Mantegna tarot for readings?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 24 Jul 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Eco74	24 Jul 2004
I have just spent some time with my Mantegna deck and laid out the solitaire in the LWB. I also looked through all the images in the deck and started thinking a bit. While I feel I could absolutely use this deck for myself, and for laying out "lifedirections" I'm not so sure about regular readings with specified questions. While this surely is a matter of getting aquainted with the cards and learning to interpret them I wanted to ask if anyone else here uses the Mantegna deck or other similar decks for readings. Just to see how common it might be.

darwinia	24 Jul 2004
No, I've never used it for readings. I like to use it like a story with characters and attributes, and I pick one card and use it for a spontaneous creative exercise. It's fairly easy if you pick someone like Calliope for instance. You could use a definition of psychology for inspiration, and write or draw something. Do something in a journal or do a reading with another deck based on a spread that uses psychological definitions for positions. make up your own spread even, using your favourite precepts from psychology as explanations for positions If you choose Music, you could put some particular music on and paint something. Pamela Colman Smith used to do this with her artwork. Think of them all, Polimnia deals with Aesthetics, Clio is Modernity, Grammatica is Memory or writing. The vitality and sensibility of the deck always pleases me and makes me think of associations for creativity. It is a tad more abstract to pull someone like the Servant or Merchant, but I often pair it up with a card from another deck and try to write something with the keyword in mind. Again, you could design your own reading using this as impetus. I've never felt that readings were so great and wise that you can't bypass them for a different approach. Primo Mobile! Celestial power and intuition gives you a nudge for the day. Where to go with that, what to do, you are limitless in imagination and the higher ideals of such Medieval philosophy and dimensions. Explore your humanity, grip the hand of Poesia and reach for the light of your own expressive and magical ideas. {Bumping into Fatalism, I am carried away to the clouds for a nap, having become overwrought at the thought of my proximity to Apollo.}

darwinia	24 Jul 2004
Here's another example. I bought these cards with poetry on them which I discussed in this thread: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?threadid=29108 So, today's quote is from "The World is Too Much With Us," written in 1807 by William Wordsworth. Great God!! I'd rather be a pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. According to the back of the card Wordsworth was fond of celebrating universal meaning and humanity's mysterious relationship with the Universe, and wanted to bind together the vastness of human society everywhere and in all time. Perfect for the Mantegna philosophy. So I pick a card from there and I pull #45 - Mars - "Vitality - Maintain enthusiasm and agressiveness." Very strangely, the card in the deck with the explanatory notes says "Hold back aggressiveness." Now I have the image of paganism and Proteus, Triton, and Mars. Aggression and non-aggression. War, vitality, myth, action and the way our modern world has for some time disregarded such imagery in our embracement of the rational and scientific. Roll with it. My first inclination would be to learn about Proteus and Triton and make some notes. Then I might wish to compare that with conventional tarot archetypes in a standard R-W type deck. This idea of Mars--look him up too, stick Gustav Holst's music of Mars from The Planets on your CD player and contemplate aggression and the Bringer of War. Imagine Proteus rising before you, Neptune's herdsman assumes the shape of Mars before you; ever-changing and admonishing you for your lack of vitality. Bind him and keep him from shifting, so he might tell you his secrets........

lunakasha	24 Jul 2004
Thanks for starting this thread Eco74....and I really enjoyed your post, darwinia.... I have had the Mantegna deck for a few months, I have tried the solitaire game in the LWB, and I am completely in awe of the beauty of these cards.....the only silver-foil deck that I am aware of (most foil decks are gold).... But I have yet to try a reading with them, and I am not sure why exactly. I do feel that they would be very intuitive to read with, and the fact that they do not closely follow the "tarot" structure does not bother me, since I enjoy oracles as much as tarot.... I would be very interested in hearing from others who have used the Mantegna in readings, and maybe ideas for spreads that would work specifically with this deck..... :) Luna

Eco74	24 Jul 2004
Now I have yet another addtion to my wishlist. My will this make it easy for my family this christmas. *giggles* *dashes off to sift through onlinestores for poetrycards*

darwinia	26 Jul 2004
Well, I was a bit disappointed with them when I first got the cards, simply because I thought they had illustrations or photos of the respective poets. They don't and I felt a drop in my heart for spending the money, like I'd been silly and foolish not to research them first. Then I thought, I'm not going to waste $15, so I have them by my computer to pick a card a day. I've already posted in other threads related to other things about these cards, and I ended up buying myself a couple of poetry books for my collection as a result. Slowly, they are worming their way into my affections. I can see that as well as the hoary old favourites they have some more obscure people and contemporary poets I like. Apart from two Shakespeare-related decks put out by the same company, there don't seem to be any decks with poetry. A true oversight and lack of vision. We have many, many contemporary poets that would be well-suited to such a deck. Even with the quotes from older poems that I have read many times, like Rudyard Kipling's "If," there's something about having a snippet highlighted on a card that seems fresh. Plus they have interesting information on the backs about the poets and the time period and/or circumstances that helped create the poem. One of those decks, whether playing card, oracle, or tarot, that seems rather plain but has a depth if you bother to take the time to look for it. They just tie-in so well with tarot, you can fit them with anything seemingly and rush off in a new direction. I was really lit up by the way they got me enthused about the Mantegna again. Lorca is calling to me across the years now......

The Mantegna tarot for readings? thread was originally posted on 24 Jul 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.