Food Fortunes?

I wrote to Josh LaFayette who told me this deck was meant to be for fun, mostly non-divinatory purposes, and that while he did study up on the RWS system, his deck isn't RWS compliant. It is flexible and the suits can be what we want them to be. So I am thinking,

Drinks = Cups
Sides = Wands
Mains = Swords
Sweets = Pentacles

Would you guys agree?

I had the same thoughts, Drinks/Cups and Sweets/Coins. I actually had the other two flipped though, Mains/Wands and Sides/Swords. Not for any solid reasons. Mains are usually foods you have to fry/grill/roast, and sides...you have to put some thought into making dishes that complement the main course, and greens and veggies make me think of lightness, airiness.

Anise said:

I had the same thoughts, Drinks/Cups and Sweets/Coins. I actually had the other two flipped though, Mains/Wands and Sides/Swords. Not for any solid reasons. Mains are usually foods you have to fry/grill/roast, and sides...you have to put some thought into making dishes that complement the main course, and greens and veggies make me think of lightness, airiness.

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Good thinking Anise, but someone else pointed out to me that mains are usually heavy, and that could represent Pentacles as well. For example, King of Mains is a huge steak. I feel like that screams King of Coins to me, or does the King of Wands like to have a hearty meal and work it off, given his super active lifestyle?

did anyone else catch the error of card number 9 called The Duo, it is clearly a mislabelled Lovers card along with elements of the High Priestess card incorporated. Like the two pillars where B and J are usually written, except here in the spirit of the card theme it says PB and J which is the most un-hermit like food, if there ever was. Besides, WHY would a Hermit card be called The Duo ?

Something to support your Sweets/Coins would be one look at the Ace of Sweets, which is so clearly an Ace of Pentacles card right down to the shape and positioning of the hand that holds out a golden pentacle, except here it is a big bar of chocolate.

haha to be fair, process of elimination was another reason I associated the suits like that. Drinks and Sweets seem pretty obvious, but the other two are so varied in dishes that I see all of the points you mentioned. If I had to guess without seeing the other suits first, I think I might have assigned all of the cards to Pents!

xD Yes, that was jarring to me. I'm not very familiar with majors in general yet, but those iconic pillars being so far into the deck was strange, and I don't think the image works for any of the 3 (or more?) cards it is pulling from.

I actually pulled that card when I tried the Triple Decker spread asking what to bring to the Easter potluck. I think I should've concentrated harder.

Anise said:

haha to be fair, process of elimination was another reason I associated the suits like that. Drinks and Sweets seem pretty obvious, but the other two are so varied in dishes that I see all of the points you mentioned. If I had to guess without seeing the other suits first, I think I might have assigned all of the cards to Pents!

xD Yes, that was jarring to me. I'm not very familiar with majors in general yet, but those iconic pillars being so far into the deck was strange, and I don't think the image works for any of the 3 (or more?) cards it is pulling from.

I actually pulled that card when I tried the Triple Decker spread asking what to bring to the Easter potluck. I think I should've concentrated harder.

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I think he has definitely incorporated RWS elements but not to every card. For example, Five of Drinks is definitely five of Cups and then there is the Ace of Sweets but there isn't always a seamless flow like that. Two of Sweets looks nothing like a Two of Pentacles. While the King of Sweets apple pie is something I would totally associate either with the King of Cups or Pentacles, coffee being the King of Drinks is definitely more of a King of Swords thing. I believe that the King of Swords being the hard working chap he is, would be copiously consuming coffee to keep himself stimulated.

What say, Anise? Oh I have not even dared to venture into doing them spreads. I want to first figure out the suit associations and then work with it some more before trying spreads.

Very studious of you! I'm content to just use this as a lunchtime roulette for when my coworkers are being noncommittal, but it would be fun to take a closer look next to an actual deck over the weekend to see if there's something underlying the artist's assignments.

Coffee as King of Swords is valid to me, and I guess those outlier foods are to be expected in a deck that prioritizes food categorization over symbol incorporation. I think the 8 of Sweets, whipped cream, is another outlier, because it looks like an 8 of Wands. At least those numbers match; but 7 of Mains, panini, feels like an 8 of Swords to me. And the titles really add another layer of confusion/dimension to consider. Like, when I first saw "The White Knight," I assumed we were in the courts, but no, it's the 7 of Drinks. I've never heard milk referred to that way, so it's odd that he chose that of all nicknames. And I had to reconsider the visually-obvious 2 of Sides, bacon, as the 2 of Swords because it is titled "The Constant."

Anise said:

Very studious of you!

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Thanks, ha ha

I think the 8 of Sweets, whipped cream, is another outlier, because it looks like an 8 of Wands. At least those numbers match; but 7 of Mains, panini, feels like an 8 of Swords to me.

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That whipped cream threw me off because I had no idea on how to read that. 7 of Mains felt to me like a 7 of Pentacles to me, which goes with my Mains = Pents so I didn't go to overthink that one much.

And the titles really add another layer of confusion/dimension to consider. Like, when I first saw "The White Knight," I assumed we were in the courts, but no, it's the 7 of Drinks. I've never heard milk referred to that way, so it's odd that he chose that of all nicknames. And I had to reconsider the visually-obvious 2 of Sides, bacon, as the 2 of Swords because it is titled "The Constant."

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I know, that is terribly annoying. I got confused with the White Knight too. How can milk be the 7 of drinks though? :-/ Cuz it comes in many flavours? As for the 2 of Sides, I know it looks like 2 of Swords but perhaps it is the 2 of Wands, which in the thoth is called Dominion that could be remotely connected to The constant?

Just got mine too. This Suits thing is HARD ....

gregory said:

Just got mine too. This Suits thing is HARD ....

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Right? Let's see if we can work together and figure this suits thing out. First impressions, gregory?

Cups are drinks and I need coffee RIGHT NOW; this is true, and someone is making it...

ETA I think trying to work on every card individually is adding to confusion... There are many decks where one card in a suit gives you a whaaaaa moment. I thought the artist had already said he hadn't worked this out as tarot at all, though ?