this may be sacrilidge but...

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 22 Jul 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

morandia	22 Jul 2004
has anyone ever "created" their own deck from decks they own? I frequently find a few cards in a deck that just really ruin it for me. I've considered mixing and matching some of the cards to create a deck I truly like all the cards in. has anyone done this? Or would I offend the "tarot gods" and only draw death, the tower, and swords from then on if I did it? *giggle*

Little Baron	22 Jul 2004
Hey Morandia I have often thought of this as well. It would be nice to have the 'knight of swords' from the Phantasmagoric, alongside the 'Rohrig' Devil, the 'three of Swords' from the Light and Shadow. I think I read in Greyhounds newsletter, in an interview with Mary Greer, that MG was in the process of doing the same thing, but I may be wrong. There's one tarot God that gives it the ok, lol. If I was going to do it, as an exercise, I think I might scan them in, print them and laminate them so that they are all the same size and I don't damage any of the originals. Fun idea; I don't think you will get struck down for it. Let me know how it goes and which you choose if you do it. Best wishes Yaboot

Little Baron	22 Jul 2004
Thinking a little more, I might do this when I get some money to buy some more printer ink. I would quite like to have them in a5 size, just for meditation and pathworking. Yaboot Thanks for the pointer

inanna_tarot	22 Jul 2004
OHHHH what a good idea!! Of course, i couldnt permanently take out cards , but Yaboots idea seems grand! If only i had a scanner :P It seems a groovy idea to me. Sezo x

WolfSpirit	22 Jul 2004
I have tried it a few times but for me it did not work that well. First, I did not think that much ahead of you, I mixed decks that were "more or less" the same size, which made it impossible to shuffle. And i tried to mix the Greenwood and the Glastonbury. They are exactly the same size but the Greenwood has a bit of a system of its own, it does not mix well with others. I haven't tried it again since. I think it will be difficult to think of the cards as "one new deck", I think you will have to use it a lot before you stop thinking: that card from deck X, that one from deck Y. Looking forward to reading your experiences with mixing decks :)

Ace	22 Jul 2004
Tarot should be like sex: anything between two consenting adults (one of which in this case is paper and ink) is considered normal. I think what you did is a great idea. When I first started, I considered that too, then I found out there WAS a deck almost exactly like that! The Fantasy Showcase desk was designed by 78 different artists, each of whom had one card to create. A few, like 6 of Pentacles (IMHO) fall flat, but a few like 3 of Wands just SOAR (and if you know the deck, excuse the pun).

ros	22 Jul 2004
If the decks are different sizes how about putting them into a bag or box and pulling one card at a time. This would work, and you don't have to shuffle! I think this is a good idea. One deck would have all your favorite cards and the other deck would have all the cards that you didn't like. Of course you would study from the deck that you didn't like, so you would have a better understanding of the cards. (just kidding) I put two of the same size RWS decks together and did a reading with them to see if I would get repeats.

Flavio	22 Jul 2004
If it's a sacrilege... then count me among sacrilegious :D I used cards from different sizes face down and scrambled like dominoes, most for fun than for serious readings but the experiment put me one step closer to my dream deck.

morandia	22 Jul 2004
I like the idea of scanning/printing the cards.. I hadn't thought of that. If you do that, you could easily make them all the same size!!! What a wonderful idea. I've seen people post about missing cards before and wondered "why not mix/match". As long as it works for you, it should be ok. Thanks for the encouragement! didn't want to get struck down... I do enough things that already tempt that happening! didn't need to add more!!!!

Cerulean	22 Jul 2004
But never ended up with a real deck that I liked. But I might be called the sticker and redrawing queen for the alterations that I've been doing lately...all in the name of creative study for design. It's almost like dressing paper dolls, the way I experiment with these bargain finds and make them into altered decks... So far I've done one that might actually work in terms of the minors....but I didn't use any other tarot deck, I colored and used 'sticker paper' to cover some plain pips of a fantasical and nature-oriented deck with fanciful majors and courts. We'll see! I wish you great fun... Cerulean Mari

Moongold	23 Jul 2004
I'm not sure whether you mean the whole deck, the Major Arcana, the Courts or what :). I like comparing various decks and might get out all the Empress cards to look at them, meditate or whatever but probably would not create my own deck from bits and pieces of others. Each deck is an artist's creation and has its own integrity. If I was reading I'd prefer to use an original deck, not something I'd put together. That is just my preference however. Once you've purchased decks you could virtually do what you like with them in the privacy of your own home.

Francesca	23 Jul 2004
For a long time the 4's in the RW deck just didn't match the meanings of the number and the suit for me, so I took the 4's from my Wheel of Change deck, trimmed the edges and put them in. I mostly read for myself, but I would probably put the regular 4's back in to read for someone else. I may have kept the 4 of wands in there.

morandia	23 Jul 2004
one deck that comes to mind is the witches tarot.. I LOVE the deck.. except for the suit of Penticles.. I hate the "strong man" look of those cards.. this has kept me from using that deck - in fact I got rid of them for that reason. The idea of maybe replacing that suit with those of another deck had not occured to me until the other day - when I posted here. for the most part I was talking about just a couple of cards, but in the case of this tarot, replacing a whole suit would make the deck readable for me... hmmm.. now to decide what to replace it with.. hehe

Khatruman	23 Jul 2004
Quote: Originally posted by Yaboot001 If I was going to do it, as an exercise, I think I might scan them in, print them and laminate them so that they are all the same size and I don't damage any of the originals. That would be a wonderful idea. I considered the benefit of mix and matching cards from different decks, but, as has been pointed out, the lack of size standards with different decks makes this all but impossible to do and get a good reading. The only exception that I see is the Lo Scarabeo decks, which often are of a particular size. I think I proposed in a thread a while back, how wonderful it would be to have a company create a customizable deck option, allowing the customer to pick and choose cards from various decks and have a deck printed which would be uniform in size, as well as backing. Of course, I don't ever see that happening, with business concerns that would get in the way of it (i.e. copyright permissions, etc.) Yaboot, your idea comes as close to this as I have seen.

Moongold	23 Jul 2004
There is nothing to stop anyone doing this privately of course and people seem to do it naturally. I wonder how the deck creators would feel however if work they considered a coherent whole was broken up like this in the public domain. Would there be issues of copyright? I guess if the creators' consent were obtained it would be all right Consider a number of classic paintings. Would we like the smile of Mona Lisa on the body of Satyricon in a jigsaw puzzle? Perhaps those paintings are so old they are no longer subject to copyright. I know it is creative idea half-fun, half serious - and I'm not being really serious about it. :)

magpie9	24 Jul 2004
I have always had a few decks where I love one arcana and can't stand the other, but I'd never been successful in doing anything about it. R.J. Stewert drove me over the edge. It started with his "Merlin" tarot, the minor was nice looking celtic entertwined animals pips, with a key word on the bottom. Most keywords are either kind of helpfull, or at least ignor-able. these piss*d me off, having no relationship whatsoever to anything I would interpret that card as. eventually, I used white out and covered the keywords. A couple of years later, I got his Dreampower deck, awesome and interesting....but the minors where even worse. Same elemental picture on every card of the suit (a flame, a waterdrop, a crystal, a windy-looking cloud) a number and a keyword, totally unhelpful and hence annoying, under it. The book was less than no help on the minors--I get the impression that he dosn't much like minors, and only includes them in his decks because he's forced to, or something. Finially, I took the whole Merlin deck and added the Majors from the Dreampower and it works fine. they're the same size, they get along fine, the 2 sets of court cards are so different that they don't overlap or clash, and the Dreampower majors are not tarot majors, as we know them. They work together well, but not as the maker really intended. The thing about the dreampower that called me was the statement that stewert made about trying to make a deck that tarot cards would read with, if they had one. I love the idea, even tho old RJ drives me nuts more often than not!!

WolfSpirit	25 Jul 2004
Yes I was thinking of the Merlin too...not a very coherent deck. I don't like the minors at all though LOL. They would look nice as a pattern on a t-shirt or something, but I can't read with them at all. I have always kept the deck because I wanted to do something "creative" with the minors as I will not use the deck like this. So if I can find cards from other decks that fit in with the Merlin I could do what Yaboot suggested with the scans - and they would all have the back of the Merlin. And I also had a look at the Dreampower, I had no idea it was out of print. Looks nice, but a bit expensive to buy now if I only want it to experiment with another deck.

Goldenhair	28 Jul 2004
The problem I would have with creating my own deck is that it would be the perfect deck - for now. Six days, six weeks or six months down the line I would need to change just a few things and there, another perfect deck - for now. If I had the perfect deck, then - horrors - I wouldn't need to buy anymore decks. And no one else would. And there goes the whole world economy! :) NO, no, no. I'm much happier the way I am.

Niomi	28 Jul 2004
I find my Ancient Egyptian to be almost the perfect deck, except for the court cards: I'm a bit frustrated as they don't seem to be expressive as I'd like. Their personalities don't seem to jump out at me. But I'm absolutely in love with the court cards in Robin Wood, a deck I otherwise have a love/hate relationship with. Some of the cards in Robin Wood I just can't stand, but others (especially death) I adore.

Eco74	28 Jul 2004
I want to have a wide selection of decks, both to enjoy the artwork in AND to work with depending on my own connections with the various decks, and the needs of the querent. Diversity is most likely the best way to keep evolving, and I'm convinced that having a wide range of decks (different in style and feel) will enable me to learn more as a return to a deck I have not used for some time and see it again with new eyes that have grown used to other things while we were apart.. I also have some plans to make a deck of my own and expect that it will be a part of my collection aswell and quite possibly not be right for every occation or querent. There is no such thing as the perfect deck, but there IS the perfect deck for the particular situation and point in time...

Francesca	28 Jul 2004
When you buy a deck of cards, you are not buying a piece of artwork--or 78 pieces--you are buying COPIES of the art work. If you broke into the artist's studio and altered the originals to suit your own purposes, that would be sick and wrong. But the copies are yours to do with as you will, except copy. If you have a poster of the Mona Lisa in your room, you are free to draw a mustache on her or put her smile on a picture of your sister. THe actual Mona Lisa is still in her glass case at the Louvre and all is well. So the artist doesn't really come into the equation once you have paid your money and bought your deck. Francesca

The this may be sacrilidge but... thread was originally posted on 22 Jul 2004 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.