Kipperkarten resources
Posted: 13 May 2019, 01:55
(I hope it's OK to put this here - the Kippers are more closely related to Lenormand, Ziguener/Biedermeier type decks, and Sibilla than they are to what people call oracle decks these days.)
First you'll need a deck, of course. The gold standard is the Original Kipperkarten published by ASS Altenburg. It's the one everybody knows, it's inexpensive, and it wears like iron.
Some people don't like the art in the Original, and that's OK. Ciro Marchetti's Fin de Siècle Kipper is lovely, and it reads very well!
And there are a few others. The Leidingkarten are an "updated" version (but it already looks a little retro, with corded phones and hairstyles you don't see so much these days.) And a lot of people just love the Mystisches Kipper by Regula Elizabeth Fiechter. It might not be the best beginner deck, since the images are a bit of a stretch from the meanings, but if you just love that one, go for it.
In the first Kipper decks, all of the images faced the opposite way except for no. 22, but got flipped in subsequent printings. And the peoples' facial expressions were more serious. So the "Original" is not really the original! http://www.kipper-karten.com/the-original-kipper-cards/ (That's Susanne Zitzl's site, BTW - she's quite good.) Some people make a fuss over this, and if you're really bothered by it, both Toni Puhle's deck and the Salish Kippers incorporate a lot of the original facing directions. But it really doesn't matter. After all, those first decks were only in print for a short time. The tradition grew around the Originals as we know them now. Go by what's on the table in front of you.
There are new decks being produced all the time. I think at least some of this is just people trying to pile on the bandwagon and cash in, without a good understanding of what the deck is supposed to be like or how it works. I've seen some pretty bad ones pop up. Others might be perfectly OK. The best way to judge a Kipper deck is by the meanings. Does the image express the meaning?
I blogged a list of the meanings back in 2013, with an eye towards keeping them short and easy to remember. https://fennario.wordpress.com/2013/03/ ... en-primer/
Barleywine put those to good use in his first reading with the deck.
https://parsifalswheeldivination.com/20 ... -thoughts/
At present, there is precious little in english on Kipper. Most of the material is in german. I can recommend Toni Puhle's book for the meanings and some of the techniques, with a couple of caveats: First of all, on page 16 she tells her audience to use the two Main Character cards, "regardless of the sexuality of your Querent". Many in the LGBTQ community may find this offensive, and, like Lenormand, there are other cards in the deck that can stand in for a same-sex partner. (the deck is people card-heavy!) You can pick them out by the cards that connect them to your sitter's card. Your lesbian sitters may not take kindly to their partner being represented by a bearded man, and a gay man could be likewise offended at the idea of his uber-masculine partner being represented by a corseted lady holding a rose.
Andy Boroveshengra wrote an eloquent and well-researched blog post on handling this issue - no matter which deck or system you are using. It's worth saving to your notes. https://abcartomancy.wordpress.com/2019 ... nder-card/
Another issue is that she claims her method is the true Bavarian method, and Americans are "doing it wrong" and "reading it like Lenormand". But when I learned, I HAD to learn from Germans - I couldn't find any Americans who knew how to read Kippers! And I have asked a lot of German readers - none of them have ever heard of "Stop Cards". I haven't encountered the idea on German sites like Waldfee, either. On the other hand, there are cards that move in certain directions, cards that connect neighboring cards, etc. So use her method if it suits you, or just take what you need from it. Just don't fall into the hype.
Malkiel Rouven Dietrich has some wonderful beginner tutorials on his youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... XW8hyXznsT
And Waldfee is always worth running through google translate. https://www.waldfee.net/kipperkarten.html
This is a fun little site for generating spreads with different Kipper decks (german) http://www.kipper-karten.de/
And another (english) https://www.kipper-fortune-telling-cards.com/
Some trivia: If you've ever wondered about the little girl riding a stork in boots on no. 18 The Small Child card, this may clear things up:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germ ... 9620120302
And some people are confused by Ciro's High Honors card. I cleared that up here: https://fennario.wordpress.com/2015/12/ ... igh-honor/
Questions and comments are welcome!
First you'll need a deck, of course. The gold standard is the Original Kipperkarten published by ASS Altenburg. It's the one everybody knows, it's inexpensive, and it wears like iron.
Some people don't like the art in the Original, and that's OK. Ciro Marchetti's Fin de Siècle Kipper is lovely, and it reads very well!
And there are a few others. The Leidingkarten are an "updated" version (but it already looks a little retro, with corded phones and hairstyles you don't see so much these days.) And a lot of people just love the Mystisches Kipper by Regula Elizabeth Fiechter. It might not be the best beginner deck, since the images are a bit of a stretch from the meanings, but if you just love that one, go for it.
In the first Kipper decks, all of the images faced the opposite way except for no. 22, but got flipped in subsequent printings. And the peoples' facial expressions were more serious. So the "Original" is not really the original! http://www.kipper-karten.com/the-original-kipper-cards/ (That's Susanne Zitzl's site, BTW - she's quite good.) Some people make a fuss over this, and if you're really bothered by it, both Toni Puhle's deck and the Salish Kippers incorporate a lot of the original facing directions. But it really doesn't matter. After all, those first decks were only in print for a short time. The tradition grew around the Originals as we know them now. Go by what's on the table in front of you.
There are new decks being produced all the time. I think at least some of this is just people trying to pile on the bandwagon and cash in, without a good understanding of what the deck is supposed to be like or how it works. I've seen some pretty bad ones pop up. Others might be perfectly OK. The best way to judge a Kipper deck is by the meanings. Does the image express the meaning?
I blogged a list of the meanings back in 2013, with an eye towards keeping them short and easy to remember. https://fennario.wordpress.com/2013/03/ ... en-primer/
Barleywine put those to good use in his first reading with the deck.
https://parsifalswheeldivination.com/20 ... -thoughts/At present, there is precious little in english on Kipper. Most of the material is in german. I can recommend Toni Puhle's book for the meanings and some of the techniques, with a couple of caveats: First of all, on page 16 she tells her audience to use the two Main Character cards, "regardless of the sexuality of your Querent". Many in the LGBTQ community may find this offensive, and, like Lenormand, there are other cards in the deck that can stand in for a same-sex partner. (the deck is people card-heavy!) You can pick them out by the cards that connect them to your sitter's card. Your lesbian sitters may not take kindly to their partner being represented by a bearded man, and a gay man could be likewise offended at the idea of his uber-masculine partner being represented by a corseted lady holding a rose.
Andy Boroveshengra wrote an eloquent and well-researched blog post on handling this issue - no matter which deck or system you are using. It's worth saving to your notes. https://abcartomancy.wordpress.com/2019 ... nder-card/
Another issue is that she claims her method is the true Bavarian method, and Americans are "doing it wrong" and "reading it like Lenormand". But when I learned, I HAD to learn from Germans - I couldn't find any Americans who knew how to read Kippers! And I have asked a lot of German readers - none of them have ever heard of "Stop Cards". I haven't encountered the idea on German sites like Waldfee, either. On the other hand, there are cards that move in certain directions, cards that connect neighboring cards, etc. So use her method if it suits you, or just take what you need from it. Just don't fall into the hype.
Malkiel Rouven Dietrich has some wonderful beginner tutorials on his youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... XW8hyXznsT
And Waldfee is always worth running through google translate. https://www.waldfee.net/kipperkarten.html
This is a fun little site for generating spreads with different Kipper decks (german) http://www.kipper-karten.de/
And another (english) https://www.kipper-fortune-telling-cards.com/
Some trivia: If you've ever wondered about the little girl riding a stork in boots on no. 18 The Small Child card, this may clear things up:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germ ... 9620120302
And some people are confused by Ciro's High Honors card. I cleared that up here: https://fennario.wordpress.com/2015/12/ ... igh-honor/
Questions and comments are welcome!