Minchiate usage

Moonbow

Hi Moderators

Any chance of moving this thread to the General Study Group?

Could we also retitle it " Minchiate Study group - usage"

Thanks
 

Moonbow

Thanks for moving the thread firemaiden.

I'm bumping this thread now that the Study Group has started.......

Lots of good info. here and pictures of the various Minchiate decks.

M*
 

Rusty Neon

Breaking down ...

I'm slowing breaking down and may be buying a Minchiate deck sometime soon.

I just bought Brian Williams' book on the Minchiate. It was in the used bookstore without the accompanying cards. The book is better than the Williams cards anyways. Reading the book and looking at the card images in the book, it's apparent that Williams took unprecedented liberties in various details in the images -- additions/substitutions/subtractions. This can be unsettling when one is trying to learn the deck in the first place.

I am favouring the Fiorentine (Il Meneghello) over the Etruria (Lo Scarabeo). The Fiorentine has vivid colours and looks more lively. As well, it's a woodcut as opposed to the Etruria, an engraved deck.

I'm quite surprised that the woodcut Fiorentine (circa 1820) is more recent than the engraved Etruria (circa 1720).

Looking at Uri's website to compare the Etruria and Fiorentine decks, I'm quite surprised there are noticeable design differences. I'm afraid that once I get the Fiorentine, I may also 'have' :) to get the Etruria for 'completeness'.

By the way, does anyone know if there are any earlier woodcut Minchiates reproduction decks available, i.e., earlier than the Lo Meneghello Fiorentine? In his book, Williams talks of early woodcut Minchiate decks.
 

full deck

Hey Rusty

I like the Il Meneghello decks better anyway, since they are better reproductions than most. I do love the Solleone decks since they use spot color, thus have no screens, resulting in a very rich and solid look.

I've not heard of any early woodblock versions of the minchiate, though I too would love to find some.

I still need to check on the online safety of Alidastore though, since one other board member mentioned that they had some e-mail bounce back to them that actually contained their credit card number and details! (scary that is). I think I will only fax my details to them if I order from them in the future.
 

Cerulean

You can get an online reading--astrological cards included

I just did an online reading using the www.facade.com site and the Grand Duke, Earth and other 'extra' cards appeared i n the reading with a reasonable meaning attached to it.

www.facade.com

While people might not like canned readings, this would be a good jumpstart for me. I was thinking of lighter summer projects that might have some roots in Italian culture...and the Minchiate Etruria popped into my mind.

I just remembered as I looked at it--I think it was my FIRST Lo Scarabeo deck. I found it at a book chain going out of business, called Crown Books. Why in 1999 or 2000 they had a small Lo Scarabeo Italian deck with the games and humor novelties, I don't know...but I gleefully bought it. It comes with a booklet by Giordano Berti with small English phrases/meanings. I was on the waiting list for the Minchiate by Brian Williams and I was just learning classic Italian decks...the pictorial inserts were enchanting to me.

I pulled one card to see if the Minchiate would be a good summer study...and received the Four of Swords...

The Four of Swords has a monkey intently gazing in the mirror on top and a unicorn below, resting. If one thought of the RWS meaning of rest, retreat or repose, the monkey's intent fascination could add an idea of introspection...and the unicorn below could remind one of purity and relaxation...

From this description of Unicorns grew the following aenigma: Cervum fronte refert, Elephantum sed pede, cauda aprum, voce bovem, corpore prodit equum [riddle: his front recalls the deer, but his feet the elephant, his tail the boar, his voice the cow, and his body reveals the horse]. These authors also add that no one can catch a mature one alive, but it is possible to catch its young offspring, and so they use the following ruse to entrap one. They place a finely-dressed girl before him, and having seen her, he forgets his natural wildness, becomes gentle as a lamb, and will play with her until sleep overcomes him; and only then do the lurking hunters fall on him and cut off his horn: from which the symbolist wrote of him: Virgineo mansuescit amore [He is tamed by a maiden's love].

http://www.polishroots.org/herbarz/boncza.htm

Hope some of the above helps!

Cerulean Mari
 

Sybilant

minnuo

Dear everybody

How great to see a lively discussion of this cool deck.

I too am interested in a deck where things can rotate freely -- images, elements, astrological signs and planets. (I only wish that planets were included - then I think this would really be an Everything deck!)

My wish is for a deck that can speak to us as freely and richly as possible. There are many things I think wonderful about the Thoth deck but I can't comprehend where the correspondences of planets and signs and Hebrew letters came from. I just prefer for a given card to be able to come up with whatever associations a particular reading brings. So I'm very interested in the Minchiate.

I currently only have the Brian Williams deck and book, and am looking forward to exploring others. Respectfully, I only want to say that I don't mind that he altered or reconsidered images from previous Minchiate decks. The previous decks are also available; why merely duplicate them? Brian set out to make a new Minchiate, just as many artists set out to make new decks. I think we should accept or reject his work on its own terms, that's all.

I do miss the High Priestess and Empress but people here have pointed out that previous versions are gender-ambiguous or show certain cards as more feminine than Brian does. I liked hearing that and I'm eager to learn more.

best regards to everybody
s.
 

MercyMe

While I know this is an old thread, I just received my Minchiate Etruria last night and I am beyond fascinated. I have done a few simple readings with it so far and it has been so uncannily accurate. It's so wonderful to connect with any deck like this, but this is the first time I've connected so instantly.

I have decided not to take any cards out, and use the astrological and element cards as they are. I'll incorporate some of the LWB meanings at first until I familiarize myself with the cards and associate my own meanings with them. So far, I am using the astrological cards to represent an approach, not a particular person, per se, but the way a person is approaching an issue or the main qualities that are being presented. As advice, as description, these cards are great. Yes, they are stereotypes, as are all archetypal representations in tarot. I love the Libra card, where the fox desperately needs to maintain balance or else dive into a porcupine! :) Ouch!

The pip cards are more difficult for me, especially the ones that have no other scenic clues than say, just the clubs in interlocked arrangement. In those cases I have to rely on number and suit meanings and I do check the LWB, too, because the meanings therein seem to be very different than what I have previously understood a particular card to mean.

These cards are just so evocative and are a delight to begin reading with.
 

Cerulean

I have a Constantini version that I like...recreated...

...but it feels older because the cards aren't laminated and Il Solleone's reproduction is on smaller cardstock, in a small 'wooden' (lightweight plyboard) box. I found the used Il Solleone version of the Minchiate through abebooks.com--but I think R.Somerville had a version, new, as well.

Kaplan contributed to the English version of the LWB by adding a spread that does majors only (as usual for his decks' sample spreads), with suggestions to just deal out the astrology cards and put them in an additional row. The reader is left open to interpret the astrology cards in their own way.

I'm going to be in and out for the rest of the month, so I'll bookmark this thread and be eager to read information or sharing when I get back.

Cerulean
 
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