Different reading systems with different decks

Michellehihi

I just received the Tarot of the Renaissance. It is beautiful, but then I read most of the meanings in the LWB and they are very different from usual. For example 2 of cups in this deck mean a trip. 8 of wands: being awake while others sleep. 4 of wands: invention. 9 of swords: serenity.
I could go on but you see the point. I cannot make sense of these meanings in any system I know: they seem unrelated to RWS or Thoth, have nothing to do with Marseilles decks, my knowledge of numerology doesn't serve...
How do you do with those decks? Do you learn the precise definitions of each card for these? I have to say this would be a lot of work, because I have many decks like this! And then I think if I just read them intuitively, I am losing part of their magic...and obviously if I read them with the LWB open by my side, the flow of the reading is broken...

Barleywine

Michellehihi said:
I just received the Tarot of the Renaissance. It is beautiful, but then I read most of the meanings in the LWB and they are very different from usual. For example 2 of cups in this deck mean a trip. 8 of wands: being awake while others sleep. 4 of wands: invention. 9 of swords: serenity.
I could go on but you see the point. I cannot make sense of these meanings in any system I know: they seem unrelated to RWS or Thoth, have nothing to do with Marseilles decks, my knowledge of numerology doesn't serve...
How do you do with those decks? Do you learn the precise definitions of each card for these? I have to say this would be a lot of work, because I have many decks like this! And then I think if I just read them intuitively, I am losing part of their magic...and obviously if I read them with the LWB open by my side, the flow of the reading is broken...

My most recent experience with this is the Voyager Tarot. It is supposed to be Thoth-based, but I would be hard-pressed to show how and where (even with a few Thoth titles in the mix). I decided to bite the bullet and buy the expanded book along with two copies of the deck (they can be had cheaply from Amazon resellers) and join a regional study group. But once I'm able to readily identify each card, I'll read them the same old way with amplification from the new material. The only rule I follow is that I will often use Thoth meanings (it's such a goldmine) with other decks, but almost never other meanings with the Thoth.

Thirteen

Can your interpretations be made to fit the cards? Can theirs be added to yours?

Michellehihi said:
I just received the Tarot of the Renaissance. It is beautiful, but then I read most of the meanings in the LWB and they are very different from usual. For example 2 of cups in this deck mean a trip. 8 of wands: being awake while others sleep. 4 of wands: invention. 9 of swords: serenity.

First question, are the images very different from RWS, or is this an RWS clone? It matters because if they're very different (like 9/Swords shows a woman at peace not seeming to wake from a nightmare), THEN the creator had their own take on the cards and you'll have to more-or-less go along with some of those interpretations.

IF, however, this looks very RWS and only the LWB interps are different, then you might just need to toss the LWB

But there is a third option. Every time I get a new deck and the images are different enough, I try to see if there's a way to reconcile what I know as the typical interpretation and what the book/card seem to say. You seem to think these are radically different. But are they? 8/Wands is usually about speed and focus and things moving fast. I don't see that as contrary to being up while others sleep--essentially, alive with energy like you're on caffeine. 4/Wands is usually completing a stage (and celebrating that), but it's also about the fact that you need to move onto the next stage. And that next stage will be different and require new and different skills than what you've gotten used to with the prior stage. So "invention." Makes sense to me. Even 9/Swords can fit. It's a card usually about worry, but that worry is often a bad dream or making mountains out of molehills. When you wake, you can feel relief. Serenity. It's not so bad as you thought. Or it was just a bad dream.

I will say that 2/Cups is a bit odd, but surely "A trip" can't be the entire interpretation. It's certainly not the only interpretation for cards we usually see as "trips" like 6/Swords or the Chariot. So that one, I'd say, is rather limiting and ought to be see as only one possibility for it, just as it's only one possibility for any card we usually assign that meaning.

As for what to do, don't read them with the LWB at your side. Instead, go through card by card, see what the LWB says, and see if there are ways to see YOUR usual interpretations in the card. See if there is any way, as well, to see the LWB's interpretation in yours and in the card. In the best of all possible worlds, new decks with new images and new thoughts on the cards should *add to and expand* your view of what they can mean. Not limit you to only reading those cards that way. Your interpretations can still be in those cards, and these new ones might be useful not only for this deck but for others. They might be just the interpretation you're looking for in some reading, whatever the deck used.

Michellehihi

Barleywine said:
My most recent experience with this is the Voyager Tarot. It is supposed to be Thoth-based, but I would be hard-pressed to show how and where (even with a few Thoth titles in the mix). I decided to bite the bullet and buy the expanded book along with two copies of the deck (they can be had cheaply from Amazon resellers) and join a regional study group. But once I'm able to readily identify each card, I'll read them the same old way with amplification from the new material. The only rule I follow is that I will often use Thoth meanings (it's such a goldmine) with other decks, but almost never other meanings with the Thoth.

So you would ignore the LWB, in the example I gave?

Barleywine

Michellehihi said:
So you would ignore the LWB, in the example I gave?

I usually don't pay attention to the LWB in any deck. For the most part they're too abbreviated and too small to read easily. If a deck is a radical departure meriting greater effort, or if it comes in a kit with a fully-realized companion book, I'll read everything available - when I get around to it, and if I actually intend to use the deck.

Michellehihi

Thirteen said:
First question, are the images very different from RWS, or is this an RWS clone? It matters because if they're very different (like 9/Swords shows a woman at peace not seeming to wake from a nightmare), THEN the creator had their own take on the cards and you'll have to more-or-less go along with some of those interpretations.

IF, however, this looks very RWS and only the LWB interps are different, then you might just need to toss the LWB

But there is a third option. Every time I get a new deck and the images are different enough, I try to see if there's a way to reconcile what I know as the typical interpretation and what the book/card seem to say. You seem to think these are radically different. But are they? 8/Wands is usually about speed and focus and things moving fast. I don't see that as contrary to being up while others sleep--essentially, alive with energy like you're on caffeine. 4/Wands is usually completing a stage (and celebrating that), but it's also about the fact that you need to move onto the next stage. And that next stage will be different and require new and different skills than what you've gotten used to with the prior stage. So "invention." Makes sense to me. Even 9/Swords can fit. It's a card usually about worry, but that worry is often a bad dream or making mountains out of molehills. When you wake, you can feel relief. Serenity. It's not so bad as you thought. Or it was just a bad dream.

I will say that 2/Cups is a bit odd, but surely "A trip" can't be the entire interpretation. It's certainly not the only interpretation for cards we usually see as "trips" like 6/Swords or the Chariot. So that one, I'd say, is rather limiting and ought to be see as only one possibility for it, just as it's only one possibility for any card we usually assign that meaning.

As for what to do, don't read them with the LWB at your side. Instead, go through card by card, see what the LWB says, and see if there are ways to see YOUR usual interpretations in the card. See if there is any way, as well, to see the LWB's interpretation in yours and in the card. In the best of all possible worlds, new decks with new images and new thoughts on the cards should *add to and expand* your view of what they can mean. Not limit you to only reading those cards that way. Your interpretations can still be in those cards, and these new ones might be useful not only for this deck but for others. They might be just the interpretation you're looking for in some reading, whatever the deck used.

This is very enlightening Thirteen, thank you! To answer some of your questions, yes it is totally different from any other deck, like if the creator had no idea what it tarot, and ignored the centuries of history of that tool (which to some extent, annoys me).
For the 2 of cups the LWB said more:"the trip, letting go of memories and continuing". What? Isn't that, as you suggest, the 6 of swords?

Anyways, I will do as you suggest, I will sit with each card, contemplate it and find meaning in it by myself, then read the LWB.

Michellehihi

Barleywine said:
I usually don't pay attention to the LWB in any deck. For the most part they're too abbreviated and too small to read easily. If a deck is a radical departure meriting greater effort, or if it comes in a kit with a fully-realized companion book, I'll read everything available - when I get around to it.

I see what you mean. It's not a book, just a small leaflet in 6 languages, characteristic of LoScarabeo.

Onaorkal

I also tend to ignore the LWB when I'm dealing with a RWS-inspired deck. I might take a look at it for the background story if there is one, but sometimes I don't agree with the twist they put on the meanings.

Until now that way of doing it has worked out quite well and allowed me to get to know multiple decks at the same time. I use the basic RWS meaning × my intuition for the specific card +/- the author's ideas.

Your deck (well its LWB) really has a particular twist to it indeed!

nisaba

Michellehihi said:
For example 2 of cups in this deck mean a trip. 8 of wands: being awake while others sleep. 4 of wands: invention. 9 of swords: serenity.
I could go on but you see the point. I cannot make sense of these meanings in any system I know: they seem unrelated to RWS or Thoth, have nothing to do with Marseilles decks, my knowledge of numerology doesn't serve...
How do you do with those decks?

I don't look at card titles very much, either using decks I'm familiar with or decks I'm not familiar with. Instead, I look at the IMAGES. They tell you all you need to know.

Michellehihi

nisaba said:
I don't look at card titles very much, either using decks I'm familiar with or decks I'm not familiar with. Instead, I look at the IMAGES. They tell you all you need to know.

I like this method, but I can't help but thinking that these decks that are so completely different, csn they still be considered tarot? Or are they oracles?

Different reading systems with different decks

Michellehihi

Barleywine

Thirteen

Michellehihi

Barleywine

Michellehihi

Michellehihi

Onaorkal

nisaba

Michellehihi