Having trouble reading new decks

I started with the RWS and later upgraded to the Sharman-Caselli deck. I really enjoy it and have gotten pretty good at reading it intuitively.

I was ready for a change and to test the waters, I downloaded some tarot apps— Fellowship of the Fool, Gaian Tarot and one other. They are beautiful and I am still exploring them.

But I can't figure out how to read them intuitively. On my other decks,I got very used to certain images, symbols and colors being significant. Some of these are absent on the new decks. A card will be just any color, or a symbol I am used to won't be there. One card on the Gaian deck had an otter on it. I have no idea how to use that in a reading.

Sometimes they even rename a card or depart completely from the imagery I am used to. I find I am cheating and using the built-in guide for every card. I just can't seem to read these other decks intuitively. Can I work on this somehow? Or should I just stick with the deck I know?

You might try journaling with these decks. There are many different ways to do this, but one way is to draw a card and then write down what you see, then come up with associations.

For instance, you mentioned an otter. The first thing that comes to mind for me is that otters are playful. They're clever with their hands. They're gregarious - they really enjoy the company of other otters. They mate for life. Otter parents are very tender with their children. Since otters are associated with water, you can pull in water symbolism too.

In a intuitive reading, you would take what you need from the associations you made. Say it's a reading about a work question. The otter card might be saying you need to make time for play, too. Or it might mean there's an emotional element to the question (water symbolism).

Does that help a bit?

interesting question!

ficbot said:

I started with the RWS and later upgraded to the Sharman-Caselli deck. I really enjoy it and have gotten pretty good at reading it intuitively.

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Sounds like the best way you went about it was learning the symbol meanings and going from there and then letting your intuition take flight from there. I reccomend you do this with your other decks as well. It seems the Sharmen is heavily based on RWS, but the other decks are loosely based RWS and even have a different structure. For future referance, I would keep this in mind and ask yourself if you are willing to learn a deck different from RWS structure, and if your ready. For example, I like loosely based decks but when I read with them the burned in my cranium RWS deck pops up and throws me off and I get frustrated that my non traditional deck is not traditional even though I want a deck far off from RWS LOL!!! So I can kind of relate to you.

ficbot said:

But I can't figure out how to read them intuitively. On my other decks,I got very used to certain images, symbols and colors being significant. Some of these are absent on the new decks. A card will be just any color, or a symbol I am used to won't be there. One card on the Gaian deck had an otter on it. I have no idea how to use that in a reading.

Click to expand...

Yes, you can, it just takes time! I ran into this as well but when I stopped comparing RWS mentally with others, it helped. I then began to look at it as still having a similar meaning but with different artistic renderings, view points, and interpritations but with different subject matter. This does not work with all decks for example comparing different traditions but works well with RWS like decks. Perhaps your intuition, once imprinted with the new symbols will work better if not focused on detail and comparsion, but with key meanings and looking at different perspects tarot offers on archetypes and day to day happings. Compare a card from the Sharmen with the same card from other decks..google will help...strength card is a good one to see all the differences, to see all the perspectives on it.

ficbot said:

Sometimes they even rename a card or depart completely from the imagery I am used to. I find I am cheating and using the built-in guide for every card. I just can't seem to read these other decks intuitively. Can I work on this somehow? Or should I just stick with the deck I know?

Click to expand...

Its up to you to decide if you want a strongly golden dawn system in your tarot or if you want to expand. For me it was a challenge, but the RWS just became too much for me and I started looking for different types of decks after years with RW. But now i see the cards as just like 10 people for example looking at an apple. Its all the same, just different perspectives. That made it easier that way going about it in a archetypal sense or universal sense. Rather than by the book. Hope i made some sense in this post..haha feel free to ask and good luck with your card reading!

ficbot said:

But I can't figure out how to read them intuitively. On my other decks,I got very used to certain images, symbols and colors being significant. Some of these are absent on the new decks.

Click to expand...

So work with what IS present: other colours, other images, other symbols. Thinking that you can only read a card if it has what you're used to in it is counter-intuitive anyway: that smacks of almost memorising the cards. So why not just *look* at the image in front of you with no thought or reference to any previously-known Tarot? Take it as a whole new experience. What does it look like? What colours are present? What mood or feel does it have? What might have happened right before the image you are now looking at, and what might happen right after?

You'll read just fine if you stop referring back to a code of memories that belong to a different deck.

Give it time. How long have you been using tarot? In the beginning it always took me a long time to bond with a new deck, to understand it, learn how its unique symbols made me feel and react intuitively, but nowadays that process is much shorter!

There are always variations, even if a deck is based on the RWS, but today (after 12 years of studying tarot) I can pick up any RWS type of deck and read with it perfectly fine (not saying this to brag in any way, I think it's very common for people who have used tarot for a couple of years especially deck hoppers hehe).

Get a deck that you really like, that draws you in, and USE it. If you have to, lock up the guidebook lol Journal, do practice readings, do daily draws... Don't stress it.

I so appreciate your suggestions! I am going to try journalling with a few of the cards, the Gaian Tarot even has prompts for that. I guess it just takes time!

It sounds counter-intuitive to think systematically about intuitive reading but... I'm just now reading Deborah Lipp's very good book about intuitive reading and interactions. I use many of the methods anyway but it's interesting to see them explained. There are new ideas and it made me think a lot about how I read.

(I'm somewhere in the middle between theoretical background knowledge based reading and purely visual intuitive pattern reading.)

That book might interest you because it gives you tools to use with every deck.