Perfect deck, except...

I can see this interpretation as a predator card as valid. If you want to see it that way fine...it is certainly reasonable. I offer just one more way (of many I can think of offhand) to look at it. I certainly can't say that in a reading the predator interpretation certainly might not feel right in a specific situation. The card just isn't a deal-breaker for me as I basically see more positive things in it.

I do see your point about the "grey hair". I see it as white and have an entire branch of my family with white hair from birth. Again, it is a personal experience kind of thing.

There is an entire minor arcana that ruins a deck for me. It is the minors in the Marseilles tarot.

I have a Noblet Marseilles. I love the majors but the minors in this deck just look like a jumble to me, despite knowing there are many that read very well with this deck. My solution is to just use the majors, then the deck is wonderful.

One more deck with a single card that ruins it for me. It is "Tarot for Cats" by Regen Dennis and illustrated by Kipling West, a majors only deck.

The card that did it was the Death card. The art is fine but the thought of a dead cat just bothered me too much.

The Death card had an accident at the garbage can and now the deck is wonderful.

yeah, pip cards can be hard to read for some - so I understand that. The "accident at the garbage can" made me laugh, lol! I have had cards that "fell" through cracks ;p lol! I don't do that anymore, however, I have read that an application of a Sharpie marker can work wonders for a card I guess it depends on whether or not a person is ok with doodling on their decks

The World Spirit "Uncle Nasty" card, with the guy sitting bottomless in the garden surrounded with small children is a deal-breaker for me. But I love the deck. solution: a black sharpie. He now wears bicycle shorts! It's the only card I've ever done this with, though there have been a few other temptations!

minotaur said:

Having tissue-paper skin on the internet is a sure formula for misery.

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And being the one to point out others inadequacies - real, imagined or projected- is a sure formula for being disliked and/or misunderstood, however well-meant.

Debra said:

I think Laura Borealis describes the Rohrig 6 of Cups perfectly and I recall a thread where this was discussed at some length although of course I cannot find it

People may react strongly for purely personal reasons, but if they can explain what it is about the image that seems disturbing, it ignores their efforts at art criticism to imply that they are simply projecting onto the artwork the snakes in their own heads. Of course such an implication (ie, you must have issues with older men and younger women or you wouldn't see it this way) is a personal challenge.

eta: Here's the picture. Someone pointed out that his gray hair and beard add to the implication that he's quite older than she.

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No doubt she looks younger than him...but not necessarily a teen.

I can't think off hand of too many cards that bother me enough to remember then when asked - but since Minotaur brought up the WTC Tower card, I remembered the Tower in the Silicon Dawn tarot - obviously the WTC buildings, complete with people jumping, done in a cheerful cartoon fashion. I find that card offensive, for obvious reasons.

Chiriku said:

Oh? Where'd she say that?

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At a party hosted by Tarot Media company at Pantheacon last year. She was hilarious.

Debra said:

eta: Here's the picture. Someone pointed out that his gray hair and beard add to the implication that he's quite older than she.

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With that butt, it could be a young man he's embracing.....

I was going to say - since I own NONE of these decks (other than the Robin Wood) that it would be nice to see a scan of what exactly it is that turns you off...

Debra said:

People may react strongly for purely personal reasons, but if they can explain what it is about the image that seems disturbing, it ignores their efforts at art criticism to imply that they are simply projecting onto the artwork the snakes in their own heads. Of course such an implication (ie, you must have issues with older men and younger women or you wouldn't see it this way) is a personal challenge.

eta: Here's the picture. Someone pointed out that his gray hair and beard add to the implication that he's quite older than she.

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It's news to me that this card has caused mass offence. How curious; the conclusions people reach. I never for one minute thought that she was much younger than him. Where did that theory come from? However, I do think he strikes a rather forceful pose and the clothes he is wearing, the colours and fabrics, seem Moroccan to me. I wonder if there's something subliminal there.

I find that weird, optical illusion sort of 2 of Cups in the Rohrig far more unnerving (see below).

As for me, I have to confess, after 2 years, that I have been unable to like (still) the Lovers in the 2nd edition Bohemian Gothic. This must be the only MRP card I cannot work with. It jars with the rest of the deck, has none of the Victorian parlour photography darkness of the other images and I use the deck with fingers crossed that the card doesn't come up.

Recently, I have been using the deck a lot again and I have been thinking of removing the card altogether and having the 2 of Cups as my double up Lovers card. The rest of the deck is perfection to me. I could I suppose use the Memento Mori card as The Lovers except it has no explicit qualities of The Lovers

magpie9 said:

The World Spirit "Uncle Nasty" card, with the guy sitting bottomless in the garden surrounded with small children is a deal-breaker for me. But I love the deck. solution: a black sharpie. He now wears bicycle shorts! It's the only card I've ever done this with, though there have been a few other temptations!

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Eeesh! That IS nasty - well done you for covering that up - I think I would have done same! odd imagery for a card, I wonder what the artist intended? Did they say in the LWB?

(and, PS, Magpie, thanks for your other comment, too - well said! )

Bhavana said:

I can't think off hand of too many cards that bother me enough to remember then when asked - but since Minotaur brought up the WTC Tower card, I remembered the Tower in the Silicon Dawn tarot - obviously the WTC buildings, complete with people jumping, done in a cheerful cartoon fashion. I find that card offensive, for obvious reasons.

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I'm pretty sure most people would find that offensive - it just seems so disrespectful to both the victims and their families...that was a horrible day in history, I shall never forget the shock of it when I saw it on the news - and I didn't even know any of the poor souls, and brave souls, that were there at the time...so imagine how much worse for the families ;p

tarotbear said:

I was gong to say - since I own NONE of these decks (other than the Robin Wood) that it would be nice to see a scan of what exactly it is that turns you off...

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Gladly, tarotbear, here's mine! (and now that I look at it again - the blue flowers in her hair bug me, too! lol! Looks like a bathing cap from the 60's ;p ) I don't know what it is - the pointy fingers or the flattened face, or the odd, stoned look in the too-large eyes - it just - makes my fur lie against the grain! I don't have this kind of "recoil reaction" from any other card in any other deck I have.