Robert M. Place Decks in Combination

This is a question for those of you who have several of Robert Place's decks. Although you may not use them in the way I'm proposing, your familiarity with them will be useful to me.

I have the Tarot of the Sevenfold Mystery and the Alchemical Renewed: 4th Edition (as well as the Burning Serpent Oracle, which we'll get to later). I sometimes work with spreads that require two decks, or spreads with positions that can occasionally require the same card (for example when using a formal "quint" card). I've been using the two Place tarot decks I own, with the Sevenfold Mystery as the main deck and the Alchemical as the secondary. My question is whether any other of his decks would be more "seamless" in combination with the Sevenfold Mystery, since the Alchemical 4th Edition, while perfectly compatible from a drawing perspective, is much more somber in color palette.

Regarding the Burning Serpent Oracle, I believe it was Rana George who suggested using a tarot deck in conjunction with Lenormand to show more "psychological" aspects of the reading. I haven't decided yet whether to try this with the Sevenfold Mystery or the Alchemical as the tarot component, but I'm leaning toward the latter. Any insights on this?

Robert M. Place

I thing the Sevenfold Mystery and the Alchemical are the two most similar decks. I also think that any of his decks would work. The artwork and the basic philosophy are similar...I don't have them all, but I can see this working with the Oracle, or the Buddah, the Saints deck, and yes the Vampire deck...all the spreads would look divine! you just have to put your mind to it.

Tamipie1 said:

I thing the Sevenfold Mystery and the Alchemical are the two most similar decks. I also think that any of his decks would work. The artwork and the basic philosophy are similar...I don't have them all, but I can see this working with the Oracle, or the Buddah, the Saints deck, and yes the Vampire deck...all the spreads would look divine! you just have to put your mind to it.

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And my wallet . . . Thanks for the input!

I have his Angels, Saints and Alchemical decks and the three books that go with it. They're all very well-thought out and I like his art with its crisp lines and colour fields. It's very graphic, the style neo-Classical, and that's why it always looks cerebral IMO.

I have always wanted to study his card interpretations in-depth and compare for example his Magician, Hanged Man or Moon - there is much similarity between decks for the trumps, less so, as far as I can tell, in the minors.

The Angels is very different in the minors: they're pips and remind me a bit of transformation decks. I use this deck for Nisaba's timing method so I can't say how it reads.

My favorite by far is the Tarot of Saints, perhaps simply because I know the saints so much better than alchemy.

The Saints may well fit into the Sevenfold-Alchemical "family". Using them for readings together is an inspired idea.

They're not the same size: Angels is largest, Alchemical medium, Saints the smallest, but the white borders and use of negative space give a unified feeling - the cards are clearly made with the same instinctive proportions between figures, symbols and background.

Now I want to have the Sevenfold, too!

Nemia said:

I have his Angels, Saints and Alchemical decks and the three books that go with it. They're all very well-thought out and I like his art with its crisp lines and colour fields. It's very graphic, the style neo-Classical, and that's why it always looks cerebral IMO.

I have always wanted to study his card interpretations in-depth and compare for example his Magician, Hanged Man or Moon - there is much similarity between decks for the trumps, less so, as far as I can tell, in the minors.

The Angels is very different in the minors: they're pips and remind me a bit of transformation decks. I use this deck for Nisaba's timing method so I can't say how it reads.

My favorite by far is the Tarot of Saints, perhaps simply because I know the saints so much better than alchemy.

The Saints may well fit into the Sevenfold-Alchemical "family". Using them for readings together is an inspired idea.

They're not the same size: Angels is largest, Alchemical medium, Saints the smallest, but the white borders and use of negative space give a unified feeling - the cards are clearly made with the same instinctive proportions between figures, symbols and background.

Now I want to have the Sevenfold, too!

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Thank you! I typically don't mingle the cards from different decks, but create spread structures that allow them to be shuffled and drawn separately, so variable size wouldn't be a problem. I'm mainly interested in visual continuity, and I think you've given me a handle on that.

I have had several of his decks, the Burning Serpent, the Alchemical 4th and the Sevenfold Mystery.
His artwork is very recognizable and typical, therefore I think that to use several of his decks in combination is probably relevant, particularly the Achemical with the Sevenfold.
In some way I see the Achemical as a matrix for the Sevenfold. The Burning Serpent is different, maybe an eclectic Lenormand.

Well, I separated from the Burning Serpent at first, then to the Alchemical. I still have the Sevenfold but I don't use it. Probably this comes from the differences between the structure of his decks and the Rider-Waite structure. In some way I have been feeling a bit disconnected; some people feel this sometimes (I read it on the forum) when a deck shows the Swords suit connected with Fire instead of Air. It isn't the case in Place's decks but I felt something similar.

decan said:

I have had several of his decks, the Burning Serpent, the Alchemical 4th and the Sevenfold Mystery.
His artwork is very recognizable and typical, therefore I think that to use several of his decks in combination is probably relevant, particularly the Achemical with the Sevenfold.
In some way I see the Achemical as a matrix for the Sevenfold. The Burning Serpent is different, maybe an eclectic Lenormand.

Well, I separated from the Burning Serpent at first, then to the Alchemical. I still have the Sevenfold but I don't use it. Probably this comes from the differences between the structure of his decks and the Rider-Waite structure. In some way I have been feeling a bit disconnected; some people feel this sometimes (I read it on the forum) when a deck shows the Swords suit connected with Fire instead of Air. It isn't the case in Place's decks but I felt something similar.

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This is a good point. My experience has been that his decks are more cerebral, which suits me fine but isn't to everyone's taste. Since I'm not "anchored" in the RWS tradition (Thoth is my personal touchstone), I don't feel the kind of cognitive dissonance you're talking about. I appreciate your insights here.

The Alchemical 3rd edition is a lot more colorful. Could work better for you.

Cocobird55 said:

The Alchemical 3rd edition is a lot more colorful. Could work better for you.

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Since I backed the 4th Edition on Indiegogo, I didn't look closely at the earlier versions. I'll do that now for "wish-list" purposes. TY.

Haven't been around for some time except for the circles, so here's a very late answer.

I can see the Tarot of the Saints doing a great job in such readings! It's colors are a bit subdued but don't have that somber touch the Alchemical 4 has.

I can also see the Vampire Tarot work very well for this. Either for darker positions like a shadow or even for the opposite: for more light hearted readings, since I feel it has something playfully Gothic about it due to it's theme.