Altering deck cards...

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 23 Aug 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Cerulean	23 Aug 2003
Have you ever altered or replaced deck cards? Slightly embarassing, but I did this while my computer system was doing de-fragmentation and 'housecleaning'...I took a new favorite and altered three cards in a 'different' way. I chose a few mini decorative stickers from Dover sticker books to add personal motifs. There were three cards in the Via Tarot that prevented it from me feeling it was 'my deck.' I cut a winter tree motif for the end of the Ace of Swords, so the spiral design is emphasized in the solar spiral. I covered the diamond pattern that someone could see as a tibetian swastika. The crystalline tree that covers it is a personal motif. The second two were two tiny Hiroshige details in the Sun card: One had a blue background and peonies with descending bird framed with the bluish angel wings--the original figure with a dark frown distracted me. The peonies and bird had a more Springlike strength to me. I felt it matched the woman meditating in an open pose below the angel wings. I also put an iris in front of her and covering a distracting figurine, as a reminder of a poem that I liked (where "the iris near the bridge reminded them of a woman's blue skirt and of home..."). The last was probably the silliest. I put two Victorian childish faces and roses in the background of the Heirophant's apex to symbolize the womenly figures described in the scene. I covered a rather dour line of mother and daughter figures and the sour-faced angel for a softer background. If I ever trade the deck, the label glue was the type that easily comes off the slick lamination of a card...and it just personalized three cards that I just did not enjoy because of small details.

Le_Corsair	23 Aug 2003
to the Morgan-Greer Death card. This card features a skeleton in a black cape, with a white square at the throat; it makes Death look like he's wearing the Roman collar of a Catholic Priest. This was disconcerting, so I broke out the ol' Sharpie and blacked it out. Bob :THERM

Kiama	23 Aug 2003
It sounds like a good idea to me... I think I'd like to take a whoel card in th edeck I use and just get rid of it and replace it with a different one: I really dislike the Robin Wood Heirophant, and would like to replace it with something less 'Christianity is bad', and which focuses more on the positive aspects of this card. My boyfriend altered his Robin Wood in order to make it more 'his'... He drew moustaches and glasses on the cards. Kiama

Jeanette	23 Aug 2003
Any suggestions on how to improve the Sun (the one that sort of resembles a Richard Nixon little weird guy) in the World Spirit? He's really creepy/disturbing to me!

catti	23 Aug 2003
so what you are saying is you put stickers over things you didnt like? will they come off when you shuffle or are you just going to shuffle carefully? i think it is a great idea to personalize your cards, and certainly more practical than creating an entire deck...i think many of us dream of making our own decks or are in the process..but need something for now. this could be a really good project for children or beginners , take enlarged black and white tarot ( i have BOTA ) and let them color and add stickers. Then tell about the card, or make stories with several cards.

Macavity	23 Aug 2003
I guess my greatest temptation is removal of "keywords"... the Classical Tarot, Haindl, Visconti Gold etc. But so far courage has deserted me! I guess it might be advisable in any case to have a trial run on a spare card... :) Macavity

catti	23 Aug 2003
**passes the whiteout ** but what to use to tint the white out properly, and will it scratch off? Oh a thousand curses upon editors who spoil beautiful symbolism to make it more 'user ' friendly. i dont even like the multi lingual stuff ie: bastos ,bastones , wands , etc. all jumbled at the bottom of the card.. i have been sorely tempted to take a pair of scissors to the cards....

Cerulean	23 Aug 2003
If you are near a stationery store or sometimes in the art section of bookstores, there are mini-sticker books in Victorian Flowers, Japanese motifs, etc. I use Dover editions as they are not expensive and good quality. There's a slick covering to sticker and it peels off and adheres to waxy, slick surfaces, such as new decks. Even though this AGMueller deck did not have the polished plastic coating of Lo Scarabeo or some U.S. Games decks, there's a protective waxy surface that sticker adheres too. I've changed the sticker position around and moved it more than a few times and trimmed them. The card's image were not scratched or harmed in any way. Over time if I put the cards in a hot car or left them in the sun, the sticker glue might melt into the waxy coating. But by second day, it's still fine. I shuffle overlarge cards--these are very large--by putting the deck stack vertically on a hard surface, my fingers on it's sides and shifting a few cards at a time from the ends toward the middle or back. The cards are also stored in a somewhat overlarge medium size bag from Llewellyn (it came with the Victoria Regina and has a blue silk lining). So right now nothing's rubbing off or peeling... 'Temporary' stickers for folders at an office supply store in different colors might help some for distracting key words. If the color-stripe ones don't blend with your border, a marker matching the borders or picture background on the stickers could do it--that way if you ever have to trade or give away the deck, this might peel off without harming the original picture. Mari H.

jmd	23 Aug 2003
The only way I've altered a deck I use is by adding I-Ching hexagrammes to the 36 pips (apart from the Aces) on my highly used 'Tarot Classic' (Schaffhouse Marseille-type deck). Originally this was for demonstration-teaching purposes, but have found it personally very useful at times.

Emily	25 Aug 2003
The first time I've altered cards was with the Ancient Italian, I found that with some of the cards, especially the Swords, you couldn't tell which was upright and which was reversed, apart from looking on the back of the card, so I went through the deck and added little black dots after the numbers to show when the cards were the right way up. It took a little time because I didn't want to spoil the look of the cards but it worked out just fine. :)

Cerulean	09 Sep 2003
I cleaned out and found Japanese drapery, Paul Gauguin scenes from Samoa, Victorian garden and tropical flower stickers...and now I have an even more multicultural Via Tarot. I think it's less hideous than my other altered decks. If I get the nerve, I may find an old Adrian Tarot or the large, too light Thoth and have more than one altered deck. I can confess that I actually had combined the Templer, a cheap Elemental reprint and an old Tarots of the Crystals deck...it's not a good combination, but I learned a lot about ugly designs that I could do while doing my own deck experiments. Mari Hoshizaki

The Altering deck cards... thread was originally posted on 23 Aug 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.