Tarot decks vs. Playing cards

[divinemsm]

The Tarot "Diary of a Broken soul" actually uses the traditional suits from playing cards. The suits of Diamonds, Clubs, Spades and Hearts are in the corners of the minors, and then there is a gorgeous picture i the center using the standard Tarot suits. It looks to be an amazing deck and I can't wait for it to come out since it almost offers a transition point for those who would like to learn to read plain playing cards.

 

[nisaba]

Nisaba's timing method

I've done the timing thing in hundreds of threads over the last year! I'm surprised you haven't seen it. Nay, profoundly shocked.

Well, here goes again, tagged with NISABA'S TIMING METHOD for the benefit of the search engine next time y'all howl at me that I haven't told you.

1) The time intervals are predicated on the speed of the suits.

Coins, as Earth, is slowest-moving, so represents years.
Cups, as Water, is second slowest, a little faster, so it is months.
Swords as Air, is faster still, so it is weeks.
Wands, as Fire, is fastest and most energetic of all, so it is days.

Aces through to tens are that time-interval multiplied by the face-value (ie, Ace Coins would be one year, Four Wands would be four days).

Pages are eleven of the time-unit, Knights twelve, Queens thirteen, and Kings fourteen. This already provides the deck with a bit of overlap. (If I was using an ordinary playing deck, I would make Jacks eleven, Queens twelve and Kings thirteen).

Drawing a Major tells you this, and I usually say exactly this to clients: "The Tarot doesn't know how long it will be. It is entirely up to you. This card is about [name the principle issue of the card]; when that has been resolved and dealt with in your life, then and only then will it come to happen. If you want it to happen faster, then work through your issues concerning this card faster".

NOTE WELL!!!

This method DOES NOT WORK if you simply pull a card from the remainder of the deck you've already done the main spread with. It also has a track record of occasional failure if you use a second deck that is accustomed to being used for readings - it will keep trying to tell you stuff instead of just figuring out timings. Keep one deck entirely separate, one you have never read from. I recommend very simple decks - Marseilles-style decks are excellent. I personally use a Ancient Tarot of Bologna which I have *never* used for readings, and have been using for upwards of seventeen years for timings - if someone tried to do a spread with it, the deck wouldn't know what hit it. And from feedback I get as well as from my own observations, it is stunning just how accurate timings are when the deck has never been trained up to do anything else, and has been used consistently for this purpose.

And practically, how is it done? If a client asks for a time-frame and my intuitive feeling draws a blank, I pick up my timing deck, put it in their hands, and say "Shuffle briefly. Then cut the deck WHEREVER IT WANTS TO COME APART".

Simple as.

And on timings, and only timings, I can almost do the morally bankrupt thing with a clear conscience, and run huge newspaper adverts screaming

[size=+2]100% ACCURACY![/size]

 

[WolfyJames]

Wow thank you nisaba for your timing method, it sounds good. I shall try it at some point. Now to pick a deck for that...

P.S. Yes, I have one deck of playing cards, the Fortune Teller's Deck by Lyle, and my mother found it so pretty she got a set for her too. I use them sometimes but I'm better with tarot, sibillas and Petit LeNormand.

 

[zan_chan]

nisaba,

very cool. that will definitely be tried out.

what is it that makes a deck a "timing deck" to you? which deck do you use?

 

[Teheuti]

I bought a Hoyle "Jumbo" Poker deck (actually standard size but the corner number is big) because there is lots of white space, and I have been writing old playing card meanings on it for a couple of years now. You can find lots of lists of old meanings on the web or in fortune-telling books. I'm deliberately steering away from tarot-based meanings and trying to go for the most classic playing card meanings I can find. Occasionally the meanings are contradictory but most of the time I recognize a common thread.

A good place to start is with Chambers:
http://www.thebookofdays.com/months/feb/21.htm
The article on THE FOLKLORE OF PLAYING CARDS is about a third of the way down.

And, just for fun - Chambers has an amusing article on the history of English card-playing at:
http://www.thebookofdays.com/months/dec/28.htm

 

[Mateo06]

I found a great poker deck in the gas station the other week. It's printed on plastic, so it's beer proof when playing drinking games. I would love to see more tarot decks printed on plastic (I know the transparent is printed on plastic).
the deck is black, and the black suits are white, and red are red. It's pretty cool

 

[Sebavin]

I picked up a set of Nightmare Before Christmas playing cards---mostly 'cause it's Jack, and partly 'cause I'll never have the tarot.

I've practiced with a few decks that are strictly poker cards, and I felt I did okay. It's not much different than reading with pips, come to think of it. But I would like to learn the old playing card meanings aside from trying to assign tarot to it. I purchased the Gypsy Fortune Telling Kit from Embla awhile back, and I absolutely adore it! It works very well for timing, and play-by-play activity. Seriously, when you lay out three cards, it's saying "these three things will happen, and in this order".


Thanks for the timing method, nisaba. I love tarot. That aside, it is a horrid tool for timing and I much prefer using poker cards. I think your timing plan thingy will translate nicely to playing cards.

 

[chongjasmine]

I suppose we all know the difference. I'm musing here for a while - I might end up asking a question, if you're lucky.

48 hours ago on my way to work with a bagful of Tarot decks, for reasons I'd prefer not to explain, I found myself wandering into a tobacconist. Yes, I used to smoke years ago, no I haven't lapsed. Before I managed to come to my senses and locate the exit, a deck of playing cards leapt into my handbag, at minimal cost ($2.00 Australian, half the cost of a cup of chips). The sides, top and bottom are green, with white writing, the bottom labelled "No. 2002". In a flimsy cardboard box that is already giving way, the front has a compiled image assembled from three cards out of the pack, the back has a different composite image of three other cards. There is no publisher's or printer's name anywhere - they were probably too embarrassed. The front and back of the deck is labelled, through the composite image, "World Cup Playing Cards" in slightly smaller font on the back. It has the regulation two Jokers - both of them Umpires - one a red Joker, the other a black Joker. The black Joker wears a red jersey. It also has the regulation four suits, but the two you'd expect to be red are actually pale pink. I believe the printer was saving costs on ink. They are about the size of the pocket RW, and are completely unvarnished and unlaminated. The photos are in full, lurid colour, badly photoshopped to enhance colour. You get the full gamut of soccer behaviours: kicks, falls, grimaces and rude gestures. I know absolutely none of the faces, but that's not surprising - blood sports and TV are two things I don't take much interest in.

I suppose I acquired this item because I have a set method of deriving particular and precise timings, and for upwards of twelve years I've used the Ancient Tarots of Bologna for my timings, and perhaps if I used a conventional playing deck, I'd score an extra free Tarot deck instantly (one that hasn't any idea how to function as Tarot!).

So with this shocking item still in my bag I wandered into the local tourist-trap today, to say hello to the part-owner and chat with her and see if she has any of those nice watered-silk squares I like to wrap decks in and currently can't afford <grin>.

Dammit if she didn't have an assortment of playing cards! Hers were over four times the price, and came in transparent plastic cases that clicked-shut. There were a few that drew my attention: Landmarks of Australia, Wildlife of Australia, Native Plants of Australia, Native birds of Australia and Aboriginal Art. I couldn't afford to buy any, of course, so I left empty-handed.

They were a class act - but unfortunately, they weren't Tarot. I briefly considered coming back when I was cashed up for them, to "add to the collection". But I don't collect playing cards - in fact, until a day or two ago, I didn't even own a single deck of playing cards and the one I now own is completely unused.

And now, I'm wondering about collecting Tarot decks. Is it like a "gateway drug" that leads people into darker addictions, seducing me into the assembling of indiscriminate collections-of-collections, or even just subliminally suggesting that anything printed-on-cardboard is collectible? Just how, exactly, was I able to justify even considering coming back for those perfectly useless decks by the thought of "adding them to the collection" when I simultaneously recognised that I do not collect playing cards?

And how valuable will this no-name World Cup deck be in a few years when it's been OOP and unobtainable for a few years? Who, even, are the people and the teams pictured on it? It's all a great mystery.

At least the Mysteries of the Tarot are intimately familiar and well-known mysteries, but with this deck I am completely lost. I don't understand it at all. Where are the Majors - do you buy them separately? I'm as completely mystified by it as someone who picked up their first Tarot deck last week is, and I don't even have an AT-equivalent to go to, and tell them I'm the biggest cheese out, and ask beginners' questions! <laughter>

(What do you use playing cards for, anyway? Divination? Mulch?)

\

Currently, I only have one deck of tarot cards. The Rider Waite Tarot. I am planning to collect more, though. I have in mind to save up enough money to buy one tarot deck a month, and I intend to start my collection with christian-orientated tarot deck. I don't know why, but for some reasons, christianity fascinated me. Even though I am no longer a christian, christianity still kinds of fascinates me. I used to be a dream interpretator for christian, back when I was still a christian.

Now I had shifted my interest for dream interpretation into tarot card. Hopefully, I will earn more money and so can afford to purchase more tarot decks.

 

[nisaba]

nisaba,

very cool. that will definitely be tried out.

what is it that makes a deck a "timing deck" to you? which deck do you use?

It's a deck I don't use and haven't used for readings, a deck I use exclusively for timings, and a deck whose imagery does not fire a lot of thinking and wonder.

I personally chose the Ancient Tarots of Bologna. You can choose any deck you want, that you wouldn't ordinarily ever think to read with, and that hasn't been educated in the ways of doing readings.

 

[yirabeth]

I've done the timing thing in hundreds of threads over the last year! I'm surprised you haven't seen it. Nay, profoundly shocked.

Well, here goes again, tagged with NISABA'S TIMING METHOD for the benefit of the search engine next time y'all howl at me that I haven't told you.
***snipped for brevity by Yira***

[size=+2]100% ACCURACY![/size]

This is fascinating, thank you for posting it. I'm going to post it in my tarot journal for further thought, because I'm learning soo much lately that I may lose half of it out the other side of my head if I'm not careful and keep notes...lol I will attribute it to you of course

~Yira