Cartomancers - What Playing Card Deck Do You Use?

Elven

I love the feel of the linen type playing card and they are so durable and 'swish' when they shuffle - Love it! Most of the cards I have though are just regular decks which take my attention by the pictures - nothing special - though i have just bought the funniest deck ive seen for ages - actually there were two kinds of these decks - one was surfing - all the cards are in the shape of a surfboard and come in a plastic containeer that looks like an egg LOL!!

... and the one I bought are the shape of a dog bone with a hard plastic 'dogbone' shaped conatiner :p The Kings Queens Jacks have dog faces on them, the Aces have the picture of a little red dog bone. They are totally impractical - but I couldnt resist to add to my collection for $1.00 :p.

there are so many nice decks around though! The pipoglyphs are gorgeous!
I was sure I marked a thread with some beautiful cards, fournier is it? I think - there were some lovely decks there too!

Blessings Elven x
 

room

It's been a great joy for me to reconnect to playing cards through tarot.

Chronata's Art Nouveau deck looks yummy.
 

Little Baron

Chronata said:
I have several beautiful playing card decks that I use when I do cartomancy readings...
One is an art nouveau, and the other one I use often is very renaissance...
(I scanned them...see below!)

Those Art Nouveau ones are gorgeous Chronata.

LB
 

room

This is a picture of my 2 tarock packs. The nice thing about them is that they do double duty--you can use them as a tarot deck with pips, or you can split the Majors off and use them as a playing card deck. I guess you'd have to lose one of the courts too. I usually drop the Page but some think the Knight should be dropped.

The Tarot Philatelique has THE most enticing indices. Graphically, they are one of the finest designs I have ever seen. The stamps look great on the court cards. Gloss laminate, very white cardstock.

The Alan Tarot has marvelous characterizations in the courts. They fit the theme of exotic world travel quite well--I love the way he's done the Knights. Gloss laminate, off white cardstock. About the ame weight as the above deck but feels rough in comparison and the cardstock isn't brilliant white.
 

felicityk

Does anyone know of a good source for Russian playing cards? R. Somerville doesn't seem to have them, and I've seen several decks at Andy's Playing Cards that I like. These are all in the Fancy and Non-Standard Patterns gallery:

Vremyena Goda ("Seasons of the Year"), KZP, Russia
Royal deck, made in China for the Russian market
Aleksandr Pushkin deck, KZP, Russia

The Alfredo Thümmel deck by Modiano (Italy) also caught my eye.

Felicity
 

robinchun

Felicity,
Check out www.wopc.co.uk they have a country section and there are russian decks there

Robin
 

Logiatrix

room said:
I'll just post a couple pics of my decks showing how I use them with tarot or oracle cards as clarifying cards. Sometimes I pick randomly what to use together, and sometimes I go by colour.

Of course, all mine are illustrated, so I suppose that's not quite what you do, and I hope it doesn't offend, but I like using playing cards this way and I do take it seriously, but maybe in a more visual way?
room, your decks look lovely! Thank you for sharing your collection with us...

Can you explain a little more how you integrate the cards into a tarot reading? Also, is there any one playing card deck you use that way, or no? Based on your rather varied collection, what would you say is your first choice for cartomancy? (I know you said you don't read exclusively with PC's, but I'm just wondering from a collector's perspective.)

Thanks again!
:)
 

room

Logiatrix said:
Can you explain a little more how you integrate the cards into a tarot reading?

I like one card of each deck--one tarot with one playing card. You could also put the tarot card in the middle and flank it with playing cards, or vice versa, or whatever strikes you for that day.

I find it better to use just a couple of cards, that way I have the mental concentration available to pay attention to the playing card illustration.

Also, is there any one playing card deck you use that way, or no? Based on your rather varied collection, what would you say is your first choice for cartomancy?

I choose by interest in a deck. Perhaps I just feel like looking at bird pictures that day, or a transformation deck.

My first choice for straight cartomancy with unillustrated pips--I don't do straight cartomancy like the people here, but let's say I wanted to--the Tarock packs have very different Courts than conventional playing cards and the cards are taller and so feel special--I like that, so I would probably choose one of them but with pip designs I really liked.

I like using playing cards, but the systems used with them often involve rather arbitrary designations which I would find silly....not quite the word...restrictive maybe. It's somebody else's take on meaning, not a holy truth or anything. I prefer to avoid a system, so I've found this way of using playing cards without using the PC system.