Dutch decks?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 23 Sep 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

catlin	23 Sep 2003
Some friends of mine want to go on a trip to the Netherlands and have asked if they can bring me something and maybe one or two new decks would be interesting so I wonder if there are any Dutch decks out there a taroholic has to have. Any ideas?

wavebreaker	23 Sep 2003
The "Tarot in de Herstelde Orde" (Tarot in the Restored Order) is the most famous one, and can be found in most bookshops. It's an attempt by the maker (Onno Docters van Leeuwen) to "restore" the tarot to what he thinks is its original order. I don't really believe in it ;), but it's an interesting deck. Unfortunately, the accompanying book is only available in Dutch. De artwork of the deck isn't very special. The minors are pretty much copied from the Rider Waite. The majors differ, sometimes a little bit, sometimes a great deal. And the order of the majors has been changed ("restored"), plus two majors have been added.

catlin	23 Sep 2003
Sounds interesting, tarotlady. I guess one needs the book to understand why he has changed the order of the Majors. Hm, Dutch is related to German, maybe I should give it a try then. Any more suggestions?

wavebreaker	23 Sep 2003
Quote: Originally posted by catlin I guess one needs the book to understand why he has changed the order of the Majors. Hm, Dutch is related to German, maybe I should give it a try then. Yes, you do need the book for that. I have just the deck right now and the LWB (which is more like a leaflet) doesn't say anything about it, except "buy the book" ;). I will be getting the book second-hand from someone, so hopefully I can tell you more about it then. You could try and get the book yourself, but it's rather expensive (something like €36).

catlin	23 Sep 2003
Pheh, that's too expensive for a book I am not sure to understand. I'd better let my friend search for an only deck version and hope I will get along with it.

Gerbear	23 Sep 2003
How about the Praktische Tarot, De Grote Arcana van Doetie Spinder, or The Tarot van Nu? All are still in print.

HudsonGray	23 Sep 2003
Dutch may be related to German, but it's unreadable (I had some German classes, but couldn't read ANYTHING in the newspaper clippings a pen pal sent me from Holland--she's an Australian who moved to Holland so she understood the problems too). There's a way around the language barrier--either find someone who speaks Dutch to translate OR go to one of those translation sites & type in the book, paragraph by paragraph & use that as translator. You can cut & paste the answers into a word doc & print that out after going over it. There are a couple of translator sites online, try paragraphs on several of them to see which seems to work better. They won't be 100% accurate, but you'll at least get the major stuff into English.

wavebreaker	23 Sep 2003
It's a BIG book, 400+ pages, so finding someone to translate it for you will be difficult. It has to be someone with a lot of time on their hands and who is crazy enough to do all that work for nothing. I'm a translator, and I wouldn't do that... ;) And those translation sites are fine for grasping the meaning of a simple text, but they are completely useless for more profound texts, especially on a very specific subject such as tarot. I would say they would be about 25% accurate, if you're lucky... Apart from that, typing in the whole book will take you a few weeks. ;)

HudsonGray	23 Sep 2003
Well.....it was an option. There's not many when you don't speak or read a different language. Oh well.

wavebreaker	24 Sep 2003
Quote: Originally posted by HudsonGray Well.....it was an option. There's not many when you don't speak or read a different language. Maybe if enough people ask for a translation at the publisher's? If there is enough demand, they might have it translated. But that only works when the demand is pretty big, something that I suppose will be difficult for a subject like tarot... By the time I get my copy of the book (I don't know when that will be), I will try and make a summary of the theory behind the "restoring" and post it here somewhere, if people are interested.

catlin	24 Sep 2003
Thanx a bunch guys. Now I have to check out the suggested decks and get an idea which ones I absolutely need for the collection :) :)

The Dutch decks? thread was originally posted on 23 Sep 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.