Which Majors do you look to for first impressions of a deck?

[Practicing Human]

I undersell the minors myself. The funny thing is my primary deck, the Cosmic Tarot, has several minors that are a stretch from the traditional meaning I learned, specifically from the RWS. I really had to be pretty forgiving with myself to allow their meanings to trump (no pun intended) the meanings I originally learned. It was like an interpretation tug-o-war every time one of those cards surfaced (specifically the 5 of Pentacles, 4 of Wands, 6 of Swords to name a few).

I like the Legacy minors much better. I do have to be forgiving with the octopus legged 8 of Cups, though...

 

[Chronata]

The Magician, the Star, the Sun, the Fool, and the Moon (in that order)are ones that I always want to take a gander at before I buy a deck.

But the Hanged Man is a deal breaker.
Any Hanged Man card that shows unnecessary violence, is automatically not going to make it into my collection.

I also like to get a good cross section of the courts...and if I can read their personalities at first glance, then I can usually forgive other faults.

 

[nisaba]

My Tarot-self was born-and-bred in the age when all you saw was the artwork on the front, back and sides of a sealed deck. For many. many years, I made all my judgements on that, and was never disappointed. Plus the element of surprise - when you pore over 78 online scans, you can never come across an unexpected beauty in a newly arrived deck, and gasp with wonder and delight!

 

[Amaterasu]

I actually prefer looking at the minors because they make up the bulk of the deck. Good minors = good deck, for me.

But for the majors, I have to see the High Priestess and Moon first. : )

 

[3Jane]

I like to get a general feel of the deck imagery before I get it. The dealbreakers would be: traditional images for the Devil, the Hierophant and the Judgement (I'm not Christian, so the symbolism doesn't really speak to me), as well as objectification of women or gender essentialism (for this I'd look at the Empress, the High Priestess, the Moon and court cards).

The latter is why I like single-gender decks like Motherpeace and Daughters of the Moon: by necessity they also show women in traditionally masculine roles instead of paying lip service to the concept by retaining the usual imagery and saying "Although the Emperor is a man, this card might also mean a bossy woman". I imagine the same would apply to decks that show only men, but I don't know since I don't own any.

 

[Sulis]

Justice and Strength for me - Justice has to be at number VIII and Strength has to be at number XI. I have been known to change the numbers around if I really like a deck though (Morgan Greer) or just get rid of them all together as I have on my World Spirit deck. I have had those 2 decks for many years though, these days I tend to go for historical decks so the Justice / Strength being switched problem doesn't arise.

I like Death to be Death or just XIII, no 'Transformation' for me. In fact I don't generally like the Majors to be renamed; if it's not broken, I see no point in fixing something.

 

[greatdane]

Great thread, Practicing Human!

Great question. Really, I need to see them all. I have been fooled before just seeing maybe six or eight and then getting a deck and there will be a handful that I find too distracting or disappointing. So if possible, all of them, if not, as many as possible. As Le Fanu said, the minors can be the ones to make a deck blah or not as readable.

 

[Myrrha]

The Lovers, as I really don't like the ones where that card tries to illustrate the concept of choice rather than the concept of relationship.

The Devil, I like a flexible Devil card, decks like the Anna K that have Devil cards where the interpretation is rigidly built into the illustration don't work as well for me. This was also why the otherwise wonderful Cosmic Tarot didn't remain a favorite.


More important though are the minors particularly the Ten of Cups and Ten of Pentacles/Coins. I prefer cards where the notions of secure contentment and prosperity aren't illustrated with depictions of families.

The Court cards are also important. I like them to be people doing things rather than sitting on thrones looking symbolic.

 

[Tibor]

I do care about the Majors but there isn't much that can go wrong with them. It's the Minors that usually make me wanna get the deck or not. They need to fit into some sort of Golden Dawn structure otherwise I will not like it. Usually if the Majors 'went all wrong' that means I will not like the Minors too. The only exception to this (I can think of) is of course the Silicon Dawn