Are some decks better than others?

gregory

closrapexa said:
I don't know if all music critics are self-proclaimed. A person who is deep in any subject matter develops more sophisticated tastes over time. We often accept their opinions, although not blindly, because we assume that, at the very least, they have heard a lot of music, seen many films, etc. A concert pianist is by definition more qualified to critique Satie than I am. While personal taste exists culture has its own version of peer review.
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CONTEMPORARY peer review, which may well not hold up over time - see under Beethoven and Stravinsky. Was their work bad when it came out ?
 

ana luisa

I also agree that judging a deck as good or bad is close to impossible. To start with, as was said before, taste is subjective. And good for what ? For admiring ? For handling ? For shuffling ? For reading ? Is "goodness" associated with userfriendliness with the reader ? Or its use of symbols ? I have decks I bought that I find simply ugly but that read like a charm. So, I do not believe in a consensus here. Besides, decks are tools. If they serve their purpose well, then, they're good. For you.
 

Richard

closrapexa said:
I don't know if all music critics are self-proclaimed. A person who is deep in any subject matter develops more sophisticated tastes over time. We often accept their opinions, although not blindly, because we assume that, at the very least, they have heard a lot of music, seen many films, etc. A concert pianist is by definition more qualified to critique Satie than I am. While personal taste exists culture has its own version of peer review.
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Of course not all music critics are bad. It's just a notorious example among musicians. One critic will say that a certain pianist's performance was outstanding while another will say that it was technically perfect but lacking in finesse. They're getting paid for words, not expertise, and each has their special fans who enjoy the predictability of their critiques.

Films. I love UHF and Amazon Women on the Moon but definitely not Gone with the Wind, and I absolutely can't tolerate It's a Wonderful Life. Obviously my preferences in entertainment are not based on quality, so that does not entitle me to say that UHF and AWotM are better than the other two. Obviously they are not better, but I do like them better. I do consider Joe versus the Volcano a cinematic masterpiece, but according to the box office and critics in general (except for Roger Ebert), it was a total flop. Maybe I'm wrong, but also maybe I'm seeing something that the critics (except for Ebert) missed.
 

Grizabella

I find that some decks work better for me than others because they tweak my intuition.

Some appeal to me more because of the art.

Some make more sense to me.

I like some cardstock better than others.

And then there's the question---better for what? Reading for others? Meditating? Reading for yourself? To find out timing of an event? and on and on.

And all that is just peculiar to me---just one person---think of all the thousands of others here who also have their preferences amongst the decks available.

I haven't read all the posts in this thread yet but I'll bet you've gotten about as many different answers as there are people who posted. It's just not really possible to make a judgment of what's better because we're all so different that better for one of us might be the worst for someone else. :)

Better for learning Tarot?----now that one I can give an opinion on. Rider Waite is always my recommendation, but Thoth or a Marseilles deck might be the preference of others. I just started with the Rider Waite decks and have stayed true to it. (Well, I did wander in and think I'd learn Thoth, but they've got pirahna's in that pool that just about bit my feet off, so I dived back out while I was still intact. :p )

Now I'm off to read the whole thread.

ETA:
I see I'm not the only one who asked "for what?" I agree with most of the people who posted. It's hard to say which deck is best without knowing for what. I think probably even if we boiled it down to best for reading and the three categories of Thoth, Marseilles and Rider-Waite, then it would still be a matter of personal preference which one would be best.
 

SunChariot

ivanna said:
I was asking better in order to get better readings, getting more insight, more accurate readings. This is what a querent I suppose wants more when he or she asks for a reading. Maybe you can get great readings using the litty tarot for example. But a more studied system like the thoth would be even more powerfull?
Is clear that a good driver will win the race driving a Panda or a Ferrari and a bad driver wont do anything driving a maseratti. Something similar can happen using tarot decks?
If you are good using the kitty, you may be better studing and reading with a more elaborated system?
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My ideas on that is that the accuracy of a reading comes from inside the reader. The magic that comes out in a reading comes from the Inside out. Some decks may create more sparks in us that can ignite and take off, But what and which decks each of us can vary greatly,

it really depends on how you read too. Different decks may also work better with different reading methods than others. And no two people read Identically,

Babs
 

EmpressSha

Decks are all different, but I wouldn't say better or worse. Some decks are not based on the traditional symbolism and system so if you are trying to use the book meanings you will have to resort to the LWB which is pretty limiting, however if you were to use your intuition and ignore all the book meanings you could get a very accurate reading. So as others have said it depends on your reading style, personal preference and what you are looking for from your reading. My favourite deck will change from day to day depending on what questions I am asking and how I feel that day.

Also some decks will just not resonate with you, even though they are beautiful. Its all a matter of personality and taste as well as communication style... My Rider Waite communicates very differently from my Vision Quest deck. While the Rider Waite's messages will be more cryptic and in depth, the Vision Quest is simple and straightforward. It all depends what I need that day :) This is probably why so many of us collect Decks!
 

Morwenna

Taste is subjective. And there are decks which have more in them than some people realize. Just as in literature or any other art, some works are recognized as good or great by many people and many are dismissed as being lesser. Some of those generally considered lesser may be thought great by a few people who see in them something the majority don't see.

But just as in literature, someone somewhere had to start the credentials by which a work is considered "good." Topic? Style? Execution? All these factors have been used as touchstones for assessing the arts. But every rule has been broken often by creators whose work has since become recognized as better than anyone once thought. (Consider what Gregory said about Beethoven et al.)

Much of what I'm saying is paraphrased from C.S. Lewis's book An Experiment in Criticism, which I wish were required reading for every literature and fine arts department in the country, if not the world. He speaks mainly of literature, but agrees that the concept is applicable to any art form.

And what is Tarot but an art form? Visual, meditative, whatever: creating a deck is an art, or a combination of arts; using a deck to read or meditate is an appreciation of art, along with whatever appreciation is given to the actual visual images as art. (Lewis would make a distinction between appreciating art and using art, but that's a whole other tangent.)

So, yes, some decks probably are better than others, but much depends on who's doing the judging, and by what criteria. If, as Lewis says of popular books, even one person takes the simplistic-seeming knockoff-seeming (and we can seldom tell for sure if a deck was just knocked off or labored over for years) deck and has profound meditative experiences with it or reads beautifully with it, and would be desolate if anything were to happen to it, "we should not dare to put it beyond the pale."
 

gregory

Morwenna said:
Taste is subjective. And there are decks which have more in them than some people realize. Just as in literature or any other art, some works are recognized as good or great by many people and many are dismissed as being lesser. Some of those generally considered lesser may be thought great by a few people who see in them something the majority don't see.

But just as in literature, someone somewhere had to start the credentials by which a work is considered "good." Topic? Style? Execution? All these factors have been used as touchstones for assessing the arts. But every rule has been broken often by creators whose work has since become recognized as better than anyone once thought. (Consider what Gregory said about Beethoven et al.)

Much of what I'm saying is paraphrased from C.S. Lewis's book An Experiment in Criticism, which I wish were required reading for every literature and fine arts department in the country, if not the world. He speaks mainly of literature, but agrees that the concept is applicable to any art form.

And what is Tarot but an art form? Visual, meditative, whatever: creating a deck is an art, or a combination of arts; using a deck to read or meditate is an appreciation of art, along with whatever appreciation is given to the actual visual images as art. (Lewis would make a distinction between appreciating art and using art, but that's a whole other tangent.)

So, yes, some decks probably are better than others, but much depends on who's doing the judging, and by what criteria. If, as Lewis says of popular books, even one person takes the simplistic-seeming knockoff-seeming (and we can seldom tell for sure if a deck was just knocked off or labored over for years) deck and has profound meditative experiences with it or reads beautifully with it, and would be desolate if anything were to happen to it, "we should not dare to put it beyond the pale."
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THANK YOU Morwenna :love: (And thanks also to C. S. Lewis !) I must get out my Frye - Art of Criticism, too. See what he has to say.
 
The Final Rites of AnnonyMouse What do you think about tarot reader that promise dates?