Animal Decks and the Professional

Le Fanu

If you are seeking a reader for yourself and see that they use primarily animal and cat decks, does that turn you off of them? Do you take them seriously?

These decks are my bread and butter, but I wonder if I'm chasing off potential clients.

Any other professional readers here swear by animal decks?
You know - not that I'm professional - I really do get turned off by animal decks. I find them entirely fake. What do Llewellyn know about whether an animal has a soul? I blame Disney - I honestly don't see how any animal deck can be convincing. I love animals, deeply, from the bottom of my heart -perhaps more than human beings - but I don't think the world needs animal tarot decks because we just don't know the essence of animals. It is all romantic imaginings, overly sentimental, investing human feelings, investing human emotions, inventing profundity, pretending we are at one with nature when the fact is, we know nothing. If we loved nature, we'd stop buying shrink-wrapped decks and manufactured crystals and just shopping less.

But - hey - that's just me. I find them totally insincere. People can like them and feel free to like them of course - but what do I think? Fake and invented. At least - if you're going to design a deck - invent about human beings for which you have some level of familiarity. I have no doubt that the fluffiness appeals to clients but I don't think they're doing much to further our understanding of the natural world.
 

Barleywine

The neurotic-looking critters of the Tarot of the Magical Forest defy the "fluffy" label. But it's not likely one I would pull out for paying clients.
 

Obsydian

You know - not that I'm professional - I really do get turned off by animal decks. I find them entirely fake. What do Llewellyn know about whether an animal has a soul? I blame Disney - I honestly don't see how any animal deck can be convincing. I love animals, deeply, from the bottom of my heart -perhaps more than human beings - but I don't think the world needs animal tarot decks because we just don't know the essence of animals. It is all romantic imaginings, overly sentimental, investing human feelings, investing human emotions, inventing profundity, pretending we are at one with nature when the fact is, we know nothing. If we loved nature, we'd stop buying shrink-wrapped decks and manufactured crystals and just shopping less.

But - hey - that's just me. I find them totally insincere. People can like them and feel free to like them of course - but what do I think? Fake and invented. At least - if you're going to design a deck - invent about human beings for which you have some level of familiarity. I have no doubt that the fluffiness appeals to clients but I don't think they're doing much to further our understanding of the natural world.

Then I suppose this would be a case of ideal client vs. not!

I work extensively with animal spirits and energies, and to me the animal decks have a lot more energy and feel more real than a human deck. You bring up interesting thoughts however.

My very first deck was an animal deck, and my decks after that were all cats or animals. I do have a couple of human decks, but while I like them, I'm having trouble connecting with them in the way that I want.
 

Thoughtful

I work extensively with animal spirits and energies, and to me the animal decks have a lot more energy and feel more real than a human deck.

My very first deck was an animal deck, and my decks after that were all cats or animals. I do have a couple of human decks, but while I like them, I'm having trouble connecting with them in the way that I want.

If you are not connecting so well with Human decks, then stick with what you know, you will be much happier and your readings will flow better.

l am a total animal lover of all kinds, so l do love to have at least one animal tarot, which is the Pagan Cat Tarot, my daughter always asks me to read for her with these. Like you l feel animal energies quite strongly, and l find that the energies of the cat come out quite well in the Pagan Cat Tarot. The Wild Unknown has some really expressive and lovely images, but l could not work with it mainly because of the few cards that l did not like.
Your intuition obviously works well with the animal cards so just continue and do not worry.
 

Dogs&Coffee

You know - not that I'm professional - I really do get turned off by animal decks. I find them entirely fake. What do Llewellyn know about whether an animal has a soul?

A) Llewellyn is just a publisher, not the actual artists of the decks. They're in the business of publishing what sells to a specific market, not solving the existential animal-soul/no-soul crises.

B) They probably know as much about animal souls as we know about animal souls.... or tree souls... or people souls....

I blame Disney

What's Disney got to do with how people perceive animals? I'm pretty sure there is a long storied history of people identifying with animals eons before Disney was even a person and definitely before their IP nightmare of an empire.

I honestly don't see how any animal deck can be convincing. I love animals, deeply, from the bottom of my heart -perhaps more than human beings - but I don't think the world needs animal tarot decks because we just don't know the essence of animals. It is all romantic imaginings, overly sentimental, investing human feelings, investing human emotions, inventing profundity, pretending we are at one with nature when the fact is, we know nothing.

Discounting thousands of years of anecdotal evidence as hearsay; Centuries of peer reviewed biological research, especially the strides made in animal behavior in recent decades would disagree with you on the amount humans know about animals, their emotions, and their behavior both domestic and in the wild.

Also, as applied to tarot, you need the deck you need. Furthering your ecological argument below, technically the world needs no tarot decks, like, at all, but tarot is the least of the worlds problems. Some people, however, do need animal decks to connect and make sense of their tarot/spiritual practice. You have no idea how each person applies the animal symbolism and energy to their practice, and as such, you're hardly in a position to decide what is or isn't needed for that person or the collective world for that matter. Just because you don't connect with a particular style deck, doesn't mean others don't.

If we loved nature, we'd stop buying shrink-wrapped decks and manufactured crystals and just shopping less.

If we loved nature we'd do a lot more than shopping less and ceasing deck collecting, but that's another discussion for another time.

But - hey - that's just me. I find them totally insincere. People can like them and feel free to like them of course - but what do I think? Fake and invented. At least - if you're going to design a deck - invent about human beings for which you have some level of familiarity. I have no doubt that the fluffiness appeals to clients but I don't think they're doing much to further our understanding of the natural world.

Your premise of people being familiar with people is inherently flawed. If that was true, the world would be a lot nicer, and we wouldn't need tarot. At all. The whole point of tarot is to gain an understanding of the world around you and the people in it, with like 99% of that being human interaction.

Animal themed tarot isn't for understanding the natural world, it's for understanding the human world, using animal themes as parables for human behavior.

Also, not all animal decks are fluffy, so... there's that. That's like saying all human decks are just full of sweaty glamour models.
 

Rosewater

I use a mixture of intuition and judgement when choosing a deck, the latter especially if I know or have met the person beforehand. For example, I wouldn't choose a deck with dark and confronting imagery if I know, or intuit, that the client is emotionally fragile at that time. I don't have any problem with using animal decks or cat decks, most people respond positively to them.
 

Morwenna

Animal decks have another plus: they're automatically inclusive. Any gender, any race, any culture. And no nudity issues. :)
 

Obsydian

Animal decks have another plus: they're automatically inclusive. Any gender, any race, any culture. And no nudity issues. :)

This has always been my favorite argument for them!
 

Good.juju

I'm not a professional reader, but I do see your point. If you read for other Tarot readers then they know better than to judge a person on their decks because, well, we know better. However, the public at large is a different story, and I think someone who charges money has to make a few compromises along the way. Maybe, one day, when you're a famous reader and charge thousands of dollars an hour, then you can use any decks you want.



But here the real question is what serves to bring in more money, since that's the point. Service first, always. You could offer an assortment of decks, and include one RWS since that's what people usually most connect to Tarot and they might feel more comfortable with it, instead of a deck (animal or otherwise) that they don't know.



This is very well put and has a lot of good advice, thank you for sharing. [emoji5]
 

RiverRunsDeep

Also, as applied to tarot, you need the deck you need. Furthering your ecological argument below, technically the world needs no tarot decks, like, at all, but tarot is the least of the worlds problems. Some people, however, do need animal decks to connect and make sense of their tarot/spiritual practice. You have no idea how each person applies the animal symbolism and energy to their practice, and as such, you're hardly in a position to decide what is or isn't needed for that person or the collective world for that matter. Just because you don't connect with a particular style deck, doesn't mean others don't.

If we loved nature we'd do a lot more than shopping less and ceasing deck collecting, but that's another discussion for another time.

Dogs&Coffee, I didn't copy your whole response but, wow, I am in love with the entirety of your post! :heart::heart:

Obsydian, no worries, as long as you are drawn to your deck and confident in your readings, then your querents will be confident in you as well.

Personally, I find animal decks to be refreshing in their lack of human figures/characters. I suppose it is a matter of personal taste, but I find animal decks to be more humble, honest, emotional, and straightforward. Fluffy? Hardly!