Haindl minors

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 01 May 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

f. silvestris	01 May 2004
I've just bought a Haindl, after a fair bit of dithering. I've used nothing but the Thoth for quite a while, and wanted to defamiliarise myself from the cards, and also to have a deck to do stuff outside my normal practice. Now, I'm very happy indeed with the Haindl majors, and don't have any problems with the eye on the back, but I'm getting much less than I'd have anticipated out of the minor cards: I'm especially not keen on the stones because they seem a lot less relevant to me than traditional discs/pentacles [ie: i live and work in a late capitalist state, the images to do with money, occupation etc. are actually relevant to me, the stones don't seem to mean a thing]. I suspect that this is largely a matter of my not getting the point - I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts on, or experience of, the deck. Felis.

Jewel-ry	01 May 2004
Hi there Felis, Do you have the books by Rachel Pollack which go with this deck? If you do then you probably already know that it is written from an environmental perspective. I think the theme seems to be more geared towards protecting the Earth and a kind of goodwill to all men angle, than anything else. I am studying this deck for the 78 week study and so I will be looking more at the minors in the coming weeks but if I have a chance in the next couple of days I will certainly have a look at those stones and see if I can come back and add any more! :)

contrascarpe	01 May 2004
I, too, had been hemming and hawing about this deck for so long. This past week I decided it needed to be in my collection before I put a temporary stop to my deck buying ways, hehe. Actually, I like the concept of stones over those with pentacles. Since the pentacles suit relates to earth, the stones are a nice departure IMHO. And it is not quite so obvious when you are doing a reading for the unitiated - in other words, I don't feel like someone is going to say "duh" when I mention that the coins or pentacles suit could mean finances, lol. Dan

punchinella	01 May 2004
I had this deck but sent it away on permanent 'loan' several months ago, to someone who needed it badly :) I really really really liked the suit of stones. After all, this is where gold originally comes from (& diamonds, & rubies, etc. etc. etc. as well . . . ) But on the other hand, the stones can mean so much more. As I recall, Rachel Pollack's book contributed vastly to my appreciation of these cards. I'm going to have to get the deck back sometime :D

f. silvestris	03 May 2004
Thanks so much for your thoughts. I think I've used the deck enough now to begin to get the point - the stones are, for want of a better word, holistic in their view of the material/earthly part of life, which isn't really how I've felt about it. I can scarcely complain, as I earn my living/support my family working for myself doing something reasonably engaging, and generally enjoy the life of the body, but I suppose I've tended to feel that the whole world represented by discs/pentacles is something that encroaches upon my existence, and which I have to make the best of, rather than being an integrated part of it. (Classic alienation!)

The Haindl minors thread was originally posted on 01 May 2004 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.