Majors Only Decks

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 27 May 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Emeraldgirl	27 May 2005
To all the people that have been swayed to buy a Majors only deck how do you read with it? Do you add minors? Keep it as is? Devise new spreads for it? Any and all of the above? I recently got the Majors only Angel Tarot by Michel Angela, Maria Miduki and have so far not read with it. I'm used to 78 cards not 22 :) so just wondering if anyone else has has this issue.

BlueLotus	27 May 2005
I never made a conscious effort to own or order A Majors Only Deck. It just happened. I have about 9 of these, and they actually came as a special bonus from an online store. One Majors only Grimaude Marseille came as a part of a set called The Fortune Telling Kit, by Morgan. However, I have usually just admired the artwork on these cards, and tucked them away soon thereafter, or in rare cases, I did a reading or two when I wanted some very clear-cut outcomes, sort of life-changing decisions or insights, using a two-card reading, for issue vs outcome, or three for issue, action, end result.

Inana	27 May 2005
I have one Only Majors deck. I use it as it is, withouth adding any card on it. The spread I use usually, consist in a three cards spread. It can be read as time-line (P-P-F) or with the usual positions Situation- Advice-Outcome. Other times I pick more cards to unblock and clarify the "why?" of the reversed ones. Other times I read with only one card. The ideal spreads for these decks are, as Blue Lotus said, the short and direct ones. I have seen a woman who read combining the Only Major deck with another whole deck, laying first the Majors one. The spread she used was like a Zodiac Wheel.

shaveling	27 May 2005
I don't have any majors- only decks, but I do majors-only readings fairly often. You can use just the majors for most any spread that doesn't use more cards than the majors afford or that doesn't actually require X number of cards from the major arcana, and Y number of cards from the minor arcana. Paul Getting's book on Tarot uses the Celtic Cross as an all-majors spread. There are three threads on majors-only in the Tarot Spreads Forum index. [thread=3386]This[/thread] is the longest, and perhaps most useful for your question. You might also do a search for "Tirage en Croix." That's a classic European spread, traditionally done with majors only, although as Helvetica mentions in this [thread=36440]thread[/thread], it can also be done with a full 78-card deck. -shaveling

Babylon_Jasmine	28 May 2005
I really don't like majors only decks. They seem awfully simplistic to me. I do own one, the lover's tarot, which was given to me as a gift, but I think if I were to read with it i would combine it with a deck of playing cards.

The Majors Only Decks thread was originally posted on 27 May 2005 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.