From: armitage@ficus.lmc.edu
Subject: Re: The art of tarot
Summary: Stuff.
Organization: Lees-McRae College, Banner Elk, NC
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 23:43:16 GMT

In article <=6=m2rk@lynx.unm.edu> cipher@lacerta.unm.edu (Rev. J. B. Bell) writes:

>In article <1992Jul14.155737.18218@terminator.cc.umich.edu> briansp@css.itd.umich.edu (Brian Spolarich) writes:
>>
>>     I have been reading tarot for the past year or so and I have a 
>>few questions.
>>     1.  What decks and styles of decks do individuals find most useful?
>>         What are the differences?  In feeling?  In reading?


I don't have much experience either but I'll add my 2 cents worth.
My main deck is the Daughters of the Moon deck.  This is mostly because it 
was my first deck and remains the one I am most familar with.  Also, it is
one of the ones each person personalizes by coloring the cards themselves.  (
Make sure you don't use a marker that bleeds.)  I also like that the cards
are round so I can use a waxing/waning interpretation on the upright/reversed
positions.

One problem is that it's not well balanced in that there is a radical 
shortage of males in the deck.  (Nor do I like decks with a shortage of 
females or where the females are always depected negatively.)  I like this 
deck for depicting women in all shapes, sizes, ages, races... there is even 
one of a wheel-chair race.

>My big criteria for decks are:

>1.  Good art.  

I agree.  Whoever drew the Power card in my deck did such a bad job on the 
lion's face that I get angry whenever I look at it and have gotten used to 
doing readings without using that card.

The pattern on the back of the cards should not show direction so that a
person (esp. a non-initiate) is not tempted to situate them all in one 
direction instead of how they fall.

>2.  Illustrated minor arcana.  (So I'm a mnemonic wimp--I like to 
have>the pictures to get an idea of what's going on.)

Ditto

>>     3.  What opinions do individuals have on the "mechanics" of Tarot?  
>>         How do you feel it works?  What is involved?  What personal
>>         experiences have you had?

>As for personal experiences, I've had a few startlingly clear
>readings, and many muddled ones.  Usually I can tell the difference at
>the time.  

Ditto again.

I usually start out with the Tree of Life spread to get back into the swing
of things, then move on to a free-form one that a friend taught me.
After shuffling the cards, spread them in a line in front of the person 
the reading is for.  Have the person (or self) draw from 1 to 10 cards from 
the lot and then have them arrange the cards however they *feel* right.
(I have to have my eyes closed for this because I find that sight gets in 
the way.  At least, the positions are slightly different than I pictures and 
it impacted the reading.)  Turn the cards face up.  Find the baseline, if 
there is one.  Read for "Reversed", etc. from the baseline (Once it was 
between two lines of cards) and pay attention to where the people in the 
pictures are looking.  Instead of being tilted or reversed, the card may be 
"looking" at a neighboring card that it is impacting or being impacted by.

I like using the books on occation, especially when getting familiar with a
new deck.  Sometimes words or phrases *stand out* during a reading and I
find that useful.

Bright BLessings,
Char
Newsgroups: alt.magick