Cult of Tarot Forum

I recently discovered these cards by Svetlana Touchkoff (also called or related to Pasyans, Russian solitaire cards). The system is a bit different from Lenormand or Tarot, although the symbolism is similar to Lenormand and Tassemancy. I was a bit surprised that there is not more information about this deck out there (there are only a handful of reviews I could find).

I wrote a blog post about them mainly to get my thoughts down on 'paper' so to speak.
https://tarotjourneying.blogspot.com/20 ... cards.html
(apologies If it's not ok to post the link )

I think it's a fun system, but I found I had a few issues with it so adapted it more to suit me. I would love to know if anyone else here uses them or has any experience or thoughts about them.

Your blog post gives a very thorough overview of the Touchkoff cards. Nice.

I bought a set about 8 years ago, but I was a bit disappointed that they weren't quite as "traditional" as I'd hoped. "Based on the Authentic Gypsy Teachings of Nineteenth Century Russia" rang huge alarm bells for me, especially when, on inspection, they appeared to be a mash-up of Lenormand with some, at the time unknown to me, presumably Russian system.

Then I made friends with a card reader from Russia and discovered through him some of the sets actually printed and used in Russia - the "pasyans" decks you referred to in your post. True, the modern ones often leave something to be desired in terms of imagery and symbolism, but I prefer them as being truer to the originals. Said friend, Dmitry Korolev, actually posted some historical info about these decks on Instagram not that long ago - https://www.instagram.com/p/CEIAnjbHqvZ/

I'm guessing you've seen the examples available on the Taroman site? - https://www.taroman.ru/category/solitaire/ I opted for the "Kiev Sorceress" and "Old Russian" sets. I enjoy using them - there's something very homely and nostalgic about them. Mainly, I do simple Week Ahead readings, but with a bit of creative interpretation the method can be applied to answering direct questions.

Thanks so much Judy for your feedback, comments and links:) It's interesting to read what Dmitry says ("le Petit Lenormand bludgeoned into the Square Patience format" lol!). I had a look at the decks on the tarotman site the other day. I haven't found any I was totally happy with the symbols yet, but it's good to know there are different Pasyans decks out there, in case I change me mind in the future:) I'd love to know what deck that is in Dmitry's post, I havent' been able to find that anywhere.

How do you personally read the spread - do you take the meanings altogether, or read in a particular order? I'm curious if anyone has any particular techniques.

I've not looked too much into the solitare games yet, but it might be worth me doing that to gain a little more insight.

BlueStar wrote: ↑19 Oct 2020, 17:31 ... I'd love to know what deck that is in Dmitry's post, I havent' been able to find that anywhere.

How do you personally read the spread - do you take the meanings altogether, or read in a particular order? I'm curious if anyone has any particular techniques.

That particular deck belonged to Dmitry's grandmother and he refers to it as a "Soviet" version, i.e. produced sometime in the Soviet era. I was lucky to find a German reproduction on eBay 3 years ago. The card stock is quite thin and the images aren't as crisp, but it's still an attractive deck and has the benefit of playing card suits associated with the images.

The repro is(was?) published by Ayfaar-Buchverlag under the name "Das russische Patience-Orakel", ISBN 978-3-9811721-0-3. Searching the ISBN produced no results, but the publisher maintains a website with a "Buy Now" button. Sadly, the link took me to eBay but with no matching results. I'd purchased mine from a private seller in Germany, but she isn't on there now. Ayfaar does have contact information in their impressum, if you're keen to follow it up.

As for my "method", I essentially read the matched symbols in order from left to right, top to bottom, stringing them into a reading as you might playing cards or Lenormand. If there's more than one possible match in any position, I read only the first one. I don't take orientation into account. I will, however, make a note of "broken" symbols - those where the two halves appear at opposite ends of the same row or column. I view those as things either that won't happen or aren't the case, or perhaps as something that's missing or lacking in the situation. It depends.

Thank you very much Judy for all the information:) I tried looking on ebay recently for any decks but with no luck.

I've decided to buy the Lenormand Solitaire deck as well, it's like a fully Lenormand version of the Gypsy deck (and comes with a regular Lenormand set too). In that deck the instructions suggest you can take the two halves if they appear on the same row or column (I think) and make a match. Should be fun to try these out too. I may do a blog post on these as well if I can find the time to get round to it.

BlueStar wrote: ↑19 Oct 2020, 17:31 I'm curious if anyone has any particular techniques.

I've only now taken the time to translate the information that came with the German orakel. Dmitry had already given me the meanings of the symbols, so I hadn't bothered with the rest. Now I see that there are a couple of interesting techniques mentioned. I thought you might be interested, and I believe I can add the Word document here.
(yes, that seems to have worked)

This is fascinating! I had no idea there was a real tradition out there. I have the set by Touchkoff and take it off the shelf sometime and play with it.

I will definitely be checking out the methods you posted. Thank you!!!

JudyK wrote: ↑21 Oct 2020, 11:45 I see that there are a couple of interesting techniques mentioned. I thought you might be interested, and I believe I can add the Word document here.

Thank you! Very kind of you to post that:)

I have this deck, I even reviewed it once. I love it, both the idea of forming the images in order to read, as well as the art.

But I confess that I don't take it off the shelf to play a lot... I think it's because it takes me such a loooong time to do a single reading with it. You have to lay all cards down on the table, then match the images, then read the meanings book... it's just so involved, lol! That said, the readings I've done using it have all been eerily accurate, so I suppose it's worth all the hard work.

It's a gorgeous and fun deck, I should probably use it more often.