number of cards

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 06 Jun 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

carbon	06 Jun 2004
hi, ive been collectiong tarot deacks for a while, mainly for the look of them although now i am reading with them more often. anyway to get to the point as i am drawn to unusual decks i wondered how many cards are there in the biggest known deck? the largest i know of is the minchiate deck with 97 any thoughts anyone? also has anyone had experience with reading from any of these large decks? blessed be, carbon

Rusty Neon	06 Jun 2004
Transformational Tarot (Gotthold): an expanded tarot deck at 100 cards http://www.wicce.com/sgotthold.html

Ravenswing	06 Jun 2004
Piers Anthony describes a Tarot deck in his Tarot trilogy. It has five suits (Nature, Science, Faith, Trade and Art) and 28 Triumphs. There's a table with meanings and images; he suggests 3 x 5 cards to do your own deck. As far as I know, it's never been published. fly well Raven

HudsonGray	06 Jun 2004
Actually, it was, independently back around 1985 -- http://www.falconsmew.com/prodcut4_4.html 100 cards, with 5 suits and extra majors.

hedgecub	06 Jun 2004
As a small-pawed reader, my first thought is: How hard is it to shuffle and read with these decks? My second thought is: How many cards in large decks feel as if they're "tacked on"? I think that if the deck otherwise resembles a traditional tarot deck, then the added cards (usually additional Majors) could easily feel out of place, given that the Majors already work together in a 22-card balance.

carbon	07 Jun 2004
i have to agree hedgecub, but i think if the decks are done well, the extra cards can feel and be a useful aspect in readings and dont worry about not being able to shuffle the big deck i cant even shuffle playing cards! lol! thanks for all your input so far folks, i look forwards to learning with you

Ravenswing	07 Jun 2004
...larger deck is the Deva Tarot. It's got a fifth suit called Triax (if my memory serves me rightly) and an additional Major. The cards are almost square, and the artwork is rather interesting. It's got a slightly diffrent slant on the cards, but works well. Fly well Ravn

HudsonGray	07 Jun 2004
I'm not sure about the extra majors, Piers Anthony talked about things 'taken out' of the original number of tarot cards and tried to come up with a workable system. The suit of Aura was for 'spirit', so I can see how that would work. He covered the meanings/used the cards in his book series God of Tarot & had the cards listed in the back index of the book - but I haven't read any of the books or looked at his reasoning for the choice of cards. The deck was done by Liz Shandra & Steve O'Dell based on his books, they'd contacted him way back in the 1980's about it, from what I recall, and did the project as a self-published deck. Both were tarot readers, and said they had to adjust the cards a bit, that he'd been focused on using them as a plot device whereas turning them into an actual working deck needed to get more in depth on many of the cards. But I remember being with Liz as she sold the decks at science fiction conventions in the 80's and people came back to talk about the deck all the time. Both printings sold out fast. The third printing was done just last year when Liz & Steve got back in contact with each other. I've shuffled it, it's not hard to shuffle, but the cards aren't laminated & are on the same card stock as the Hello Kitty deck is. I haven't used it myself.

The number of cards thread was originally posted on 06 Jun 2004 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.