recognising inherent images

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 19 Jul 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

deranged_walrus	19 Jul 2004
I've noticed something. My friend came across a website showing the entire Visconti-Sforza deck - out of order, no captions, no way to know which card was which. She looked them over and asked me to help her. It took me no more than a minute to identify all the Major Arcana and court cards. She was awed. "How in the hell did you do that?" Apparently she heard that beginning readers simply chose one deck, memorized the image together with the meaning and read that way. I pulled out my RWS, then got the Marseilles deck online. And proceeded to explain tarot symbols and how there are certain images that nearly every deck has; I showed her images from every deck on my wishlist to prove it. Realising that I usually go for the RWS-based decks (yes, I do go through decks thinking "Does the Fool show the dog? What about the white rose on Death? How about the Hermit's lantern and the Heirophant's staff?"), I showed her the Thoth deck, one I really really don't like that's as far removed from RWS as you can get. But there are still the elements that tell you precisely which card it is. Then she understood, and asked how people can do readings with unillustrated (and I use that term gingerly) Minors. My method is to just recall in my mind the RWS scene for the particular card and go with that. What I'm asking is, how long before you stopped paying any attention to the words on the cards and saw only the images? Did you even see the words? When you read, was/is it "Lovers, choices to make" or is it "Person conflicted between two choices."? Do any of you use a particular deck with which to judge others, like I do my RWS? I've said before that I'm proud that I can recognise the VS, and I'm still wondering how the bloody hell that happened. At that time, I still had only my RWS. Anyone else able to do this? Yes, I corrected her in all her misconceptions (especially hapring on how we rely on intuition...we're not bloody textbooks, thank you!). hybrid

lawguy51	19 Jul 2004
I think I know what you are asking. It happened for me today. On my record label website, I do a Rock and Roll Tarot card of the week. This week I drew the 4 of Albums which is the RWS version of the 4 of Pentacles. For a second, I just blanked on what the 4 of Pentacles meant. So then I visualized the RWS deck and I could see the 3 and the 5 but I couldn't remember the 4. Then bingo, I saw it. Then I looked down at the picture of Pearl jam and in a flash, I had this weeks little reading. So yes, even though I don't use an RWS deck for myself (I use the Thoth), I often find myself thinking back to the RWS images when I need a baseline. The words are helpful to me, especially with the Thoth, not because they remind me of what the card means, but they remind me why Crowley chose the words he did for the cards he designed. Most times, when I look at a card, I don't even verbalize the meaning. And I tend to look at relationships between cards, like two characters facing each other, or two cards that are somehow interacting. The meanings I have learned are helpful but it's the whole story of a spread that fascinates and illuminates. Lawguy51

The recognising inherent images thread was originally posted on 19 Jul 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.