Do different decks have different meanings.

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 16 Jan 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Mokey	16 Jan 2005
Do the meanings of the cards change with different decks. I am currently using an 1JJ Swiss deck but am finding it hard because im new to tarot and there are no real descriptive pictures on the suit cards so i have bought the universal waite deck to learn with. I have noticed that everone uses different decks and was wondering if different decks have different meanings. I apologise if this is an obvious question but i have just started learning so have loads to find out. XXXX

cjtarot	16 Jan 2005
hi, Start by learning the card using the book meaning, every deck has the same book meanings. The pictures may change (the authors attempt to convay the meaning in his or her own way). BUT After you learn the book meaning, toss the book and go by what you see in the picture in relation to where the card is in the spread (the location meaning). WHat you will find is every deck reads differently and you may even find out that a single card in the deck can have 2 different meanings depending on the person you are reading for. I started by making a cheet sheet (from the book). then eventually going by what I see. Good reading Cj

Fudugazi	16 Jan 2005
Welcome to Tarot! One card in one deck will have many different layers of meaning - learning will help you access the right one in a reading - it will depend very much on surrounding cards. If you are working with the Swiss, as the pips don't have figures on them, you need to learn to use the numbers and sequence , and compare it with the corresponding Majors number, the quality of the suit, and other cards (look at the threads on Marseille, especially the Let's Marseille reading exchanges - it is the same kind of system). So, for example, you get a 3 of cups - 3 is the number of Empress - expansion, female-type authority, linked with strong creativity - and cups relate to emotion and spirituality. So the 3 of cups here (depending on the other cards around) could mean a creative expansion into an area that we invest a lot of emotion into. You could be writing a poem, or having a baby! But 3 is also related to 13, Death, so will suggest change. You could be shedding some dead emotional weight and feel suddenly free, so that your heart opens up to something new (out of the balance and duality of the two, before the emotional stability of the four). A discussion of the layers of card meanings is at: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=36055 pages 2 and 3 (make sure you read jmd's description on page 3, very good as ever). There are also other threads on the different decks, different meanings theme, if you do a search.

Rusty Neon	16 Jan 2005
Helvetica wrote: But 3 is also related to 13, Death, so will suggest change. Depends on what method of reduction one uses, albeit the reduction system that Helvetica alludes to may make the more sense than the theosophic addition method especially in the case of Roman numerals which more commonly seen on antique tarot cards than Arabic numbers: XIII, chop off the X and you get III. However, for readers thinking in terms of Arabic numbers (regardless of whether the numbers on the cards are Roman or Arabic), 3 could also be related to 12 Hanged Man if the method of theosophic addition is used to reduce two digit numbers. 12 = 1+2 = 3.

Fudugazi	16 Jan 2005
Rusty Neon wrote: However, for readers thinking in terms of Arabic numbers (regardless of whether the numbers on the cards are Roman or Arabic), 3 could also be related to 12 Hanged Man if the method of theosophic addition is used to reduce two digit numbers. 12 = 1+2 = 3. Absolutely! which gives us yet another layer of meaning for the same card.

Diana	16 Jan 2005
I think different Tarot decks have different meanings, because they are given different meanings by their creators. Which is why I rarely offer my views in the Your Readings section, because most of the time, I don't know the decks that people are using. As to the different layers, I refer you to this old thread of Holmes: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=7849

tarotbear	16 Jan 2005
Mokey wrote: Do the meanings of the cards change with different decks? XXXX The meaning of the cards change with EVERY READING - not just with different decks! Let me explain my way out of that statement ... There is no one set meaning for any card, despite what you may get told. Yes, in my book I give card meanings, but my personal views change with every reading I do as I seek to apply the meaning of the card to the reading being done. When I teach class, I try to get my students to understand the concept that learning tarot is not like learning 'Five Easy Pieces' that go with every card. If you go to Louis' book "Tarot Made Simple" and look up a card you will find dozens and dozens of words (too many sometimes). There is no way to memorize them, and even if you could, none of them may apply to the cards laid out in front of you at the moment. The meaning of a card changes with the placement of the card in a spread, and most often is affected by the question. If you only learned that - for example- the Three of Cups signifies 'a healing' - how would you apply that to the Querent who wants to know about a financial outcome? You become a 'spin-doctor' who calls on their experience to know that the card can represent a celebration or great happiness or something that ties into financial sucesss - not about healing of illness. No card can every mean the exact same thing twice. However, you have to start somewhere! Just don't tie yourself down to any one meaning or any one interpretation and you will be fine.

Rosanne	16 Jan 2005
You are so articulate Tarotbear, that is sooo well said. I will have to purchase your book. To Mokey...welcome. This is why this forum is so great. Something to take from everyone for your inner pantry. My only small offering is that you will start to see what each card means to you. The querent,( if and when you read) will also see what a card means to them. Somehow your inner pantry overflows into anothers inner pantry. Sorry to be so allegorical. Regards Rosanne

tao51	16 Jan 2005
the symbols on the cards will evoke different meanings. Some decks are more unique than others. Sometimes the question draws different meanings from cards. I use a variety of cards because they are capable of intrepreting different situations.--Tao

Mokey	17 Jan 2005
Thank you all so much for your help. I am so glad that the meanings can differ with readings because i didnt like the fact that there was one meaning, it was too strict. I sometimes get a feeling of what the meaning should be in different readings but always revert to book meanings as i didnt realise they could have so many layers. I think i will just study the pictures on the cards on the waite deck (im still waiting on them at the moment) and see what they mean to me. I also read the Holmes thread and found that really interesting, a lot to think about. Hopefully with a bit of experience i will just get a sense of what each card means (without a book) in each reading. Thank you all again. XXXX

firemaiden	17 Jan 2005
And then of course, in addition to all of that, there are different deck families: for the many RWS clones, the general underlying gist of the meanings is pretty much compatible. But what happens when you use a Marseille based deck? or the Swiss, as our thread starter proposed? For the minor cards it can be a whole new ball of wax.

Fudugazi	17 Jan 2005
firemaiden wrote: For the minor cards it can be a whole new ball of wax. And that's the fun. Guaranteed life-long enjoyment of Tarot when there are so many different strands and ways of looking at it. Moving from RWS to Marseille has revived my interest - in the whole of Tarot. And I love to uncover new layers of meanings in a reading - it feels like discovering a hidden city :).

The Do different decks have different meanings. thread was originally posted on 16 Jan 2005 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.