How do the colors zing for you?

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

Cerulean	19 Aug 2004
Maybe not zing, maybe sing? I have some favorite decks splashing blue, and then I'm happy as if I'm swimming or leaping into a beautiful place. Sometimes the golden decks lift me to a smile. Sometimes I think the few remaining pink and purple decks of mine speak to the delicious four year old in me. I want to list specifics, but got to run back out of the house to work...I'd love to know if there's cards or decks that zing for you, in lines and colors that sing out your name... Look forward to suggestions or ideas...I'm thinking of making spreads with color notes in mind...or using my more vibrant colored RWS or other decks...Stella's blue comes to mind in a rush... Regards, Cerulean

Eco74	19 Aug 2004
Well, I have no particular color-reaction that I can refer to right away but.. My Swedish Witch deck is a very somber blue and reflects both water and knowledge. The color alone tells me that there's more than meets the eye. The Phantasmagoric Theatre just has me smiling.. All the colors are so vivid and seem so strongly and thoughtfully put together. This is the deck that definately connects to my inner child and emotional auto-response. The Fantastical is a bit dark and murky. Even the pinks and yellows in these cards is low-key. For more thought and calm, this is the perfect deck to work with. As for the Hanson-Roberts and Robin Wood these are just clearcut and open and the colors are all blending in so there is no particular colorscale that I've felt there. And the Mantegna, that's just golden and absolutely delichous.. A bit as if the light of the profoundness of the cards is lighting it up from inside.

punchinella	21 Aug 2004
Aaaaaah, brown . . . Opening my new Dusserre Dodal photoreproduction ( :* Kenji) is like running my hands through earth itself. I love the little brown mountains on the backs, & all the earthy tones "inside" . . . Blues??? --Pshaw, who needs them! Reds? --Well they're just aspects of brown anyway. . . . Purple??? (--Brown by yet another name . . . ) :D :D :D (great thread, btw)

Cerulean	21 Aug 2004
I also thought of you when I posted this thread. And I actually recently got and began coloring an odd and beautiful Canadian deck. Odd because the gorgeous colors of the majors and black and white minors...the booklet gives spreads and keywords for the minors. I'm figuring it out without the book yet (you have to order it separately)....but I found the oversize illustrations and the not-so-defined details in it's black and white minors so tempting...just to add a small defining veil of color to bring out the black and white blur of details....and take an eraser to fade some of the color I apply in a style of crayon (don't use pastels, too thick; a waxy crayon style works well)... Of course I managed to obliterate the King of Chalices head in my experiments. I had to add stickers....thankfully I had one or two with kingly emblems. I wandered...the colors and symbols in the majors are very very beautiful and this deck and book are available through Amazon.ca (Canada) OR abebooks.com for less. I find it as beautiful in color as Margaret Peterson, but cheaper and more interactive for my silliness... "itchy-fingered-gotta-have-color" Cerulean

punchinella	21 Aug 2004
Ooooh, you've got Tarokado!!! (???) Brave soul, you astonish me yet again with your nerve . . . :) [tarokado? --did i spell that right?]

Jewel-ry	21 Aug 2004
Quote: Originally posted by punchinella Ooooh, you've got Tarokado!!! (???) Brave soul, you astonish me yet again with your nerve . . . :) [tarokado? --did i spell that right?] That is a beautiful deck! I think, I shall have to get hold of a black and white one at some time. Mari, you had a black and white soprafino that I really wanted a while ago. Did you colour that one in too? What do you think about reading black and white decks? Is it more difficult without colour? Does the colour 'zing' for you? BTW The colours do 'zing' for me in Crystal. I suspect they will do in the Nissanka too. I really like it.

Emily	21 Aug 2004
I like the nice solid colours of the Morgan Greer. I think this is why the deck is so attractive - with no borders the colours reach right to the edges, and its a very well drawn deck, animal and human figures. The colours are bold without being garish or vibrant, and they reflect the feel of the card - the 5 cups - dark, windswept, brooding feeling to the card, all emphasised by the dark colours used. The Sun - bright and uplifting oranges and yellows. I must admit I do like nicely coloured cards. :D

Cerulean	21 Aug 2004
But it's only the Aces and two majors. I know for myself it is not time for me to do another version of an Italian deck to color...however the Tarokado is fairytale like and mysteriously delicious right now to me. Probably if I order the French book, it will become less mysterious. However the details that come out with coloring are an observing study with me, since I'm 'interacting' with it. Crystals and Morgan Greer colors...how very very beautiful, yes, I can hear them zinging, although the colors are not singing my name at the moment. But I hear other names in the harmonies! Best wishes, oh listeners of zongs! (songs) Regards, Cerulean listening for the nightengale in the dark

The 78th Fool	22 Aug 2004
The colours of two decks evoke a really deep seated nostalgia in me. They take me back to my early childhood and as such have become my comfort decks: The first is the Morgan Greer. It's the overall colouring of the deck that does it to me. It's virtually identical to the colours in my first picture book which I still own. It's a book that teaches you to count to ten and all the characters are pieces of fruit!! One of my earliest memories is of only being able to count to about five and feeling a sense of awe when I looked at the back of the book to the number ten (Illustrated by ten bananas on a slide!!). It may seem bizarre to a lot of people but the rich, dark colours of the Morgan Greer evoke a real sense of security to someone who was a child in the 70's and who's children's books were filled with pictures of a similar style and hue. This deck may have only been published in '79 but it certainly harks back to a slightly earlier period and has no connection to the New Romantic modernism that was to come a year or so down the line. The second deck is a much more recent acquisition - The University books RWS that I won on ebay a couple of weeks ago. This is an example of the most basic type of gawdy colour printing and again, because it's of that period, it somehow touches the part of me that's still a child. It may not be the best RWS but it has rapidly become one of my favourites and the one I usually turn to first if I want to do a RWS reading. Colour's a powerful thing! Chris. xx

Cerulean	22 Aug 2004
I have the impossibly delicious fruity colors deck and a recent memory of your thread that had me looking all week for the first 1959 edition book...and it was less money than buying a deck, in many cases....so I thought with delight, here's a romantic coloring and misprinting that will feed my same childishness and romanticism...I have a 1966 black and white crumbling Pictorial Key to the Tarot in a battered hardback condition and thought a slightly nicer version with groovy colors would be so retro... Instead I was sent an elegant and crisp printing of the text and wonderful near fine dustjacket and the colors in this book is more like the "Accurate Color Tones" RWS....rats, now I'm trying to find another edition like this for a collector friend. I even emailed a bookseller with my eager delight, who described their University Books edition as 'near fine' with a scan and description and then they downgraded their near fine rating to 'very good' ....ah well, a romantic notion that turns into a journey is a tarotlike turn that tickles my fancy. But your stories reminded me of something...I realize now that the Tarokado reminds me of an out of print Hans Christian Anderson book that had some beautiful prints of the "Old Finnish Woman", "Emporer and Nightengale", "Twelve Swans" and the large illustrations showed rather Eurasian faces and costumes that never saw the light of reality....and I like tarots that show me a land that never was, but imagined so sweetly, as if a book of dreams... Some lovely stories! Thank you! Hope to read more... Cerulean

The 78th Fool	22 Aug 2004
Hi Cerulean, I noticed you'd managed to get an old copy of the Pictorial Key. It's a shame it doesn't have the 'loud' coloured illustrations. Keep searching though! Isn't it amazing what a power printed pictures can assert over you as a child! I'm glad someone else can empathise with this. Chris. xx

Thea Lynx	22 Aug 2004
I can't form an attachement to any deck unless the colors feel right to me. Not just one color scheme, though - I have strong positive feelings for my I Am One, New Century, Aquarian, Morgan Greer, Spirit, Cosmic, Adrian, Navigators, Prague, Gilded just to name a few. Only once, with the Connolly, have the colors seemed wonderful, but my experience with the deck was negative. Go figure. The bottom line for me is, if the colors don't feel right, there is no hope for me with the deck. Thea

miss_apples	23 Aug 2004
The most deeply coloured deck I own is The Gendron deck, which used to be my main deck until I got The Goddess Tarot. The colours in the Gendron are very deep, thats the best way I can describe it. Purples and pinks, for cups. Oranges and Browns for wands. Blues and Gold for swords. And reds and greens for the pentacles. Most of the Major Arcanas are dark midnightish colors. It really is a beautifully coloured deck.

The How do the colors zing for you? thread was originally posted on 19 Aug 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.