Puzzling Decks! Help!!!!

[balenciaga]

Intuition does help in situations like these. Even if you were using the rws and you looked at the way the cards fell in the spread and said to yourself, "I know this card should mean x, but gosh darnit if it doesn't play out as a y in this throw".
See how you feel when you see the card used. You may find the artist's meaning resonant when applied (as if to say, "Yes, I can see how that would mean this here - it works here"). Consider it an additional layer of meaning.

 

[Emily]

I don't usually read the LWB's either but sometimes they can be useful. The LWB to the Liber T is basic but not a waste of paper.

I usually use basic meanings too but I take note of the artwork as it is relevant to the reading (for me) and with a deck as complex as the Liber T sometimes the traditional meanings go out of the window. I just take each reading as it comes, keep the idea of what the card is supposed to mean in mind and then let the artwork speak - intuitive reading takes a little getting used to.

I learned on the RWS too and all your decks are RWS clones so they will follow the basic RWS symbolism but just be aware of what the artwork of the card is telling you too.

Learning the tarot is a life-long study, there are no hard and fast rules - just do what feels comfortable for you.

 

[Onyx]

This is why it is best to throw out the LWB and write down your own meanings for each card. The decision to assign meanings to each card is an arbitrary one made by whoever is writing the LWB. Aren't we all just as capable of making arbitrary assignment of meanings?

While I would not call the meanings arbitrary but are all the systems of meanings for the card give to them by a person? Who is to say that some meanings are not a purposeful as others.

Sure some meanings fit better in to some boxes or systems. Some meanings more readily enforce what we have come to understand the cards to represent but who am I to say that anyones meanings are more correct than anyone elses. Tarot can adapt, shift, change and progress in ways that bring us along for the ride.

My ideal situation with each new deck is that the image on the card will both identify with what I have learned as teh basics and then also amplify it with its own voice or point of view. The difference in tarot decks really pove the point that sometimes it is not what you say but rather how you say it.

In the end if i am not connecting with the art, imagery and symbolism of a deck then I can fall back on what I have learned but it doesn't feel as intiutive or as organic as I like the process to feel.

Allan

 

[SunChariot]

I am wondering, why is it that everytime I buy a new deck of tarot cards, the card's meaning in the book included (LWB), sometimes has completely different meaning from the other deck of cards I bought? Does every different tarot deck has meaning of it's own?

I notice from the readings in this forum that the meanings given by the readers all depends on the deck being used. For me, I find it difficult to change meanings from deck to deck. Please help! I'm puzzled!!!!!!

- Ranzel

Yes, each deck is different. Some can be as different as night and day. Each deck tends to "embody" the personal life philosophy of the deck's creator. Not only that, but there are really no meanings that are completely set in any one deck. Meanings is influenced by the question asked, the position of the cards in a deck and surrouding cards. Even by the reader him/herself. Each reader also has their own life philosophy that enters into how they see the cards.

Well, if you find it difficult to change meanings from deck to deck, maybe you are just a one deck reader. There is nothing wrong with that if that is the kind of reader you want to be. I know some readers who love to have lots of decks and others who stick to just the one. The decision is totally yours.

IF you feel you want more than one deck to read with and still feel confused learning new decks, the way I see it you have two options. You will either have to learn each new deck you get somewhat anew. Or you might want to unlearn the way you read now and relearn to read in a way that is applicable to all decks, like perhaps read more intutiively.

Those are the only solutions I can see, but honestly it could just be that you are a one deck reader by nature, and that is fine too.

Babs

 

[SunChariot]

So, will the design of the cards affect the meaning and outcome of the reading?

Depends on how you read. There is more than one way to read of course. For those who read by set meanings, the meanings of the cards does not change that much. For those who read intuitively or mainly by working with the imagery of the cards, the meaning is dramatically different between decks.

Babs

 

[All Is One]

I have a rather moody approach to using tarot. If I'm doing a reading while in a "study and learning" mood (especially with certain complicated decks) I analyze more of the symbols and perhaps over think the whole reading. I'm not saying I like being in that "mode" but it happens often.

If I'm in a more intuitive, relaxed, open state, I can find a dreamy sort of conceptual approach that I would love to say I can manifest all of the time but I simply can't.

Overall: the deck I'm using is the result of the mood I'm in anyway, so there is a definite correlation there. My approach does vary from deck to deck but at the bottom of it all is still the bare bones of what I learned in the beginning: the meanings of the numbers one through ten, the suits, the other correspondences as I learned them over the years.

Others before me here gave more helpful answers... but there is my two cents anyway.

I thought it was a good question.

 

[Aerin]

My ideal situation with each new deck is that the image on the card will both identify with what I have learned as teh basics and then also amplify it with its own voice or point of view. The difference in tarot decks really pove the point that sometimes it is not what you say but rather how you say it.

In 100% agreement here. Sometimes I see where the deck is coming from straight away even if it is from a very different viewpoint (the Fey is my classic example here, RWS but with a twist) and sometimes it takes a while (I am going to have to work at the LS Circle of Life because while some cards I get straight away, some I need to work on how they relate to what I already know). Mostly, once I have thought and read for a while the variation on the theme gets clearer. If in doubt I go back to the 'source deck', mostly RWS for my decks. It's as if the deck holds a snapshot of the card, the illustration may not hold everything about a card but it provides a jumping off point to access a whole spectrum of meanings. Each deck brings a different part of a card into focus and it may not be one you have used before.

I would be careful though with the LWBs: sometimes they just regurgitate traditional meanings (the 'you will meet a dark stranger carrying a bunch of flowers next Tuesday') and sometimes they are more helpful. I found having a good chunky book covering a whole range of meanings for each card helpful, I also use Thirteen's meanings here and Joan Bunning's site. Companion books are far more use for the most part: I like to know where the author is coming from.

And that's just my way.

Aerin

ps edited to say: and some of the variation you see may well be accounted for by differences in spread position, surrounding cards and the question asked.... I don't read the same card from the same deck the same way every time.