Haindl

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 21 Aug 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Frequency	21 Aug 2003
I'm finding this deck impossible to read with other people than myself. To me it's clear but when I try explaining readings to others my mind goes totaly blank. It looks like some of the cards totaly contradict each other when they are shown in a reading. I just don't understand why things aren't more clear... Has anyone else experienced this with the Haindl?

purplelady	21 Aug 2003
Perhaps the person you are reading for has contradicting thoughts or feelings? Or maybe the deck only wants you to read for yourself?

MystiqueMoonlight	22 Aug 2003
I had the Haindl and found the exact same phenomenon. IMO it is quite the "spiritual" deck, it has this kind of "behind the scenes" essence about it. What you may discover through further use of the Haindl deck is that you won't exactly get the response for your querent as you hope to. For example; your querent may ask something as basic as "will the rift between my boyfriend and I mend?" Now you may expect a virtual yes or no response with perhaps some details about her boyfriend. But what is most likely to occur with the Haindl deck is it will detail the problems this girl may be having with her own insecurity, self image, self conscious, anger management or what ever. The reading will go on more about her than the directly answering the question. This can be very easy to overlook when you are searching for the type of reading you think your querent wants to receive. (I say type of "reading" here not type of "response") Be confident, relax, drink in the cards' images and allow them to speak to you. :)

Khatruman	22 Aug 2003
I think Mystique hit it on the head with the Haindl being a spiritual, and perhaps a more archetypal deck. Being a tarotist, and, I am assuming, somewhat more of a deep thinker, you must find that the Haindl certainly connects on that deep unconscious level. However, when dealing with a querent who is more or less a stranger, you don't have the depth of insight to speak the unspeakable, and the querent most likely doesn't have the depth of knowledge of the deck to draw out those deep meanings herself. It would be an interesting experiment to see how well the Haindl works with another tarotist, and if it is more effective than with a regular querent.

Frequency	22 Aug 2003
Well I did a reading for someone today and it went a lot more easily. I am pretty confident that I gave an accurate reading. I guess it will just take some time to get used to it. I've tried giving readings to tarot readers and they weren't succesful. One of them even had the deck herself, and she made sense of it but not me :(

Cerulean	22 Aug 2003
Don't be hard on yourself. I'm not certain if you meant your card pull for me...it was great that you did it, because I couldn't pull anything for myself the night after a class...and I had a new large Thoth deck. But after your reading, I received the Via tarot and was able to start doing Thoth and Via comparisons. I also am probably one of the few that likes keywords from my Thoth deck with other Thoth like decks... Another thing that helped was Rachel Pollack's Illustrated Guide to the Tarot. She has court cards and other pictures from the Haindl, Thoth and other tarots side by side in many examples. So I started doing my own comparisons...and I felt more attuned to my Thoth and Via. Since I usually work with Italian reproduction decks of the 19th century, I was kinda stuck until after your card pull. So you never know what you inspire, even if you are learning. It encouraged me when I was stuck. Much thanks and my best wishes on your evolving goals and help! Mari H.

lawguy51	22 Aug 2003
I spent a couple of months reading Pollack's books on the Haindl and getting to know the deck and I never even attempted to use it to read for others so bravo for even attempting it. Even using it for my own readings left me frustrated. But then someone in the forum suggested I move on to the Thoth deck and I've been there ever since. So, if the Haindl is working for you personally, then I suggest sticking with it and experimenting more with reading for others. Myself, I usually travel with two decks, the Thoth and either my Universal Waite deck or Alchemical Tarot deck, just in case someone else wants a reading, because I don't feel comfortable using the Thoth with others. Precisely because of the comments above. Sometimes simple questions require simpler decks imho. Lawguy51

Trogon	26 Aug 2003
This was interesting to read. I have found the Haindl Tarot to be relatively easy to use for others, but more difficult to use for readings on myself. One thing I have found - it seems to give the best readings when I use it for readings where a person (or myself) needs to really explore the deep things in our minds. I don't get light, frivolous readings with this deck. Probably the artwork....

The Haindl thread was originally posted on 21 Aug 2003 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.