Why I write on my cards

If you hire someone to build a website for you, do you want him to come with a book of notes to prove to you that he knows what he's doing?

Of course not. All you'd be interested in is the final product and whether it works for you or not.

Maybe it's just me, but I'd be furious if I paid for a reading and my reader had keywords written on the cards. If all I wanted was rote meanings, I'd use an online "Tarot Reading Generator".

Just sayin'...

Wow, I love this idea - and the writing on the Deviant looks just beautiful - I am very tempted to do this with my second copy of my Deviant...

Promise said:

If you hire someone to build a website for you, do you want him to come with a book of notes to prove to you that he knows what he's doing?

Of course not. All you'd be interested in is the final product and whether it works for you or not.

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Promise, I think that's a perfect analogy for how I feel about this one. When I'm reading for a client, we're on two opposite sides of the table and the cards are facing me. I'm the reader, and the client is, in effect, the listener. The client should be listening to my words and figuring out how they relate to his/her own situation. I would think that if the client is busy reading the words on the cards, there isn't much need for me - definitely not good for business!

I think it's lovely, what you've done.

Writing on cards is an old fortune telling tradition. I have an Etteilla deck from about 1890 that's written all over.

i think it looks nice i would do it too but i dont wanna ruin a perfectly good tarot deck with my ugly hand writing.

I think you've done a beautiful job of writing on your cards. A visually attractive result.

As a client, I wouldn't really care whether or not there was writing on the cards -- my perceived level of satisfaction would have a lot more to do with the reader's manner and how comfortable I felt talking to them.

As a reader, I doubt I will take up the habit of writing on my cards anytime soon . . . but again, you've done a lovely job with yours. And if it works for you, good!

I really like how you were able to take the words and make them feel like they are part of the design. Whether its trimming, coloring the edges, writing on them, drawing clothes on nude people in the cards, etc, I say go for it. They are your cards and if they help connect with your cards and use them more effectively I think that is great. In one of my tarot books I have written and scribbled it and I think that is basically why I like it because it is feels a bit like a journal to me.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Promise - I guess that depends on the reader. I don't sit across from the client, but next to them, so they see what I see. I also don't read the keywords to them as part of the reading itself. My in person readings go as follows.

Ask the client if they want to have a reading with the keywords on them or not. That pretty much would eliminate any problems with people who would be offended or distracted by them.

I then do the spread and tell the client what each card is and the keyword (or commonly accepted meaning) of the card.

At that point, the reading itself starts. The keywords no longer matter per se. I also ask the client during the "story" part of the reading to let the reading flow and hold questions and we will go over the reading one part at a time after I finish the interpretation so we can address each of those.

If the reading strays away from the typical key wording because of combination's or position I explain that afterward, while I am going through any questions or further pulling of cards to clarify a point.

That's just my way of reading, the way I was taught adding in what I learned over 30 years of time - with or without the keyword written on the card, it always starts with a quick overview of each card name and the keyword.

To each his own.

Silver Crow said:

This situation gave me an idea to write keywords on the cards, .... many of my clients loved this little touch

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And yet - this repels me.

Well do I remember a reading from a woman who had scribbled (and crossed out) stuff on her cards, whose reading was rambling and totally unrelated to either the cards themselves or the scribble (which had little enough to do with the cards), and whose patter was based around looking at my left hand, and deciding in the evidence of no wedding ring, that I was obviously a desperately lonely straight woman looking for a Tall Dark and Handsome man that she predicted was just around the corner <vomit>.

My Balbi has keywords written all over it. It was loved and used for many years before I got it,. It feels warm and marvellous. I can't read with it because of the words, although I adore having it because of those same words and the general wear-and-tear.

I am a great believer in doing whatever you want to a deck. It's yours. Wipe the cards down in water, bury them, soak them in moonlight; crop them, put fingernail polish all over them, smear the edges on an ink pad; draw underpants on naked people, change the numbers of Strength and Justice round to suit yourself--integrate your personal keywords into the design of the card. I personally wouldn't do most of those things, but that's because I'm bone idle and afraid of making a big mess of a deck that cost me money, not because I have any righteous indignation about it. Why anybody should care what you do to your own cards I couldn't guess. Clearly it's working for you and your clients, so keep doing what is working for you! I personally wouldn't do it, but that's because I am of the crop-off-the-keywords school of card modifiers. I don't want any words in my cards, for the most part.

I have a journal with designs in it and I trail my thoughts around the edges of the designs as you have done in your card. It's almost meditative, choosing words that will fit the design, then writing them in so they fit perfectly. I can see the attraction of doing this to your cards. There are some cards that would lend themselves well to this sort of embellishment. And that's all it is, just another way to pimp the cards!