Cult of Tarot Forum

Post it here. Photos if you have them, if not, just talk!

Mine was a University Books RWS, a long time ago. I had it for about 10 years, from about age 13 to 23. It finally got lost in a move.

I loved that deck. I used to practice while my roommates were watching boring television, riffle shuffling and laying the cards out. One guy, superstitiously, got scared I was putting curses on him. I probably should have, he was a jerk! But the Karminator eventually got him.

A few years after I lost that deck, a friend gifted me another RWS, but I couldn't love it. I didn't know why, and guessed that maybe I'd moved on. The deck was special for sentimental reasons (the gifter was a good friend) but I just couldn't get into it.

The years went on. I got an "Original" RWS, and I liked the green tones in the deck, but not the lines. (The lines were so borked, some of the facial expressions were changed. Case in point: the Empress.) That deck isn't really original, I'm told it's from a 1930's print made when the plates were quite worn.

But - besides the "Original" phase, the font phase, the copyrights on the card faces, etc. - all of which I could overlook - something else was not right. And it took getting another copy of the University Books deck on ebay for me to figure it out. Look at these brilliant turquoise blues! (All these photos are clickable, BTW, and go to larger versions that show more detail.)



And the curious details like the extra rock on the island behind the 2 of Swords lady:



And the half-shadow on Rosalind's face:



Compare the colors. The USG High Priestess has dull, greyish blues and near-invisible greens. But the University Books High Priestess - well, see for yourself!



For me, there is no RWS that can compare with University Books. Not the Centennial, h***, not even a Pam A or B. The only beef I ever had with it was those pink ankh backs, but now I appreciate them as kitsch. Of all the RWS repros I've seen, none beat this one. <3

Oh my goodness, you just answered an unsaught question! I have the Albano and after opening the box was so angry and bothered with Rosalind's half shadow face. It irked me to no end as I didn't find it in other modern RWS decks. Now I see that there is a precedent to her half shadow face, now I understand. Phewww. I guess I need to reconciliate with her, as it is not her fault.

Also, will post about my first deck in a minute. I don't know how to add pictures!

And, I've always dreamed of owning a university books RWS, definitely dreamy.

qndynes wrote: ↑31 May 2019, 12:34 Also, will post about my first deck in a minute. I don't know how to add pictures!

Posting pictures is basically drag and drop, then click the attachments tab (under window where you are posting) to place the images where you want them.

here is some more detailed info and a quick instructional video about posting perfect images:
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=957

Joan Marie wrote: ↑31 May 2019, 13:27

qndynes wrote: ↑31 May 2019, 12:34 Also, will post about my first deck in a minute. I don't know how to add pictures!

Posting pictures is basically drag and drop, then click the attachments tab (under window where you are posting) to place the images where you want them.

here is some more detailed info and a quick instructional video about posting perfect images:
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=957

Thank you Joan Marie!

My very first tarot deck was the black and white Hermetic Tarot published by US Games. This was about 10 or more years ago. I was in way over my head but I loved that it was black amd white and the images looked powerful, like they came to life. After having the deck for a couple years I ended up giving it away. Focusing only on TDM. Early this year I've come full circle and decided to get the deck again, and this time for keeps.

Here are some pics:
This deck has one of my favorite Sun cards.

qndynes wrote: ↑31 May 2019, 12:34 Oh my goodness, you just answered an unsaught question! I have the Albano and after opening the box was so angry and bothered with Rosalind's half shadow face. It irked me to no end as I didn't find it in other modern RWS decks. Now I see that there is a precedent to her half shadow face, now I understand. Phewww. I guess I need to reconciliate with her, as it is not her fault.

There's a precedent, but I think the University Books edition was first published in 1959. It would have been the one that was readily available when Frankie Albano designed his deck. I don't think the shadow appears on any of the earlier Rider decks. (I could be wrong, though.)

However -
I was trying to find a University Books-USG comparison video to post yesterday, and while I was unsuccessful, I did stumble on this one where Elle says that Pamela Colman Smith didn't color the deck, that coloring was always done by the publishers. She says that at about the one minute mark here, or just before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4kPko_xPng&t=1789s Still need to verify this, but if it's the case, then the coloring is pretty arbitrary.

I've liked the Albano ever since I was a kid and saw the episode of An American Family (arguably the first "reality show", but very well done) where Pat Loud visits Lance at the old Chelsea hotel in NYC and gets a reading from one of his friends with it. I thought that was the epitome of cool then. I still kind of think that.

And the Hermetic is a fearless choice for a first deck!

katrinka wrote: ↑31 May 2019, 20:40

qndynes wrote: ↑31 May 2019, 12:34 Oh my goodness, you just answered an unsaught question! I have the Albano and after opening the box was so angry and bothered with Rosalind's half shadow face. It irked me to no end as I didn't find it in other modern RWS decks. Now I see that there is a precedent to her half shadow face, now I understand. Phewww. I guess I need to reconciliate with her, as it is not her fault.

There's a precedent, but I think the University Books edition was first published in 1959. It would have been the one that was readily available when Frankie Albano designed his deck. I don't think the shadow appears on any of the earlier Rider decks. (I could be wrong, though.)

However -
I was trying to find a University Books-USG comparison video to post yesterday, and while I was unsuccessful, I did stumble on this one where Elle says that Pamela Colman Smith didn't color the deck, that coloring was always done by the publishers. She says that at about the one minute mark here, or just before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4kPko_xPng&t=1789s Still need to verify this, but if it's the case, then the coloring is pretty arbitrary.

I've liked the Albano ever since I was a kid and saw the episode of An American Family (arguably the first "reality show", but very well done) where Pat Loud visits Lance at the old Chelsea hotel in NYC and gets a reading from one of his friends with it. I thought that was the epitome of cool then. I still kind of think that.

And the Hermetic is a fearless choice for a first deck!

Oh it's a relief to know that Rosalind's half shadow has precedent. I realy did think I had a defective deck. And I do love the Albano in general so that card was bugging me.

About the coloring, yeah I think I had heard that before and sort of stored it somehwere hidden in my brain. I ended up rewatching that video comparison.

And I was way in over my head with the hermetic but the black and white stark images really got me!

I love my dear old Thoth, my very first deck, and continue to carry it around and read with it. It lost its borders many years before I saw on the Internet that de-bordering decks was a thing, and I edged it in black. It's nearly always at my side. My children call it "Mama's tarot".

I simply love the way it looks, and it speaks to me so clearly.




And I have often told the story of my seeking for it and finding it.

At 18, when I was in a personal crisis, I met an old friend who did an unforgettable reading for me. I didn't know anything about tarot then but never forgot the reading, especially one card - Lust/Strength. Many years later, I was married already, lived on another continent and had a child, I saw a tarot book in the cheap books box and bought it (it was Spiritual Tarot). I loved the book and the concept of tarot but couldn't find "my" cards there, the cards I was looking for.

When I went home, in the same old town where I had had the reading in the early 80s, I went to the book store and bought the deck that looked most interesting to me. And when I opened it, I was amazed to find LUST. It was the Thoth, in my native country a very popular deck then (the Internet popularity of the RWS with its many many followers and quotations has influenced its popularity today, I think).

Years later, I bought a big greenie that is now present daily on my tarot calendar. But the old little deck is in my bag or next to me all the time. Thoth was my teacher and continues to be my teacher.

qndynes, you got me thinking about the Albano, so I decided to have a little fun with it. https://fennario.wordpress.com/2019/06/ ... call-home/

Nemia, the Thoth looks lovely debordered!
Funny how you came home and it was just waiting for you in the bookstore after all those years.

Nemia I found my Thoth in a bookstore! I love the court cards in the Thoth deck! Especially the disks... the Princess looks to be drawing on such deep strength and joy through her connection to the earth, and the Knight! Power is always my first impression.
I don't really use my deck for readings (one day), though I bought a Night Sun deck because of reading a review that recommended it as a sort of bridge between RWS and Thoth

Qndynes, I've not heard of the Hermetic Tarot but those black and white images are stunning
Can I ask, what is TDM?

Tarot de Marseilles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarot_of_Marseilles

Crowcallsthenight wrote: ↑04 Jun 2019, 10:35 Nemia I found my Thoth in a bookstore! I love the court cards in the Thoth deck! Especially the disks... the Princess looks to be drawing on such deep strength and joy through her connection to the earth, and the Knight! Power is always my first impression.
I don't really use my deck for readings (one day), though I bought a Night Sun deck because of reading a review that recommended it as a sort of bridge between RWS and Thoth

Qndynes, I've not heard of the Hermetic Tarot but those black and white images are stunning
Can I ask, what is TDM?

I know! That's what got me with the hermetic the stark black and white images and the line work. It's definitely a vivid deck, very deep.

TDM is Tarot de Marseille. The marseille tarot. More a tradition, specific aesthetic, etc.

katrinka wrote: ↑04 Jun 2019, 05:20 qndynes, you got me thinking about the Albano, so I decided to have a little fun with it. https://fennario.wordpress.com/2019/06/ ... call-home/

Nemia, the Thoth looks lovely debordered!
Funny how you came home and it was just waiting for you in the bookstore after all those years.

I love the albano, I need to pull it out again but I've been so stuck with the gill lately!

My very first tarot deck is "The Universal Rider Waite" tarot deck. It is Most popular and classic tarot deck.
Ask me, more about tarot reading and future predictions for career, finance, prospects, and relationships.

qndynes wrote: ↑04 Jun 2019, 12:12I love the albano, I need to pull it out again but I've been so stuck with the gill lately!

The Gill is smart and Thothy and stone lovely. I'm really starting to admire your taste in decks!

Mine was the Thoth back in the late 80s, but I never used it.

I had no real knowledge about tarot when I bought it (other than watching the Bond movie 'Live And Let Die', and seeing the 1JJ tarot in the opening credits of the TV show 'Tales of the Unexpected'). I bought the Thoth through a catalogue after squinting at some tiny black and white images - thought 'OK I'll try this one', got the deck, was totally flummoxed by the LWB and was immediately put-off by the Green Goblin-esque maniac (the Fool). Quickly put it away and started a huge deck buying spree looking for the 'ONE' deck that would be 'everything I need from tarot for the rest of my life' .

Never found it, but learnt a lot about tarot in the process and came to fully appreciate just how original, deep and inspired the Thoth deck actually is. I sadly got rid of my deck in the 90s, but bought both the pocket and mini one a few years ago. I tend to switch back and forth between the big three (Thoth, RWS and TdM), with the Thoth filling my need for occulty wonder every now and then.

katrinka wrote: ↑05 Jun 2019, 07:32

qndynes wrote: ↑04 Jun 2019, 12:12I love the albano, I need to pull it out again but I've been so stuck with the gill lately!

The Gill is smart and Thothy and stone lovely. I'm really starting to admire your taste in decks!

It is such a beautiful deck, unpretentious. I love it most because of that, it's a soft thoth deck, humble in its depth.

Nemia wrote: ↑01 Jun 2019, 10:23 I love my dear old Thoth, my very first deck, and continue to carry it around and read with it. It lost its borders many years before I saw on the Internet that de-bordering decks was a thing, and I edged it in black. It's nearly always at my side. My children call it "Mama's tarot".

I simply love the way it looks, and it speaks to me so clearly.


046.jpg



thoth court cards swords and disks.jpg


thoth court cards wands and cups.jpg



And I have often told the story of my seeking for it and finding it.

At 18, when I was in a personal crisis, I met an old friend who did an unforgettable reading for me. I didn't know anything about tarot then but never forgot the reading, especially one card - Lust/Strength. Many years later, I was married already, lived on another continent and had a child, I saw a tarot book in the cheap books box and bought it (it was Spiritual Tarot). I loved the book and the concept of tarot but couldn't find "my" cards there, the cards I was looking for.

When I went home, in the same old town where I had had the reading in the early 80s, I went to the book store and bought the deck that looked most interesting to me. And when I opened it, I was amazed to find LUST. It was the Thoth, in my native country a very popular deck then (the Internet popularity of the RWS with its many many followers and quotations has influenced its popularity today, I think).

Years later, I bought a big greenie that is now present daily on my tarot calendar. But the old little deck is in my bag or next to me all the time. Thoth was my teacher and continues to be my teacher.

Oh my, that is beautiful work debordering the deck. I attempted to remove the borders from my only Harris-Crowley deck and it ended up a mess! A total mess. I gave the deck away to an artist friend with the recommendation she use it for her art. She gladly accepted it.

teomat wrote: ↑07 Jun 2019, 09:26 Mine was the Thoth back in the late 80s, but I never used it.

I bought the Thoth through a catalogue after squinting at some tiny black and white images - thought 'OK I'll try this one', got the deck, was totally flummoxed by the LWB and was immediately put-off by the Green Goblin-esque maniac (the Fool).

It is a weird fool, I don't like him either. But I've come to appreciate that deck in general.

^Kinda makes me want to give him a moustache.

I recently got the Thoth finally..... Haven't looked at it much. It really is it's own thing. I mainly wanted to look at the astrological stuff. It's more.... psychological. Which I generally like. Hm.

Anyway anyway, I don't know what my first deck was. I was 11? I think. I'd managed to buy a cheap deck from Waldenbooks. Or Borders, but pretty sure it was the former. Borders did replace it later though.

It was pretty cheap.... And small. Like a small squareish box. I think. I went into this bookstore a lot over the years so I'm wondering if I'm combining memories with another square purple tarot box they had and still carry I think. It might've been a pocket deck. Because I also feel like I remember it being about the size of a mini, and rectangular, hahaha. I've seen a couple that remind me of it maybe but nothing clicks 100%. The Johnathan Dee that had nothing to do with the occultist Tarot, the tarot of the Moon garden, the RWS, that one cute 90s looking square black minimalist deck with colorful corner borders, all these come close. Especially the Johnathan Dee tarot.

edit: stuck between Tarot Nova or Jonathan Dee or something else like a RWS mini. Sigh.

The other thing I remember is a smallllll LWB, like I was straining my eyes holding it up close. And I remember I liked the star card a lot. It had an elegant feel. I think light blue was involved. And I remember I would get the Fool and the Death card a lot because I wouldn't stop asking questions sometimes and I'm pretty sure there was the traditional jester and cloaked skeleton with a scythe, and my sister would pester me to give her a reading and I'd snap saying wait because I hadn't realized I needed to learn Tarot so I'd gotten pretty focused and irritated.

I'd forgotten about it until I moved when I was 21. My roommate inadvertently reminded me I'd had one and after some thought I realized my mom must've thrown them away on the low, and I hadn't realized. I might've been at my dad's over the summer or something. She also has some strong distraction game. Haha.

I wish she hadn't now because I probably would've gotten really good at it, but I can also appreciate her cunning and why she did it hahaha. She hadn't wanted me to get them in the first place and I had won through uncharacteristically blaise force of will and childhood brattiness and my own Christmas money probably. She also probably didn't care as much until maybe my aunt talked to her or she saw them when she was alone. Anyway it's okay I have 16 decks now bwahaha, she doesn't know and I live on the other side of the US so I'm not even paranoid about it, which is great.

Anyway my roommate was in his convert people to tarot phase and offered to buy me my first deck Harry Potter style and I picked the Afro-Brazillian tarot. Which is..... powerful, frustratingly esoteric, hard to read, intense, and wonderful. It's not a normal tarot deck, it's got other ...magical or spiritual stuff going on with it, that's for damn sure. I ended up giving it away sometime in the past year. Sometimes I wonder. I loved the backing too, in hindsight. I think it was pushing me to get initiated, or guiding, rather. *

My 2nd was either a RWS mini because I really didn't want a RWS deck at the time so a smaller one means it's in my life less I guess, haha, or the Shadowscapes while drunk and online. I remember seeing it at the shop when I got the Afro-Brazillian one actually, now that I think about it. Hmm. And feeling drawn.

Anyway Shadowscapes is my soul deck hahaha. And the mini I have miraculously resurrected from a Poorly Thought Out Decision and am in the slow process of removing permanent tape residue from the backs of the cards with q-tips and nail polish remover. It'll mess up my deck list format but it's also a mini, so different rules apply I think.

edit: This deck might've ruined minimalist decks for me now that I think about it. Because it was so hard to read and would take me 2 - 4 hours (as a beginner though) to do a reading (with the spread provided which was 8 cards), and honestly might've required moving or visiting other countries or cultures, or subtly interrogating my friends mom (friend is Cuban and she did do this at one point), now if it's too easy I feel.... weird and kinda let down somehow. I think it was more rewarding to dig dig dig and be challenged at the end of the day, but also sometimes I'd just pull a card lazily and wonder what the hell it meant. Shadowscapes too I'm realizing is kinda like this. There're are a lot of repeating symbols and motifs....I don't think it's a beginner's deck.

I was only 15 and on holiday in 1985 and was new to Tarot and Fortune Telling which has since become my passion and work. After waiting for a very run down "grungy" shop to open I bought the only Tarot they had, "Tarot of the Witches" as in the Bond movie "Live and Let Die" and the only crystal ball they had which was little more than a large marble.

I disliked both. Later that year I had the money to buy what I class as the first tarot I loved, the Spanish Tarot, a contemporary of the older Marseilles Decks. Whilst I collect many decks my love is always in the historic Marseilles decks. As an aside, I was not able to get a good side Crystal ball at the time so bought a large festive snowglobe, emptied it out, filled it with water making sure there would be no bubble and use it as a Crystal ball. No one ever knew. It was fantastic!)

My first deck was the RWS deck.
It came with a for dummies book.
I used to love it a lot.
Now, I use the universal waite deck, which is similar, but more brightly coloured.

My first is the Mythic, given to me by my mom. I still have the deck, the book, and the spread cloth.

My first deck was the Dali deck that I purchased in 1988 for $88. I couldn't read the minors, so I read Majors only for over 20 years before adding them.

Shapeshifter tarot I bought from a mail order catalog. I didn't like it. Nowadays I always look first at youtube unboxings (with the sound off) to make sure its a deck I am going to like.