"Defacing" Decks

Gemyndig

I did think actually that my fiddling with the Witchy tarot was an example of my virgoan nit-picky desire to bring everything into a kind of standard order, when maybe some things aren't meant to be part of anything like that. Maybe the Witchy Tarot is just meant to be read as it is, with no reference to any other deck at all - perhaps my forcing it to somehow "conform" to a standard set of meanings is to completely miss the point and spoil it?!

The deck works, and maybe that's all that matters ultimately, but like the Tarot of the Elves and what i've seen of other Lo Scarabeo decks such as the Tarot of the Sorcerers, some of the cards just don't and will never fit the "norm". Is swapping things around maybe a bit, well, anal of me? Should i maybe just be going with the flow of each deck, letting it speak to me in its own language, and not expect the standard meanings? Maybe i'd get more out of things that way. If i have spare cash in future i might buy another copy of the Witchy and try reading just as it is, without modification or expectation of a standard symbolic "code", and see where it takes me!
 

Sulis

I've defaced quite a few of my decks but I don't really consider them defaced, more enhanced to suit me :).

DruidCraft - trimmed to remove all borders and titles.
Morgan Greer - numbering on Justice and Strength changed.
World Spirit - numbers on the Major Arcana blacked out to match the black borders.
Pearls of Wisdom Tarot - numbering on Justice and Strength changed.
I did trim a Sacred Rose Tarot too but I traded that one away.
 

baba-prague

One thing that I find interesting is that when we find old decks here - oracles rather than tarot as that's the tradition here - they sometimes have annotations written by hand on the cards. I have to say I really quite like it - it can be fascinating and quite personal - and I wonder why nowadays we don't see it as quite "proper" to write on our cards or to alter them - in fact why we might see it as "defacing".

Just a thought :)
 

WolfSpirit

I trimmed more decks than I can remember but I don't think any of them were defaced by it - there are just a few decks where I find that the info I trimmed away was actually useful :rolleyes: like the titles on the Tarot of Transformation (because it is hard to know which is which) and the numerical info on the Merryday.

And I tried to write keywords etc. on the minors of the Merlin Tarot. I found the minors boring and hard to remember, and I tried to make them more interesting with writing - what I had in mind were the written pieces on the Röhrig but it did not turn out quite that way :laugh:

One thing that I find interesting is that when we find old decks here - oracles rather than tarot as that's the tradition here - they sometimes have annotations written by hand on the cards. I have to say I really quite like it - it can be fascinating and quite personal - and I wonder why nowadays we don't see it as quite "proper" to write on our cards or to alter them - in fact why we might see it as "defacing".

I think I would like to have a deck with handwritten annotations too, I also love secondhand books with handwritten notes (especially if it is old fashioned handwriting :)) but I wonder if these old cardstock was easier to write on.
When I tried to write on the Merlin I found it quite hard (or maybe I should have used another type of pen) and that is why my handwriting did not turn out as I wanted it, it showed that it was hard work to write it instead of a flowing handwriting.

LOL at lark with the banana sticker, very apt for that Lovers card :laugh:
 

rwcarter

Gemyndig,

Yes, I knew the deck had writing on it when I bought it. Like I said, it was part of a group of decks and that deck wasn't the primary reason I bought the set.

Interesting changes you made to the Witchy. I'm glad that works for you. You definitely have a one-of-a-kind Witchy Tarot now!

I bought lots and lots of LoS decks before I realized that >> I << can't try to apply "standard" RWS meanings to those decks. Most of the LoS decks are close, but they're not exact fits. >> I << have to love and use them for what they are and not for the pigeonhole I want to put them in.

Rodney
 

grailmaiden

It´s been a while since I posted - haven´t had anything meaningful to contribute. But this post is reflective of where I am with my tarot studies; poised to start scribbling over my cards! I had to check into the forum to confirm that I´m not the only one who ever had thoughts like this.

What prompted the thought was discovering this blog about destroying a book: http://tnc-wreckthisjournal.blogspot.com/ It made me think - why not have a tarot deck, personalised in a similar way. That would be powerful don´t you think? My Cosmic Tribe courts are poised to have additions such as astrological, colour and other symbols, personal insights and reflections. Whether I then go on to "wreck it" - I´m not too sure.

Jan
 

Grizabella

I put shorts on that guy in the World Spirit 10 of Wands. I just didn't think him having his "wand" on display with a yard full of children was quite palatable to me. It spoiled the whole deck for me.

I tried blacking out the words on the Haindl with sharpie but that just wore off with shuffling, so I got a new one. Then I trimmed the sharpie one. Then I traded them both off.

Other than that, I don't mark in books anymore and I don't mark on or trim cards. The last cards I trimmed were Druidcraft, and I only did that out of desperation to be able to use them. That didn't work for me but now I've got the small Russian bootlegged version and I can use those just fine.
 

Marcia959

The shorts and flowers stuff is the reason there are some decks I read with for others and some I just collect. Some images may be too, um, POWERFUL for the general public.

I don't see why someone can't write, decorate, add stickers or trim a deck to suit their needs. Personally, I wouldn't but possibly that's because I once bought a trimmed deck without realizing it. The trimming was uneven and not only took off the words but also shaved off some of the pip card pips so that you couldn't quite tell if you had the 8 or the 9, the 9 or the 10. So if you are NEVER going to sell or give away that deck to someone else, deface away. As a collector though I would consider it "damaged" and view the deck as being less valuable.

Sigh, unless of course the person who wrote on the deck was, say, Pixie???
 

grailmaiden

Grizabella said:
I put shorts on that guy in the World Spirit 10 of Wands. I just didn't think him having his "wand" on display with a yard full of children was quite palatable to me. It spoiled the whole deck for me..

Haha! I´m a little curious to understand whether the 10 of w as it was, was spoiling the deck, or whether him getting shorts then spoiled the deck for you?
 

grailmaiden

Marcia959 said:
As a collector though I would consider it "damaged" and view the deck as being less valuable.

I´m resisting the collecting bug, so I wouldn´t really be thinking about reducing it´s value. My motive would be to increase it´s value to me as a tool.

Marcia959 said:
Sigh, unless of course the person who wrote on the deck was, say, Pixie???

What a great thought - gives me an idea for another thread.