A 'deep' dark deck?..

dancing_moon

Hello everyone :)

I've been looking for 'my' dark deck for a while now, but most decks I look at seem kind of 'shallow' to me, focusing too much on very straightforward 'dark' attributes like blood, fangs, cemeteries, and demons. What I'm looking for is a serious, perhaps Gothic deck, which explores and implies the dark sides of human psyche, rather than the lore of vampires, fallen angels and the like.

I'll appreciate you not only listing your favorite 'deep' dark decks, but also writing a little (or a lot! :D) about how they answer different questions and what makes them 'deep' for you.

Thanks everyone! :heart:
 

greatdane

Interesting thoughts, Dancing_Moon

I know many consider DARK decks one's like perhaps the Dark Grimoire, the Bohemian Gothic, various vampire or zombie decks, etc. Coming from a psychology background, I think of dark as facing something, our darker side, which may or may not involve decks like the above. Dark and deep can be the same or different to me. The Pamela Colman Smith Commemorative deck is my deck for my own readings almost all the time. I find I get what I need and want from it, but it's not dark to me, but deep. As far as dark decks, if a deck seems to try too hard to be dark, sometimes it has the opposite effect on me and I just find it a little campy. Which isn't a bad thing, just that I don't see it as that "dark". In some ways, I see the Bohemian Gothic as a little dark, one can get lost in some of the images, but surprisingly perhaps, I think of the Visconti Sforza as a bit dark and definitely deep. I think that may be because it is so old (except for a few of the images that had to be added because they were missing from the original) and it takes me back farther, it's not all modern new images. I will likely use it as one of my decks for Fall and Samhain.
Oh and there are decks other than just tarot I consider a bit dark, there are Lenormands, oracles of different types that can be dark.
 

greatdane

I agree, AJ

It is very subjective. It's our minds that make something dark or not, what we perceive as dark. OH YeaH, the decks list! I went through every single deck there when I first started :) and scoured other places online, Etsy, all over looking at decks. :)
 

dancing_moon

greatdane said:
As far as dark decks, if a deck seems to try too hard to be dark, sometimes it has the opposite effect on me and I just find it a little campy.
Click to expand...

That's exactly my problem. :D

I love the Visconti-Sforza (though don't have it - yet), but it isn't really that kind of dark. I guess, I'm looking for something more frightening, but subtly so.

AJ, thanks for the link! That's a HUGE list to go through, that's why I'm looking for real-life impressions from people actually using the cards. :)
 

greatdane

well dancing_moon

I guess you will have to think about the sort of images you really see as frightening, not campy or humorous. That can be hard, because there is that fine line or sometimes not even a fine line, but a pretty thick one as to what is really scary! I do see your dilemma. I haven't found a lot of really dark decks either, but then I don't really look for them. I read books in psychology about our darker side and that seems to have satisfied a lot of that for me :).
 

dancing_moon

Greatdane, thanks for your great responses. :)

I'm still looking for your opinions, guys. This is not a contest to find a perfect deck for me, really. :D I'm just very interested in everyone's opinions, experiences, and so on, so keep them coming!
 

seven stars

AND

The Deck of the Bastard. Duh. Hahaha! ; )))
 
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