Exciting news about the Shapeshifter Tarot

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 14 Jun 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

EminemsAngelBaby	14 Jun 2004
Hi Everyone, I recently bought the Shapeshifter Tarot after some deeply insightful readings with it. I was really craving the deck and had a chance to read with it a couple of times with my friend who owns it too. The night I bought the deck I had a very intuitive experience. Earlier in the week I had had a reading with the deck where one card just didn't make sense in the context of the reading and my life. My friend and I played around with it a bit and nothing fit. Then we decided to just let it be and see what came of it. The card in question was God of Earth(Queen of Pentacles). That night I bonded very highly with the deck. Melded with it I like to say. It was just me, the deck, my music and a couple hours of bliss. I spent a long time just looking at each card in the deck. When I got to the Goddess of Earth(King of Pentacles)something spoke quietly within. "This is the card that fits into the position in your spread". Hmmm....I carried on with my melding and later on when finished with all the cards started reading the companion hand book. When I got to page 76 I discovered something very exciting. The court card correspondences to traditional decks are listed in a different way than the rest of the book. Seeker = Page Warrior = Knight God = King Goddess = Queen The rest of the book lists it backwards so when you look up the God Of Earth it lists the traditional correspondence as the Queen of Pentacles rather than the King of Pentacles. I was very intriqued by this and e-mailed DJ Conway on her website to ask her which way the courts were truly intended. She wrote back saying the list on page 76 was the way they were intended to be! This was really exciting for me cause the deck led me to it. It also made perfect sense in the context of my earlier reading. I was so excited about this I wanted to share!

Alissa	14 Jun 2004
Wow, I never knew that myself, and I've been working with this deck for a long time! I've always thought it their intention to switch the God for Queen and Goddess for King, as the book leads one to believe... ... shows where reading books will get ya, eh? (Somewhere I hear the spirit of Umbrae chuckling...)

WolfSpirit	14 Jun 2004
thanks for that info, EAB ! I also read the courts that way, simply because it did not make sense to me to do otherwise. It felt so weird to replace the king for the goddess. Nice to know that it was actually intended the way I have been doing it. As the shapeshifter is so different from my other decks, I read it more intuitively anyway. The only way I can work with this one.

tao51	14 Jun 2004
The elements of fire=swords and air=wands. I do find this deck useful. Also, it lends itself to intuitive readings. The King and Queen are reversed because the intetent of the deck is that all comes from the goddess. Therefore the Goddess is in the higher position.

EminemsAngelBaby	15 Jun 2004
Alissa, How has your work with the deck been? I know my friend is in a bit of a "tither":) about it now but has decided to work with it both ways and see which way works best for her. WolfSpirit, No problem! I felt the same way. I had already decided to go with my feelings on this and read with it this way no matter what the answer that came back. I love the Shapeshifter! Tao51 Yes, I wanted to point out the discrepancy in the book so others with the deck were aware of it. Page 76 which talks about the minors in general is the only page that lists the courts as God = King and Goddess = Queen. If you refer to the seperate court card pages in the rest of the book they reverse it with Gods being Queens, and Goddesses being Kings. I really wanted to know which way they were intended to be by the authors which led to my e-mailing DJ Conway.

Alice	20 Sep 2004
I have just been looking at what the book said and I felt about the card and not really considering how it related to the traditional cards. However when I was reading through one of the basic Tarot books I had I did notice that the meaning for the goddesses more fitted those of the queens than the kings. I am glad that this is the way it is meant to be.

Imagemaker	20 Sep 2004
Quote: the discrepancy in the book so others with the deck were aware of it. Page 76 which talks about the minors in general is the only page that lists the courts as God = King and Goddess = Queen. What an incredible mistake in the book! And how very cool that the deck corrected the card for you. Yet another verification that the cards Know The Truth, whatever anyone else says!

The Exciting news about the Shapeshifter Tarot thread was originally posted on 14 Jun 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.