Alternating decks

headincloud

I only use one deck along with the lovers tarot which consists of just the majors where base meanings are the same but with a relationship twist on them. For those of you who alternate decks I'm curious to know would different decks give you the same meanings/reading or would results be different with a different pack?
 

page of ghosts

For me they do - I take into account what is in the image so different decks might omit some symbolism or change it up, especially if they have a theme. And then the meaning might change slightly or an aspect be enhanced. I've mostly worked with the RWS and decks inspired by it, so while I can recognise an image as such and such card in a RWS-close deck I also look at what's different.
 

Trogon

I only use one deck along with the lovers tarot which consists of just the majors where base meanings are the same but with a relationship twist on them. For those of you who alternate decks I'm curious to know would different decks give you the same meanings/reading or would results be different with a different pack?

Well for me, for the most part, the basic meanings of the cards doesn't change very much from deck to deck. But what does change is how they look and "feel" in a reading. Sometimes it isn't the meaning that changes so much as the "flavor" of the interpretation - meaning how it might be presented to me or rather how I deliver it to the querent. Other times the image might lead my intuition to a rather different interpretation all together.

So, for example, if the 8 of Swords in a deck shows the chains or ropes binding the person as being tightly wound around them, I might interpret that as indicating they may be trapped by something more beyond their control. Whereas if the ropes are loosely draped around them, I might think it is more self-imposed.

Or, with one of my favorite cards of the Tarot, The Chariot, the presence or absence of reigns (or other means of physical control) can change they way I see the card.

I think I really started reading more intuitively this way when I started learning the Röhrig Tarot. I'd learned on the RWS, so the Röhrig was a real change for me. Opened up a lot of new ways of looking at the cards. I now have a lot of decks and try to use them all. And every one of them can lead my mind in new directions when I read with them. The Necronomicon Tarot is another one that has led me to some different, non-standard interpretations of the cards.

I love using different decks. If you have other decks that you want to work with, I highly recommend the Deck of The Week threads (the link is to the current one). They give you some incentive to try your different decks, as well as maybe getting some good information on the decks other folks are using.
 

Barleywine

For all decks that were derived from the Golden Dawn system (the Thoth, the RWS and their clones), I use the Golden Dawn foundation as tweaked by Aleister Crowley, with occasional minor sidelights from the RWS canon. All my readings following this approach have many similarities in style. For a deck that's radically different (like the Voyager Tarot) I use the creator's system and try to avoid bringing in anything from other systems. Lately, most of my alternating when reading for clients has been between RWS-based decks, so there isn't much variability in the interpretation. I don't key off the visuals too much, so artwork is secondary to the embedded symbolism. The story-telling that I wrap around the skeleton of core meaning is where the creativity and inspiration come in.
 

headincloud

For me they do - I take into account what is in the image so different decks might omit some symbolism or change it up, especially if they have a theme. And then the meaning might change slightly or an aspect be enhanced. I've mostly worked with the RWS and decks inspired by it, so while I can recognise an image as such and such card in a RWS-close deck I also look at what's different.

So you use your base knowledge of the cards and tweak it according to the particular symbolism, thanks for your response.
 

headincloud

Well for me, for the most part, the basic meanings of the cards doesn't change very much from deck to deck. But what does change is how they look and "feel" in a reading. Sometimes it isn't the meaning that changes so much as the "flavor" of the interpretation - meaning how it might be presented to me or rather how I deliver it to the querent. Other times the image might lead my intuition to a rather different interpretation all together.

So, for example, if the 8 of Swords in a deck shows the chains or ropes binding the person as being tightly wound around them, I might interpret that as indicating they may be trapped by something more beyond their control. Whereas if the ropes are loosely draped around them, I might think it is more self-imposed.

Or, with one of my favorite cards of the Tarot, The Chariot, the presence or absence of reigns (or other means of physical control) can change they way I see the card.

I think I really started reading more intuitively this way when I started learning the Röhrig Tarot. I'd learned on the RWS, so the Röhrig was a real change for me. Opened up a lot of new ways of looking at the cards. I now have a lot of decks and try to use them all. And every one of them can lead my mind in new directions when I read with them. The Necronomicon Tarot is another one that has led me to some different, non-standard interpretations of the cards.

I love using different decks. If you have other decks that you want to work with, I highly recommend the Deck of The Week threads (the link is to the current one). They give you some incentive to try your different decks, as well as maybe getting some good information on the decks other folks are using.

Thanks for your response and the link, you too seem to be tweaking base knowledge. If a pack leads you to different and non-standard interpretations would those overlap with standard interpretations to be applied to other packs or are they just pinned on a particular deck exclusively?
 

headincloud

For all decks that were derived from the Golden Dawn system (the Thoth, the RWS and their clones), I use the Golden Dawn foundation as tweaked by Aleister Crowley, with occasional minor sidelights from the RWS canon. All my readings following this approach have many similarities in style. For a deck that's radically different (like the Voyager Tarot) I use the creator's system and try to avoid bringing in anything from other systems. Lately, most of my alternating when reading for clients has been between RWS-based decks, so there isn't much variability in the interpretation. I don't key off the visuals too much, so artwork is secondary to the embedded symbolism.

I see, thanks for your insight. The voyager tarot is based on a different system then?
 

Barleywine

I see, thanks for your insight. The voyager tarot is based on a different system then?

Yes. James Wanless was steeped in the Thoth when he started the project, but it took off in a new direction that owes almost nothing to its inspiration. It's a disadvantage to try reading the Voyager in the conventional way.
 

nisaba

I only use one deck along with the lovers tarot which consists of just the majors where base meanings are the same but with a relationship twist on them. For those of you who alternate decks I'm curious to know would different decks give you the same meanings/reading or would results be different with a different pack?

I find they are quite different. But the client gets the reading that they need. Different decks might just throw different cards to give you that reading.
 

EmpyreanKnight

As much as possible, I initially try to follow what the creator intended his/her cards to mean, so yes I assign different meanings to different decks. But of course as I go further along my deck study, I inevitably imbue it with my own personal meanings, which may also be adapted from other decks I've previously handled.

In any case, I've been learning to incorporate to a greater degree the images in the cards themselves in my readings, so I guess my interpretations for my various decks have grown more tailored to their specific aesthetics.