Card Illustration - Does it Affect the Way You Interpret A Card?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 27 Jan 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Demonesse	27 Jan 2003
How much do the illustrations of the cards of a particular deck you use affect your interpretation of a card (sorry, if this belongs in Using Tarot Cards by all means move it)? For example, I am inclined to interpret Death as a positive letting-go of past events when I look at the Halloween or Mythic version of it, but when I look at the Chinese or Thoth, I put a more gloomy spin on it mentally because of the way Death is illustrated there. How about you?

Maan	27 Jan 2003
yeah i do the same thing. For example in my Phantasmagoric theater tarot there is a violin player on the six of coins. Normally i whould see this card as giving and because it was my day card trying to be extra nice to the people around me and see if any of the could use some help. But i at that moment i was putting of a telephone call to a violin teacher...and i knew that i had to try again and so i did and instead of that stupid answeringmachine i finally got to speak to him personally. Just a little example of how some imagines on different decks change the meanings of the cards for me....sometimes;)

tarotbear	27 Jan 2003
Of course you'll be immediately influenced by the picture, but I've said this elsewhere - Regardless of what deck you are reading with at that given moment, I feel that readers should expose themselves to as many different interpretations of a card that they can - and dig one up if it makes more sense in the given reading . Thus, even if you are reading with the Thoth deck but a meaning from the Cosmic Tribe makes more sense in this instance, I don't see why you would not substitute it. Unless the meaning is so totally opposite of what the card image is -- you see death and destruction in the Sun card -- what does it matter? One of the talents of being a good reader is 'putting the spin' on the meaning so that it applies to the Querent, not to the illustration.

Marion	27 Jan 2003
I am also influenced by the deck. Earlier, i used to always read to the Robin Wood deck, regardless of which deck I was actually using. Then I had a couple of interesting experiences, realizing that the deck on the table was telling a different story and that I had deliberately selected that deck in the first place. Now I 'read to the deck', unless my intuition tells me differently.

Osher	27 Jan 2003
At first I used to depend on the illustrations, now I know the cards I do not. Yet, it would be wrong to suggest that there is no influence. Tarotbear is quite right in what he says.

Jewel	28 Jan 2003
I am also influenced by the illustrations, and I firmly believe that is why I connect better with some decks than others. The variety of illustrations available have helped me expand my definition of certain cards and apply Tarotbears suggestion of using the meaning of the card that best applies to a particular reading. The more decks I use, the more complete my illustrated vocabulary becomes.

DarkChild	29 Jan 2003
i agree with everything that has been said here. i stronlgy beleive that the card illistrations have a tramendous effect on the 'meaning' of the card. i also believe that you shouldn't soly go off from the illistrations when reading, but use your intuition also...i know somtimes with me if i just listen to the card before i even look at it, when i do look at it, what i 'heard' is completly diffrent then what i think the illistration shows.

Minos	29 Jan 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Demonesse Thoth, I put a more gloomy spin on it mentally because of the way Death is illustrated there. How about you? You got a gloomy spin from Thoth? With the happy dancing Osiris skeleton and all of the percolating bubbles of inchoate life? Weird.

Demonesse	30 Jan 2003
Ah yes. It's just so vengeful (to me that is) - I imagine that he's still a bit miffed over the fact that a certain part was never recovered when Set chopped him up... I like "percolating" bubbles. But only in Coke.

wavebreaker	30 Jan 2003
Yes, the card illustration definitely affects the way I interpret it, but I also use meanings that I've gained from other decks. So it's basically a combination and I pick whatever meaning fits best for the card in that particular position in that particular reading.

firemaiden	30 Jan 2003
Jawohl! As a matter of fact, I have been enjoying this excercise recently to lay out a spread with one deck, like the Fey for example, which is very warm and fun-spirited, then to pull out the same cards from a bunch of other decks to discover all the different aspects of those same cards. In the 10 of Swords thread we have been tearing apart the 10 of Swords card "atom by atom" and looking at it through the different decks. I mean, that is why I think it is so fun to get new decks!! What new aspect does each artist contribute? I am really loving the Roots of Asia Deck this week for the Zen light it sheds on all the traditional meanings.

Ravenswing	02 Feb 2003
hi guys-- In the process of designing my deck, I work as best I can to have the image match what I feel the card 'means'. To find the underlying concept of the card and illustrate it. This is my reason for creating an image-- communication. And I intend it to be an entirely visual experience. That is the reason I have eliminated any verbal/numerical designation on my cards. Hopefully, what I have drawn for each concept is not a static image. Each time one views it, perhaps there is another slant to be seen. And when cards are taken together, they should play against each other. A spread should be organic, not just a series of cards... just thinking out loud raven

The Card Illustration - Does it Affect the Way You Interpret A Card? thread was originally posted on 27 Jan 2003 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.