Why is Tarot "true" but other cards aren't? Or: "The Fantod Pack"

Krystophe

I am a devoted fan of Edward Gorey, and absolutely love the Fantod Pack. While I have rarely attempted a serious reading with it, suppose one were to approach it something like this:

Shuffle the cards normally, but invert a portion of them (the way people do when reading Tarot reversals). When reading a card's message, an upright card carries the meaning given in the book, while an inverted card reverses the meaning; thus "loss of youth" might be read as "youthful vitality," "poverty" could become "abundance," "disagreeable news" becomes "good news", and so on.

Some of the meanings might require a stretch of the imagination to interpret this way; how would one reverse "Thursday," for example, and what exactly would be implied by a reversal of "disorders of the large intestine?"

Still, it seems like an amusing challenge, and an interesting way to add a bit of (dark) humor to your readings. Now I feel moved to pull out the deck myself and experiment!
 

tarotbear

Tiggy-cat said:
...Are these cards just as "true" as Tarot, and I'm giving my dad an evil deck full of dire predictictions for his future??
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Tiggy-cat - I am enjoying this thread!

However, the first thing that came to my mind when I first read your post is one of the 'Tarot Myths' contained in my latest book - in 'The Usual Pack of Lies' section: "Drawing a card will make what it depicts happen".

Do you believe everything predicted in a Fortune Cookie is true? :)

PS - one of the other myths says " If you get a reading with a bad omen, remove the offending card from the deck. As long as it stays out of the rest of the deck, that future would be kept from happening. If the card goes back in, the future is unfrozen and will happen as predicted. "

Right.
 

Tiggy-cat

Krystophe said:
I am a devoted fan of Edward Gorey, and absolutely love the Fantod Pack. While I have rarely attempted a serious reading with it, suppose one were to approach it something like this:

Shuffle the cards normally, but invert a portion of them (the way people do when reading Tarot reversals). When reading a card's message, an upright card carries the meaning given in the book, while an inverted card reverses the meaning; thus "loss of youth" might be read as "youthful vitality," "poverty" could become "abundance," "disagreeable news" becomes "good news", and so on.

Some of the meanings might require a stretch of the imagination to interpret this way; how would one reverse "Thursday," for example, and what exactly would be implied by a reversal of "disorders of the large intestine?"

Still, it seems like an amusing challenge, and an interesting way to add a bit of (dark) humor to your readings. Now I feel moved to pull out the deck myself and experiment!
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Krystophe, I like that idea! I don't usually read reversals with Tarot but that would be an interesting challenge/experiment with that deck.

Now that my dad isn't keeping it, since he already had it (just for entertainment, since he doesn't read cards at all) I'll have to either borrow his or buy it for myself one of these days. It *is* absolutely a hoot!
 

Tiggy-cat

tarotbear said:
Tiggy-cat - I am enjoying this thread!

However, the first thing that came to my mind when I first read your post is one of the 'Tarot Myths' contained in my latest book - in 'The Usual Pack of Lies' section: "Drawing a card will make what it depicts happen".

Do you believe everything predicted in a Fortune Cookie is true? :)

PS - one of the other myths says " If you get a reading with a bad omen, remove the offending card from the deck. As long as it stays out of the rest of the deck, that future would be kept from happening. If the card goes back in, the future is unfrozen and will happen as predicted. "

Right.
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TarotBear, good point! Very true, if something is going to happen, it will happen whether you knew about it beforehand from a reading or not.

I just didn't want to give him something that would make it *seem* like I *wanted* all these unpleasant predictions to come true.

Insufficient drainage. And "green sickness". On Tuesday. LOL!!!!!
 

Myrrha

Tiggy-cat said:
Yeah, as Tarotbear pointed out, I really don't think it's meant for serious reading at all. "Insufficient drainage"? "Worms?" That wouldn't really correlate with most real-life questions, I don't think. But the deck is absolutely HILARIOUS, and we all laughed hard as we passed it around.
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Insufficient Drainage means things are getting backed up. Too much is coming in and not enough is going out. This could be taking place on a number of levels. Do you owe many people favors? Are you overeating? Are you so sure of all your ideas that there is no room for new ones? The card often indicated a need to "let it all out".

The Worms card means things need to be worked thoroughly. On some level (physical, emotional, social, spiritual, practical) things need to be thoroughly digested and broken down into their smallest parts until they become light and full of nutrients so things can grow. This is what earthworms do in the garden. Also, there may be something that is dead, no longer of use, that needs to be broken down and removed the way worms do with corpses.

I guess seeing real meaning in it takes some of the fun out though. The reversed meaning of "Thursday"'is "not Thursday". Not sure about the eyelashes.
 

Morwenna

I guess it just means that "fun" and "meaningful" don't have to be mutually exclusive. :)
 

Tiggy-cat

Some of them do make pretty interesting tattoos for sure!

I could see some of the meanings being translated to "real" events. Some of them would be so obscure and unlikely though ("fugues?") that they're just an intriguing thought that you expect would never come true.
 

Krystophe

Myrrha said:
Insufficient Drainage means things are getting backed up. Too much is coming in and not enough is going out. This could be taking place on a number of levels. Do you owe many people favors? Are you overeating? Are you so sure of all your ideas that there is no room for new ones? The card often indicated a need to "let it all out".

The Worms card means things need to be worked thoroughly. On some level (physical, emotional, social, spiritual, practical) things need to be thoroughly digested and broken down into their smallest parts until they become light and full of nutrients so things can grow. This is what earthworms do in the garden. Also, there may be something that is dead, no longer of use, that needs to be broken down and removed the way worms do with corpses.

I guess seeing real meaning in it takes some of the fun out though. The reversed meaning of "Thursday"'is "not Thursday". Not sure about the eyelashes.
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This is another wonderful way to approach it. Reading this way, loss of youth would not "reverse" to youthful vigor but would itself be a reversal of the attainment of maturity, and something like catarrh would be the underside of good health or even, more whimsically, clear-headedness. I'm not too sure that "not Thursday" is a useful interpretation though, being rather vague. I'll need to ponder that one a bit more.

I'm quite happy that this thread has inspired me to rescue my own Fantod deck from its state of neglect!
 

Tiggy-cat

"Not Thursday" = Wednesday or Friday? Not sure about that one!
 
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