symbolism choice question

I am in a deck making project where we are not only looking at RW for style and symbolism inspiration, but earlier decks as well, including Oswald Writh's deck and the Sola Busca. One of our quandaries is deciding which deck's symbolism to use when there is a difference between the decks, such as Writh's and RW's The Fool. Is there any strong preferences or traditions when it comes to this kind of thing? What about mixing symbolism from more than one deck on a card? Any thoughts, observations or feed back is very welcome would be very appreciated.

The Wirth and Waite decks are based on entirely different systems, so it would be best not to mix their symbolism. When in doubt, it would be better to leave out a symbol rather than adding one which might be incompatible with other elements in the image.

I strongly disagree, I'm in all in favor of mixing the symbolism as long as it's done with intention. But better yet, to gather the messages behind those symbols together and express the meanings in a new way that is entirely your own.

The world is full of tarot decks that imitate other tarot decks, but shockingly short on ones that express the card meanings in new, unique, or personal terms. In making my deck I shamelessly combined both RWS and Thoth influences with a lot of other stuff.

The point of making your own deck is that it should be -->YOURS<-- ... not what other people tell you is the "right" way.

In the RWS and Thoth, the elemental attribute of the Fool is Air. In the Wirth deck, it is Fire. If you decide to let the Fool be both Air and Fire, it loses its elemental distinction. Do this with a lot of other symbols, and you end up with a mish mash of symbolism which doesn't communicate anything effectively.

By the way, the symbolism of RWS and Thoth are generally compatible, both being derived from the same source.

If you want to be completely original and invent your own meanings for symbols, that's nobody's business but yours. I'm merely expressing an opinion.

Why get so defensive? I didn't say you were wrong.

I also didn't say "invent your own meanings for the symbols." In fact I said just the opposite.

Both of your answers were very helpful and I really appreciate you taking the time to reply. Going with a basically RW scene with maybe just a small nod toward Writh. Helped clarify some other ideas as well.

If you don't mind my asking, why Wirth? I can understand a nod toward the Sola Busca, as some of the minors are practically identical to the RWS, but in general the Wirth stands out as the "odd one out" among modern esoteric Tarot decks. This isn't to to say it isn't good, but that it is an interesting choice.

There are ripples of interest in the Wirth deck that arise now and then.

Christine Payne-Towler would say that the Wirth is a legitimate esoteric deck; while, of course, the contributions of Mathers, Waite, and Crowley are totally worthless.

That new edition of Wirth's Tarot of the Magicians has gotten a lot of hype, but reading it seems to be problematic. Apparently there is some weird numerological stuff which he doesn't try to explain. I suspect there may be some numerical errors, but I'm not about to waste my time on anything like that, which I'm not interested in to start with. Life is problematic enough without adding unnecessary complications.

The nod to Wirth may be a giant gila monster in the background- in place of the crocodile. Other than that it is RW. We are working with a 50's teen pop culture theme ( sci fi, monster movies, rockabilly, pin ups etc.) with a bit of a punk influence (it's a psycobilly deck). I want the possibility of danger in the future, which the crocodile in the back ground gives, that may come up in a reading. Wirth used more creatures in his deck, with I like, but the more I look into his deck, the more I don't like it.

I like Wirth's deck a great deal, but as has been said - Wirth belongs to the French esoteric tradition, RWS & Thoth to the English esoteric tradition - by mixing up symbols from both you are in danger of creating an incongruence of symbolism, a mish-mash.

The crocodile for example, this isn't original with Wirth - it belongs to the school of Christian, Levi, Papus, Guiata etc., and it has a special meaning to them in terms of their attribution of the Fool to the letter Shin - which not only represents for them the element of Fire, but the astral light in which the fool's imaginings -- all his biases, superstitions, fears are reflected that stop him from moving on -- the 'dweller on the threshold' - and for them, as can be seen in their writings, the crocodile is a symbols of this 'dweller on the threshold' -- and you need to note too that such symbolism isn't isolated to a particular card, but links with other cards in their system - for example, shin as astral light connects with the Devil (the astral light is between the horns of Baphomet).

However, the crocodile is also used with the fool in the English esoteric system (it also appears on the Crowley/Harris Fool card for example), albeit via another train of exegesis than that through the French association of the card with the letter Shin -- so there is no mix up between the two different schools if you should go with the crocodile in this case. I don't see any problem in looking at French and English esoteric decks, if you should stick with as here elements of symbolism that are common to both.

One could also look for symbols in the TdM, without the accoutrements of attributions of the esoteric schools. If you are sticking with English style, then Fool is attributed to the element of Air - if you look at some of the Italian TdM and similar style cards for example you will find things on the Fool card such as balloons (the light-headedness or empty-head of the fool, folly) whirly-whigs (air as an element of force, source of energy, sense of touch - with the balloon also of innocence, playfullness, childishness), bells (air as a carrier of sound, sense of hearing), a rose (air as carrier of scent, sense of smell), a butterfly, etc., -- all of which might be associated/in keeping with the element of Air.