The problem with many decks...

tarotbear said:

Can you provide a link?

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http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=175123&highlight=des+femmes

worst minor arcana I've ever seen is the minors from the BOTA deck. Granted, you are supposed to color them yourself...and BOTA could give a rat's ass about the minors in the first place...

(...don't get me wrong, I took the courses from BOTA and they have the most in-depth study of the majors I've ever seen...anywhere...bar none...)

And you can probably see them doing an image search on google...but there's nothing to see...four of swords is four swords on a white background!

So you could really go to town decorating it up with all kinds of stuff...but evidently the thinkers behind the minors were like "meh..."

Then there's Ozzie Wirth's minors...they didn't exist! Lots of tarot designers don't even bother with the minors.

As I read more TdM materials, i learn that this is a big thing in certain countries (France in particular, I guess...)...majors only readings. So I suppose there's a lot of old tradition that supports disregarding the minors.

Tarot Des Femmes (de Mujeres)

WOW! Decks like this make me feel better and better about my deck!

Amazing - if they were going to be repetitious you'd think they might at least reverse an image or something ... definitely took the easy way out!

Le Fanu said:

I don't think it's tiredness....

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Neither do I.

I think even some Tarot *creators* get confused by the terms "Major Arcana" and "Minor Arcana", and erroneously think one is more important than the other. So they make the Minors less detailed, less significant quite deliberately. Which is missing the point entirely.

I can't even imagine trimming a deck. First, you ruin any resale value. Second, not every card can be trimmed perfectly, so it looks botched.

I think some Tarot practitioners may feel Major Arcana = subjective and Minor Arcana = objective, thus no need for loads of people to be on most of the pip cards. I personally agree with this, but it is just an opinion, neither correct or incorrect in any offical way. I find decks with too many people on the pip cards overwelming and stifiling to the point of mental suffocation. Unillustrated pips allow one to work more easily with elements, astrology, numerology, geometric shapes etc. It is good to see that there are so many decks to meet all or most of our Tarot needs.

I don't mind esoteric symbolism, even if it is not of the Golden Dawn nature as I like the cards to take me away from any rigid type of thinking, however I really dislike keywords as I cannot block them out. I love the Golden Dawn authors, but refuse to make them the 'Catholic Church' of spirituality as I feel many worthwhile decks are tossed to the side when they don't comply to what they thought of as correct. It has taken me years to get over this, so I do understand people here having very strong opinions on what makes a deck flawed or rubbish for them.

I have included a picture from the net of two decks that I like to use as shadow/light twins, because each provides what I personally 'like' from a Tarot pack.

Fournier 'Le Tarot De Marseille'

Fournier 'El Gran Tarot Esoterico'


Freddie

kalliope said:

I really agree about the Spiral Tarot! I think the majors and courts are beautiful, but the rest of the minors look almost amateur in style in comparison. It ruins the deck for me. I had no idea that it was intentional.

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I have had the Spiral on my wishlist for some time now. I will definitely have to do some research on those minors. It is a shame when a deck doesn't have a cohesive feel in my opinion.

I prefer to read with TdM, so I don't really feel the pain of the artist calling it in on the minors. But it does give me an appreciation for decks such as the cat Marseilles and le tarot noir that do add little things in on the pips to spice it up just a tad from the traditional.

I do have to say one artist who totally did not mail it in on the minors is Daniloff.

Glass Owl said:

I have had the Spiral on my wishlist for some time now. I will definitely have to do some research on those minors. It is a shame when a deck doesn't have a cohesive feel in my opinion.

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The Spiral was one of the first decks I purchased when I joined this forum. I thought the Majors were stunning but the Minors less so but then I read the book about why she did it and it didn't seem to bother me at all. I used it and loved the way it looked. The 4 Swords still remains my favourite Sword 4 despite all the other decks I use now.

Search out some of the Minors, there is a review of the deck on youtube. It is a small deck too, smaller than say the Rider Waite, and purple - the companion book is also well worth getting.

I don't think the minors are scrimped on in any way on the Spiral. If anything, the majors are too detailed for their size...cant make out all those little details...they should have been larger....the artwork of the minors is more appropriate to their size for the level of detail...they also stand out (somewhat) from the majors, which I like in a deck.

I don't read with scenic minors anymore very often...but the Spiral is one of my favorite decks in that genre.