42-card Tarot Decks? Humm...

I own two brazilian decks called Tarot dos Anjos (Tarot of the Angels) and Tarô Místico (Mystic Tarot).

They have nice art (though the Mystic Tarot's cardstock is not very good in my opinion ), but there's something curious about them: both have only 42 cards. The 22 cards of the Major Arcana, plus the Court Cards, plus the Aces.

I have no idea why. The author of the Tarot dos Anjos explains that numerologically it makes no difference, because

78 cards = 7 + 8 = 15 = 1 + 5 =6
42 cards: 4 + 2 = 6

To me it sounds like a crock of c**p. Like the author is too lazy to learn the Minor Arcana porperly. But whatever . This deck is very popular here, and the art isn't so bad (i've attached pictures of both decks below).

But i was wondering... are other decks out there that only have 42 cards? Is there any esoteric school that uses a deck without the complete Minor Arcana? Or did the author amputate the deck out of whim?

And more importantly - do you think the deck can still be used despite the missing cards?

The decks are beautiful and i think i'll use them nonetheless (even if just the major arcana). But i'm not sure if i'm comfortable with the idea of a deck missing half of the cards...

I actually like the idea!! Would make for a smaller, more compact, perhaps more high-impact pack.

It seems like it would be a good learning tool to get started with tarot. Besides, you could just shuffle in unillustrated pips from any other deck to get a full tarot pack.

It seems to me that ...

If you believe that tarot is about spirits communicating, then they will find a card that will give you the message, regardless of how many cards are in the deck.

If you believe that tarot is about insight into your own subconscious, then it also doesn't matter, because any image might trigger a reaction. Witness the use in days gone by of ink blots to get people talking.

If you believe that the tarot is a future predictor, I likewise tend to believe that the future/power/universe/whatever can find a card to get its point across.

So, in my opinion it doesn't matter at all how many cards are in the deck. I'm sure someone will disagree with me, though. And in cases like this, I think you should trust your instincts on what YOU feel is right.

tarotmama said:

I actually like the idea!! Would make for a smaller, more compact, perhaps more high-impact pack.

It seems like it would be a good learning tool to get started with tarot. Besides, you could just shuffle in unillustrated pips from any other deck to get a full tarot pack.

Click to expand...

Yeah, you have a point. Heaving to learn the minor arcana makes a lot of people give up learning tarot.

You know, i actually have a deck that doesn't have the Court Cards: the Oracle Tarot, by Lucy Cavendish. It's a great deck. But the Court Cards are even more complicated to learn than the numbered Minor Arcana...

So leaving the numbered card out but keeping the court sounds weird IMHO. Go figure...

GryffinSong said:

So, in my opinion it doesn't matter at all how many cards are in the deck. I'm sure someone will disagree with me, though. And in cases like this, I think you should trust your instincts on what YOU feel is right.

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I don't really know what i think the tarot is about, if it's the universe, the collective unconscious, the spirits... all i know is that it works.

As long as it has the complete Major Arcana, i guess the deck will manage to get the message across... somehow...

The Linweave Tarot from 1967 was like this:

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/linweave/

In Sallie Nichols's book Jung and Tarot, she advocates reading with a 42-card Marseilles deck. In her opinion, the pip cards 2-10 added nothing since their numerology was already present in the Majors, and the suits were already present in the Courts and Aces. Although she doesn't mention the Linweave by name, she describes her first tarot deck as being a 42-card deck made to advertise paper, so I believe it was the Linweave, and so it seems reasonable to conclude that her preference for a 42-card deck was also influenced by the fact that her first deck was like that.

Lee said:

The Linweave Tarot from 1967 was like this:

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/linweave/

In Sallie Nichols's book Jung and Tarot, she advocates reading with a 42-card Marseilles deck. In her opinion, the pip cards 2-10 added nothing since their numerology was already present in the Majors, and the suits were already present in the Courts and Aces. Although she doesn't mention the Linweave by name, she describes her first tarot deck as being a 42-card deck made to advertise paper, so I believe it was the Linweave, and so it seems reasonable to conclude that her preference for a 42-card deck was also influenced by the fact that her first deck was like that.

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Wow Lee, thank you so much for this very valuable information!!!

The author of the "Tarot dos Anjos" probably got her idea from Sallie Nichols, because Nichols' book is in the bibliography of the deck's companion book.

As for the creator of the "Tarô Místico", i don't know. Her book has no bibliography or references, but i get a feeling that she based her tarot on the structure of the "Tarot dos Anjos".

The Linweave is such a pretty deck!

Not tarot, but I stumbled across a site that mentioned a few interesting 42 facts.
http://42opus.com/v6n2/42reasons
These are the ones that jumped out at me:
*The number 42 is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything (according to Douglas Adams).
*Chapter 42 in Tao Te Ching is an explanation of the universe, wherein "The Three gave birth to all of creation." Douglas Adams, meet Lao Tzu.
*There are 42 Principles of Maàt.
*The most intense light refracted in a raindrop to create a rainbow is reflected back at about 42 degrees maximum.
*A pair of dice has a total of 42 pips (dots).
*There are commonly 42 eyes in a deck of 52 cards

ETA: Doesn't nisaba post about using a Stripped Down Deck like this?

I believe that many French readers who use the Tarot de Marseilles read only with the Major Arcana and that this is a traditional method of reading. So a deck doesn't have to have the whole Minor Arcana to be valid.

Since your decks are designed as 42 card decks, I wouldn't feel like any cards were missing. Enjoy your beautiful decks!

Marina said:

I own two brazilian decks called Tarot dos Anjos (Tarot of the Angels) and Tarô Místico (Mystic Tarot).

They have nice art (though the Mystic Tarot's cardstock is not very good in my opinion ), but there's something curious about them: both have only 42 cards. The 22 cards of the Major Arcana, plus the Court Cards, plus the Aces.

Click to expand...

YYYYYEEEEEESSSSS!

<punches air>

AT LAST!

Going to update my wishlist now.

Marina said:

I have no idea why.

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I have.

When I was young and foolish, I liked Majors-only decks. I got better. I very rarely if ever strip decks down now, but if I *were* to want a deck for a power reading with all the trivial stuff deleted, I'd use the Majors, the Courts and the Aces. (I refer to the courts and Ace combined as the "power group").

The last 22-card deck I bought was the Lebanese deck, not a a working deck but because the art is fabulous, far better than the scans, which don't do it justice. And I have been really miffed since getting it that the deck didn't include at least courts (at least some of which I believe have been painted) and Aces, if she couldn't be persuaded to do all 78.

nisaba said:

YYYYYEEEEEESSSSS!

<punches air>

AT LAST!

Going to update my wishlist now.

Click to expand...

Wow

Hehehehehe... and i'm not even sure these are the only 42-decks released here.

nisaba said:

I have.

When I was young and foolish, I liked Majors-only decks. I got better. I very rarely if ever strip decks down now, but if I *were* to want a deck for a power reading with all the trivial stuff deleted, I'd use the Majors, the Courts and the Aces. (I refer to the courts and Ace combined as the "power group").

The last 22-card deck I bought was the Lebanese deck, not a a working deck but because the art is fabulous, far better than the scans, which don't do it justice. And I have been really miffed since getting it that the deck didn't include at least courts (at least some of which I believe have been painted) and Aces, if she couldn't be persuaded to do all 78.

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your experience! When i was even-more-young and even-more-foolish, i hate the minor arcana, so i only used the major cards to read. But then i bought myself the Mythic Tarot and slowly the minor arcana started to make sense to me.

Of course, i still have some Major-only decks that i really like (specially the Biancaforte Tarot!).

But i never thought about reading only with the major, the courts and the aces. May i ask you... why keep the court and the aces? What i do not understand is the choice of keeping these specific cards, instead of keeping the minor but not the court or the court but not any minor (including the aces) and so on...