Decks that Read Well/Do Not Read Well

I see people asking if a deck reads well or does not read well. I don't understand the question.

I have decks that have Owls as the Birds cards and other decks have twittering Birds or Birds making a nest. I keep several decks on hand to read with at any given time. Spirit guides which deck I use.

If I draw a twittering Birds card, I think of gossip or chit chat or a telephone call. If I draw the Owl, I think of a wise old owl and may read the card as intellectual conversation.

In my opinion, all my decks read well as I am doing the reading. My psychic abilities empower whatever deck I am using.

What am I missing here? I don't understand the question.

And what does enabling and not enabling mean?

I'm a newbie!

Since the Grand Tableau is the iconic spread and what most work up to - it is important that cards can be quickly and easily identified when all laid out. Nothing is more annoying than not being able to discern the image amidst a fancy border, or not knowing if a child with a dog is the Child card or the Dog card, or a sun with two birds flying past is Birds or Sun. Some people are very sensitive to the way that items in the cards face (called "directionality").

These may not be a big deal with short spreads, but they quickly become problematic with the Grand Tableau and if sharing pictures on Facebook when other people aren't familiar with your deck.

I agree that ambiguity is the biggest sin. I have decks (frankly, I don't use them a lot) where I can't tell the Mountain from the Clouds. I have to look at the number on the card to be sure. If the images are perfectly clear, then another sticking point can be that the creator may put in non-standard illustrations. Some are more succesful than others: the Gilded Reverie I can pardon its transgressions because of its overall reading excellence. I for one don't understand the urge to tinker with the original, very straight-forward concepts, unless it's to put a personal stamp on the deck.

Thank you. Now I understand. Your time in replying is much appreciated.

I agree with what was said...sometimes the artwork is enough to put me off reading a deck, so much so that it becomes "unreadable" because I dislike it so much - and a "readable" deck is one where the images seem beautiful or harmonious to my eyes, and which help or allow my intuition to flow freely.

and you also asked about "enabling/de-enabling" - those threads in the forum, in the Tarot part and Lenormand and Oracles part, are threads meant to be able to get people either to talk you into buying a particular deck, or talk you into walking away from it.

So if you are on the fence about buying a deck, and are unsure, then you ask others here in the enabling/de-enabling thread what they think about the deck, and they will either enable you to buy it by speaking enthusiastically about their copy, or de-enable you from buying it with comments of how much they don't like that deck.

- thus either helping you to buy it or abandon it. Whichever.

Something that affects my choice of which are my "best" reading decks: if I find one or a few images particularly off-putting OR if I have one or a couple of "Wow" I love it images - stand-outs in either direction distract me.

There are a few decks I have trouble with because the snake pictures scare me.

The Piatnik was an early purchase, based on two images that I saw online that I think are just gorgeous - they are still my favorite two card images in that deck. But the joy seeing them gives me distracts me when reading a spread.

I need to be on an even keel in my response (actually: not responding) to the images as images, and let them speak Lenormand language to me.

I very much appreciate every one's replies. Thank you.

I am a sucker for pretty pictures, but too much going on in a picture can be distracting. I also find that while I like the artwork of a particular deck... the Celtic Lenormand comes to mind... not easily recognizing the symbol portrayed can seriously detract from a read. I once read the Heart card in the Celtic Lenormand as the Clouds.

From what I've learned here, Lenormand has it's own "speak". :-D