very easy to read with. Love it! I think it is definitely based on the Marseilles type decks, with just a little illustrations on the PIPs. I am not too keen on the cups illustrations, though. Why do you think she chose grapes to portray the cup suit? Mimers

The Old English Tarot thread was originally posted on 28 Jun 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.