Your most UNREADABLE deck

Mittkait

Tarot of Vampyres the one vampire deck everyone loves. I can't get a thing out of it. I like the artwork, it just never really speaks to me.

Whereas the least popular vampire deck, Vampire's Tarot of the Eternal Night reads so easily for me.

I can't figure it out.
 

FLizarraga

Anything with pervasive religious iconography in it I find unusable: Kat Black's Golden and the Golden Botticelli are two I own that fit the description. On the other hand, the cherubs in the Connolly don't bother me at all; I just see them as "artistic devices."

I'm an ex Christian, and anything with "pervasive Christian iconography" turns me off like a burned lightbulb. I looked through the Matthews' Grial deck and gave it away without looking back; couldn't take the Christian fumes.

Yet not only Kat Black's Golden --which is assembled of 100% Christian art --is my all-time favorite deck, but I don't even feel any Christian vibes coming off it. Isn't that bizarre?
 

CheapShoes

Several I guess. There are those that are most difficult to get a meaningful read, and those I can read, but aren't pleasant to do so.

Impossible for me: Bosch (just poor artwork that I couldn't make sense of), Botticelli (ack, the gold glittter everywhere I can't see!), Thoth (really cool artwork, but the colors and images made me feel ill - wish I had kept it to try again... I think.), Medieval (the glitter again), Nostradamus (whaaa?).

Difficult: Shadowscapes (great great imagery, but so tiny it hurts my eyes and I cannot relax and be intuitive), Wildwood (the titles don't work for me, and the court cards I don't get, but I have had some great readings when I didn't draw certain whaa? cards), Universal Waite (the artwork just doesn't work for me, flat lifeless doodles). Others that went to the recycle bin... ( I am an impuse buyer too often).

Sorry, that was kind of tough... I'm having a rough day at work and its finally over.
 

bonebeach

In the right mood, I can read with *anything*. In the wrong mood, I can read nothing.

That said, the only deck I'm too intimidated to try is my Etteilla...I have the LoS one, and it's lovely and matte and it was a gift from someone I love. Every so often I take it out of the box and look through it...and then put it back in the box.
 

illyria

Like nisaba, I would have to say the Ironwing, too, for its impenetrability. The artwork is gorgeous and puts me in a pleasant kind of trance. I find it more oracular than anything, but as a tarot deck, I'd have to work really, really hard to get something from it.
 

cbiz83

I'm an ex Christian, and anything with "pervasive Christian iconography" turns me off like a burned lightbulb. I looked through the Matthews' Grial deck and gave it away without looking back; couldn't take the Christian fumes.

Yet not only Kat Black's Golden --which is assembled of 100% Christian art --is my all-time favorite deck, but I don't even feel any Christian vibes coming off it. Isn't that bizarre?

I have similar responses to overly Christian decks. But the art ones I dig because they're art, which tries very hard to reach out on a human level that goes far beyond doctrine.
 

crystalrose

Mine is the Salvador Dali. I get nothing from that. Also the Mona Lisa Tarot.
 

prudence

I've been pondering this for a while now, since reading the opening post. I think my most unreadable deck is the Paulina. Not that I have given it that much attention. I have tried to read with it maybe 5 to 10 times, without much pay off. The cards are too busy, too small to see all of the details, and yet the amount of details is just too much. I hate to read a deck like this by just going on the written meanings for cards, I feel like this kind of deck deserves to be read using its imagery and some of the known meanings for cards.

Maybe it's just me and I need better glasses. I do very much like the imagery, but I can't read with this deck so far. It's a bummer.
 

MissChiff

The Lumina Tarot... It just falls flat....
 

danieljuk

I have written about this before in threads about the deck but for me it's the Gypsy Palace Tarot. I supported the project, I love the artist and think she is awesome and I love the deck and it's art. The artwork is unique and wonderful. But I can't read the images! I can look at each card and I get no message from it :(

There is a lot of theories on AT about the deck and a lot of other people find it unreadable and some people have cracked it but I have yet to do that and it's so frustrating. I am going to keep the deck because I love it's artwork and quirky style.

I think when we look at art in cards, we try to work out the message or symbolism that the artist has included. I am intuitive reader and looking at nearly any deck, I get something at least! With the Gypsy Palace I just am blocked, I just see art! I hope one day I will crack it :)