decks you love, but can't read...

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 28 Oct 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

dolphinprincess	28 Oct 2003
I just read a post that made me think of this question... Have you ever gotten a deck that you really loved in every way, but try as you might, could not read with it?.. Mine was the Fey Tarot. I adored the artwork in this deck, but no matter how many cards I drew, they didn't make any sense to me... (*if there is already a thread on this topic, feel free to delete..)

baba-prague	28 Oct 2003
I think I've said before, I have trouble with the Victoria Regina. Which is a shame, as it's a really well done and beautiful deck. It's the courts that throw me - too many British Royals (okay, I am Irish/British so maybe it all has too many associations of our own dear Charles etc ;-) ) but also just too many of the cards are Prince Albert (why oh why?) I know one person can have different aspects, but it does throw me in readings. I haven't tried reading with VR for months (in fact, I haven't done any readings with any cards for about a month) so maybe I should give it another shot. I feel exactly as you described - frustrated because I do love the deck, but just know I have trouble getting decent readings from it. However, this is just me! I'm sure others read well with VR.

Astraea	28 Oct 2003
For me, it's Navigators of the Mystic Sea. I feel as if I'm looking through a glass door into a world of riches, but I can't go inside (this, in spite of an appreciation for qabbala).

Chronata	28 Oct 2003
Mine is the Tarot Maddonni. I really like this deck...I think the artwork is fun, slightly frivolous, and whimsical. I would never think of getting rid of this deck, but I absolutely can not read with it...for some bizarre reason. Tarot decks, for me, are tools. And I can divine with leaves and stones and coffee grounds, as well as almost any other tarot deck...but I just can not read with this one! (Who knows...maybe if I respected it more, and stopped calling it frivolous, it might give me real answers...) And then there's the New Vision...but that's a different story for a whole 'nother thread...

WolfSpirit	28 Oct 2003
The Shapeshifter tarot - in a way. When I got this deck, I did not have much experience with standard decks so I found this deck not so different and used it. Then as I learnt more about other decks I could not work with this one any more. Those extra majors, different images, different courts... I recently picked it up again, but I just looked at the images and what they said to me, not looking at the keywords or the number or suit, so I use as a non-tarot oracle deck now, purely intuitive.

lark	28 Oct 2003
I have actually looked at these with a magnifying glass. Oh my kingdom for Luigi Scapini to write a book on this deck. There's so many cards I just don't get. Even with his LWB explination I'm still left scratching my head. Nameste

Red Emma	28 Oct 2003
For me it's also Shapeshifter. I bought it a couple of years ago. When it arrived I eagerly tore its wrappings off, and worked with it for several days. The things it tells me are major bizarre, and don't speak to anything in my life. At all! I haven't touched it for more than a year, and lately I've been thinking I'd try it again. But I just haven't found the courage as yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Mimers	28 Oct 2003
Brian Williams Renaissance Tarot. Soooo beautiful, but nothing but blanks. Just traded it. Also the William Blake Tarot.

cjtarot	28 Oct 2003
Hi, I loved the artwork of the Celtic Dragon...JUST LOVED IT..but opened it and relized..it is def. not a deck I can read. I traded it..I should try to get it back.. Someday CJ

Emily	29 Oct 2003
For me decks I love but can't read with would have to include :- The Victoria Regina - I can pinpoint why I can't use this deck - its the use of rifles instead of swords, it just doesn't feel right. The deck is very masculine in feel, its also very large - the black and white is ok, this deck would be over-powering in colour, the cards are white, even the backs and show up every little smudge - I still like the artwork but haven't tried to read with it in a long time. Another deck that I love but can't actually read with is the Spiral, this was my special deck for a while and one day I just drew a blank and that special connection never came back. And yet I love everything about this deck, the colours, the size (it made a lovely travelling deck), the Rider Waite symbolism, the stories that feature on the cards - its a very intense deck, especially the Majors and even the Minors give a different slant to the traditional but once the connection had been broke it never came back. I still keep this deck and get it out occasionally but I don't try to read with it now.

scheherazade	29 Oct 2003
The Cosmic Tribe Tarot has beautiful digital art, not to mention bold and sexual. I have absolutely nothing against those two things, but when it comes to reading... I have to have a certain calmness of mind. And the wild expressions of the characters in the deck that always scream of sexual ecstasy, well... they don't ever do much to calm a person.

bangbang	01 Nov 2003
For me : Nefertari's Crystal

Rusty Neon	01 Nov 2003
Quote: Originally posted by bangbang For me : Nefertari's Me too. I have the same problem with the LS Tarot of the Sphinx (which has the same images as the Neferatari but mirror-reversed). The pip card conception is RWS-based but with the actual images taken from Egyptian art. My sense is that the artist who did the deck just looked for similar imagery, without have really thought about or studied the Egyptian art's symbolism. Because of this a full-blown book isn't merited, but it would have been nice to have more indications in the LWB to give us an idea of what the artist was thinking when she was creating the individual cards.

Mystic Zyl	01 Nov 2003
Elemental, my dear Watson.

Marion	01 Nov 2003
Victoria Regina for me as well. I find this deck very attractive but have never gotten a good (understandable) reading with it. I did a 'new deck reading' when I first got it, and the reading was so overwhelmingly negative that maybe that's why.

baba-prague	02 Nov 2003
I actually feel almost guilty towards the Victoria Regina. It might make you laugh to hear this, but I am terribly aware that spreads with it LOOK very beautiful. There is a real antique and almost mysterious feeling to the spread once it's laid out, and I feel it should be deeply meaningful (and it probably is). But can I read it well? No. Ah well, maybe one day it'll click with me. By the way, I'll also throw in that I can't read with my precious Canosa deck. But this is because I am afraid to! I have to get over this, because although it's very valuable (I got it direct from the artist so didn't pay the usual price - but it was still more than I've paid for any deck) I don't want to simply have it sitting on a shelf. But every time I almost get it out I feel like I have to buy white gloves or something before handling it. Does anyone else have a deck so precious that they feel they can't read with it? I ask this with a kind of ironic smile because I never imagined myself having this reaction!

Astraea	02 Nov 2003
Quote: Originally posted by baba-prague I'll also throw in that I can't read with my precious Canosa deck. But this is because I am afraid to! I have to get over this, because although it's very valuable (I got it direct from the artist so didn't pay the usual price - but it was still more than I've paid for any deck) I don't want to simply have it sitting on a shelf. But every time I almost get it out I feel like I have to buy white gloves or something before handling it. Does anyone else have a deck so precious that they feel they can't read with it? I actually have this reaction to several decks, and it makes me tear my hair but I can't seem to get over it! The Universal Dali is one, and Le Tarot Ambre is another. It's nice when a deck is either in print and/or affordable, as one can then (as finances permit) have a reading copy, and an "archival" version, LOL.

Woof	02 Nov 2003
Victoria Regina for me, too. Woof

Rusty Neon	02 Nov 2003
Quote: Originally posted by scheherazade The Cosmic Tribe Tarot has beautiful digital art, not to mention bold and sexual. I have absolutely nothing against those two things, but when it comes to reading... I have to have a certain calmness of mind. And the wild expressions of the characters in the deck that always scream of sexual ecstasy, well... they don't ever do much to calm a person. I see what you mean about needing to have a calmness of mind. A deck that I've wanted to buy on many occasions but have always changed my mind on, is the Kazanlar Tarot deck. It's colourfulness and wealth of varied details would certainly be distracting if one would want to use it for reading with. I felt somewhat dizzy while looking at the sample cards at the store. The fact that the images don't follow RWS imagery doesn't help either in this case. Calmness of mind is the last thing that the Kazanlar would instill in me. :)

bangbang	02 Nov 2003
Another bad deck for readings is the Eclectic. I've used it 3 times with very negative outcomes, I don´t want to use it anymore for it.

wolfen045	02 Nov 2003
My rare deck that I can't read with is the Poet's tarot. The black and white line drawings and the verse on the reverses just don't inspire me enough. The current/new deck I cannot read with is the Ramses tarot . I love it but the imagry is too rich with figures to be easily read. Blessings, wolfen

bangbang	05 Nov 2003
For some reason also Tavaglione´s deck are difficult for me eventhough I like them..

Majecot	05 Nov 2003
Shapeshifter! When I first started, that was the most beautiful deck in my mind and I had to have it. I was very very new to Tarot and it was impossibley confusing to me. I still think the deck is beautiful and I still love the images, but I don't know that I am ready for it yet, and since I no longer have that deck, well... I guess I will have to go shopping again for it :) . Unfortunately I let myself get discouraged by it untill I found Legend-Arthurian, Which was still difficult for me but I stuck with that one. And of course, I am STILL learning :)

Cerulean	05 Nov 2003
I puzzle over the more sturdy coated A. Picini deck, which has human silhouettes and graphic coloring and design.. and.a very strange series of meanings which make me want to make up my own! The graphics were probably over the top in the 1980s, but really are mild now. Please indulge me, as my favorite Italian decks that I've saved for over the years are also mentioned here... Comments on Canosa, Scapini, Tavaglione...and Manly Hall of Knapp Hall Tarot... 1. I agree, I don't handle my Canosa often. The Pier Canosa Tarot is patterned after the Oswald Wirth majors. Some "Italianate" art decks circa the 1970's and 80s seemed to treat the minors more like a 56-card offshoot of a bridge/poker deck and so the courts and minors are likely decorative, even though symbolic and fit into the general theme...the Tarocchi Duomo Siena is like this in the courts and and minors, although the art theme is totally different. Yes, I like to browse my Oswald Wirth once in awhile to pick up more information... 2. Scapini I understood the Scapini more after I played with the Romeo and Juliet tarocchi, but they are both so witty and shiny in their own right, it takes me awhile to settle into liking them. I'm finding his Stained Glass Tarot a little more accessible and a very pretty deck. Stuart Kaplan seems to have asked both Scapini and Tavaglione to make 'medieval-style' decks for his U.S. audience. I wish he had encouraged a great English translation in Scapini's booklet similar to the Dal Negro editions of Scapini's work. 3. Tavaglione I understand people look at his Stairs of Gold and Enoil Gavat as really detailed and perhaps they dislike the emphasis on human bodies. I would say he gives equal emphasis to men and women overall and his Stairs of Gold is actually 'restrained' in comparison to other decks. I've also been looking at his Mantegna pamphlet and his Celesta Portal/Stella or Tarot of the Stars. He's one of the few designer/esoteric thinkers that seem to have studied the Mantegna, Etteilla, Astrology, Golden Dawn and various world religions as well as traditional Italian/Continental divinatory meanings. 4. I'm still learning more about what Manly P. Hall wrote about in tarot from Secrets of All the Ages (Readers Edition) and his Tarot: An Essay. He did something that I like and find similar to Tavaglione: he observed and studied the Tarocchi di Mantegna and other world religions, at least from what was known in his time period. Manly P. Hall wrote from the 20s to the 30s in the 1900s, I think...Tavaglione seems to have been both a designer and scholar up through the 1980s. And given that so much time has passed since then, especially with photographic and really over-the-top human figure tarots, I judge the Tavaglione more in a style that reminds me of history...crowded Italian allegorical frescos and the so-called Mantegna emphasis on Greco-Roman body types, which are supposed to be attractive to the student. Thanks for letting me discuss my favorite beautiful decks! Mari H.

Icestorm	08 Nov 2003
Russian Tarot of St. Peterburg... Beautiful deck that gives terrible, terrible readings... It is now firmly gathering dust in the corner of my library shelf.

CompassRose	08 Nov 2003
Not a Tarot deck, but Brian Froud's Faerie deck. I love to look at it, but I am not ... I don't know ... intuitive enough, willing enough to let go of my left brain, to use it for reading. Beautiful, though. I don't ADORE the Haindl, but I do wish I could use it. There is so much going on in those cards, but like the Thoth (which also, I suppose, belongs here -- don't adore it, but wish I understood it) it doesn't speak my language. Deck I love completely and utterly and can't read with --yet (I hope), the Margarete Petersen. I am working very hard on it, though.

Jen	09 Nov 2003
1. The Fantastical Tarot I love the artwork and the card backings, but the characters look so sad or upset that I can't get a good reading. Writing this post makes me want to give it another try though. 2. The Shapeshifter I've never been able to read well with cards that have keywords becuase my logical side engages as soon I as I see that keyword and my intuitive side becomes obscured. But I love the flowing style of the shapeshifter artwork and thought I may be able to use this deck only for myself doing straight intuitive readings. So far its been much more difficult than I imagined. But I'm not giving up on this one yet.

Strange2	10 Nov 2003
The Margarete Petersen deck is such a beauty... but so far I have not been able to use it effectively as a primary reading deck, due to the visual ambiguities of the minor cards. I do like to use MP as a comparative deck (first perform a reading using another deck, then pull the same cards from MP as a comparison), as it often launches my associations with the cards into unique areas. I'm also a little bit leary of putting wear and tear on the MP deck, since it is both beautiful and expensive!

Alex	15 Nov 2003
It's a challenge to read with, very distracting. But original, I like it. Alex.

CompassRose	15 Nov 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Strange2 I'm also a little bit leary of putting wear and tear on the MP deck, since it is both beautiful and expensive! This thought also crossed my mind when I opened the box. I kicked it out :) as part of my new No More Free Storage policy. I'm a hoarder. I keep Stuff. My attic, my basement, every hole and corner have historically been full of Stuff, stuff that MIGHT be useful one day, or stuff that is Too Nice to Use Every Day, or Stuff I Don't Like but It's Good Expensive Stuff.... What is it doing? Gathering dust is what it's doing. Maybe one day my estate would get use out of it, selling the now-fabulously-valuable tchotchkes on the future equivalent of EBay... Bah, humbug. No more free storage here. If it's good enough to keep, it gets used, darnitall! We eat off the "good china" these days. I traded away most of the Tarot decks I had "because they were nice decks" and the ones I've kept are going to get used, and deal with it. Heh. Sorry. Completely unconnected rant. Well, not completely, because my standard for KEEPING a deck was "even if I can't read it now, will I want to someday?" So I kept, for instance, my Thoth and Haindl decks, for study purposes.

Indigo Rose	18 Nov 2003
There are 2 decks that I love for different reasons, but I just find it so hard to read with them. 1) Victoria Regina: I love antiques and the Victorian Era artwork so I find some of these cards are as fitting as an old pair of shoes. My 2 favorites are the High Priestess and The Moon. BEAUTIFUL!! I wouldn't mind having large portraits of these framed. Yet, for many of the cards I just don't "feel" it and my readings are not enriching. 2) Tarot of the Ages. I love that it is multi-racial and incorporates diversity in our origins; however, I have a hard time reading with it. It feels that TOO much energy is placed on the racial component, and the races are segregated in this deck. To me the ideal is a deck with an interracial society represented. Also where the focus is more on the JOURNEY of humanity as a whole, not just the origins.

Umbrae	18 Nov 2003
I love to read with the VR! St. Petersburg reads great for me...Scapini medieval reads okay. But the Tantric or the Kashmir – unreadable IMO.

bangbang	18 Nov 2003
Hey Umbrae. Do you own a Kashmir , How did you get it and for how much ? if you don´t mind. I think I´d use gloves to touch if I had one, that´s my dream deck... Umm. Think of trading it??

CastleRock	23 Nov 2003
I can't read with Thoth. It was my first deck(I know... bad choice for first deck) and I love the art. However, I still haven't gotten the hang of tarot yet, in general, so this deck is particularly hard to read.

The decks you love, but can't read... thread was originally posted on 28 Oct 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.