Whimsical Deck

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 26 Oct 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

bodhran	26 Oct 2004
Just got the Whimsical deck yesterday, and my daughter and I had a great time going though it trying to figure out what fairy tale, nursery rhyme or story the pictures were from. We're stumped on a few of them: The High Priestess The World The Hanged One Ten of Rods Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks, Bodhran

annik	26 Oct 2004
The High Priestess : Isn't the typical fairy godmother? The World : another fairy? In the book, they say it's the good witch of the Oz story but I am not terribly knowledgeble in that story... The Hanged One : I only know a story of a girl in greek mythology that was fleeing somebody and got caught in a net but forgot about the name... In the book, they say it's the fishwife in the story of The little Gold Fish but I think I never heard of that story... Ten of Rods : In the book, they say it's the Princess in The Goose Girl. I don't know if it's the same Goose Girl story that I know of...

RedMaple	27 Oct 2004
The World Card is Glynda the Good Witch - she's in the Bubble that she travels in - remember the movie? The High Priestess definitely looks like the Fairy God Mother, particularly in the Cinderella story. The 10 of Rods reminded me of the princess in the story about the Swan Brothers, where she takes on the burden of silence, plus knitting new skins for all of her brothers who've been turned into swans. I'm not familiar with a Goose Girl story that fits the picture, but I'm curious now and will look it up. The Hanged One - I wondered about this one also. Is this the story of the woman who wants more and more, isn't content with the little fish who gives her wishes, and ends up back where she started? Or is another story? I love this deck. Hope to find out more about these stories. I didn't know there was a book. Is it worth getting?

horoskope88	27 Oct 2004
I have the companion book for the Whimsical deck here... the HIgh Priestess: the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella The World: Glynda the Good Witch of the South the Hanged One: the Fishwife from "the Little Gold Fish" 10 of Rods: the Princess from "the Goose Girl" The deck's artwork is very charming, however personally I thought some of the cards weren't thought out very well, almost a stretch to fit the cards' meaning, or else a very "shallow" assignment. For example, the Chariot depicts Cinderella's Chariot...there's the chariot in the image...but what does it have to do with the Tarot Chariot? Or assigning the Queen of Swords to Little Red Riding Hood. The author describes her as a master of self-defense, and yet...in the story Riding Hood didn't have any sense of stranger-danger. I could just be going on about nothing...

raeanne	27 Oct 2004
Hi all, Here's the Tarotpassages web site that lists all the fairy tales for each card: http://www.tarotpassages.com/whimsicaldw.htm

fairyhedgehog	27 Oct 2004
You might also like to see some other threads on this, they are listed here. Some of us had trouble working out the stories on some of the cards, and we discussed them previously, and one thread gave the text of the 'Winken, Blinken and Nod' poem. If you get any ideas from those threads you could either revive one of them, or just post your thoughts again here :) Oh, and I found the text of some of the more obscure stories by googling for them.

bodhran	28 Oct 2004
Thanks everyone for your input. Had a great time going back through the deck now that I can connect the cards to the stories/characters. The Whimsical is a sweet deck, especially if you have children who are interested in tarot as I do. Of course I love the Hanson-Roberts too, so I couldn't help but be attracted to the Whimsical. Bodhran

The Whimsical Deck thread was originally posted on 26 Oct 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.