Cult of Tarot Forum

I just got the Spolia Tarot and the deck comes with 16 extra cards in addition to the 78 standard ones.

There are 12 cards for each Astrology sign and the 4 elements.

Could anyone suggest some interesting ways to use these cards? I guess I could just add them to the rest*, but I'll bet there are some more interesting ways to use them.

*The Sploia tarot is printed in Italy and I have never seen card stock like this. It's a smooth and durable matte finish and feels wonderful but they are just a little thicker than you normally see. So even without the extra 16 cards they are a "handful" as it is.


The extra cards are quite beautiful and I'm really wanting to use them so any suggestions would be really helpful.

When decks have only one additional card (the Fountain in the Fountain Tarot, the Void in the Orbifold, the empty curtain in the Daniloff... and all those lovely Happy Squirrels), I simply use it with the others.

A set like what you mention - I guess I'd try to use it as oracle to fine-tune a reading, for time questions or character/person questions, or even as base cards for a spread.

You could use the four directions to make a compass spread. South: what is hot in your life, North: what is cold in your life, East: what is rising in your life and West: what is setting in your life.

And you can use the zodiac cards of your own horoscope (Sun sign, Moon sign, Ascendant) for an in depth analysis - for each of the signs, one positive trait ("where does my Venus in Gemini help and support me") and one negative trait ("where and how does this Venus in Gemini become an obstacle or cause problems?").

Might be interesting.

You can also simply use them to study the relationship between the zodiac and majors, zodiac and court cards, zodiac and minors.

And you can use them as focus cards like I do with my Tabula Mundi decan cards. We're in Sagittarius/Temperance territory now, and you can put up both cards together to see how they connect to your life right now.

So is it like a modern version of the Minchiate? I don't know how people use the extra cards in that but I assume it's a similar idea.

Sinister wrote: ↑25 Nov 2018, 21:48 So is it like a modern version of the Minchiate? I don't know how people use the extra cards in that but I assume it's a similar idea.

It is. You can see samples and some more info here: Spolia Tarot

What is the idea behind the extra cards in the Minchiate? They were just part of the card game, is that right?

Joan Marie wrote: ↑25 Nov 2018, 22:29

Sinister wrote: ↑25 Nov 2018, 21:48 So is it like a modern version of the Minchiate? I don't know how people use the extra cards in that but I assume it's a similar idea.

It is. You can see samples and some more info here: Spolia Tarot

What is the idea behind the extra cards in the Minchiate? They were just part of the card game, is that right?

I don't own one, but AFAIK that's the case. Thanks for posting the link again, I probably should've read that before I posted!

Sinister wrote: ↑25 Nov 2018, 21:48 So is it like a modern version of the Minchiate? I don't know how people use the extra cards in that but I assume it's a similar idea.

Not quite, the Minchiate should also have cards for Faith, Hope, and Charity. As far as I know, all the extra cards are considered majors.

Charlie Brown wrote: ↑26 Nov 2018, 00:20

Sinister wrote: ↑25 Nov 2018, 21:48 So is it like a modern version of the Minchiate? I don't know how people use the extra cards in that but I assume it's a similar idea.

Not quite, the Minchiate should also have cards for Faith, Hope, and Charity. As far as I know, all the extra cards are considered majors.

I just had a quick look into this, starting with the wiki page. There seems to be some variations of Minchiate decks. It an iteresting article that includes a table of cards as they translate across different deck styles including TdM and RWS.

But here is here is one excerpt from the wiki entry:

Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance were three classical "cardinal virtues" depicted in the more familiar tarot trumps. The minchiate supplies the remaining cardinal virtue — Prudence — and inserts them with the three theological virtues, Faith, Hope and Charity. The only other deck to have the theological virtues was the Cary-Yale deck. This is the only deck to include all seven virtues.

Minchiate is a southern tarot pattern so it shares many qualities with the Bolognese and Sicilian tarots as opposed to the western patterns like the tarot of Marseilles. While the Tower is called The House of God in the Marseilles tarot, it is called the House of the Devil or Hellmouth in the minchiate deck and it depicts a nude woman fleeing a burning building. The Moon depicts an astrologer studying the moon instead of the tarot of Marseilles howling dogs and lobster. The card corresponding to the Hermit is often called Time, or the Hunchback; it depicts an elderly man on crutches with an hourglass in the background. Like other southern decks, the final card in the series is not the World, but Judgement. The minchiate completes the series by adding all the zodiac signs (in random order) and the four classical elements.

And here are some variations from the French version, including some other interesting additions:

98 cards with 42 trumps order:
#1-5 Cosmological objects (Chaos, Sun, Moon, Star, World), #6-9 Elements (Air, Earth, Water, Fire), #10-13 Age (Youth, Infancy, Adolescence, Old age), #14-18 Senses (Taste, Smell, Touch, Sight, Hearing), #19-24 Virtues (Prudence, Justice, Charity, Hope, Strength, Renown/Judgement), #24-30 Gods (Mercury, Bacchus, Amor, Venus, Momus, Fortune) #31-42 Months/Zodiac (January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December).

97 cards with 40 trumps and Fool order:[27]
Momus, #1-4 Gods (Mercury, Bacchus, Amor, Venus), #5-9 Virtues (Prudence, Charity, Justice, Hope, Strength), #10 Fortune, #11-14 Ages (Old age, Youth, Adolescence, Infancy), #15-19 Senses (Taste, Touch, Smell, Hearing, Sight), #20-23 Elements (Fire, Earth, Water, Air), #24-35 Months/Zodiac (December, November, October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February, January), #36-39 Cosmological objects (Star, Moon, Sun, World), #40 Renown/Judgement.

78 cards with 21 trumps and Fool order:[28]
Momus, #1 Mercury, #2 Amor, #3-8 Virtues and Fortune (Hope, Strength, Fortune, Justice, Charity, Prudence), #9-12 Age (Old age, Youth, Adolescence, Infancy), #13-16 Elements (Water, Fire, Earth, Air), #17 Star, #18 Moon, #19 Sun, #20 Renown/Judgement, #21 World.

Maybe It's time to start a topic about Minchiate.

I have the Williams Minchiate and other references/books on it. I don't use it often, but I noticed that it lacks some of the traditional majors so I use all of the 97 cards. It has very interesting imagery and card meanings.

I don't know about the element cards, but you could use the astrological ones as significators for yourself and other querants? Or for astrology readings, maybe representing the 12 houses (since they're the ruler of the houses).

Hmm. When it's a single card I include it, never thought about a whole set.

Its tricky coz I don't follow sun sign astrology much, but that's the main thing I could think to use it for, other than monthly or lunar etc sort of spreads. If you're into astrology you could also use it to understand the signs I suppose.

Or if you follow the astrological correspondences in the cards, maybe looking at the signs and how they manifest in cards that share the sign.