Any such thing as a bad Tarot Deck?

[DarkSchneider]

Specifically decks like the Tarot Nova. It's one of those obscure cheap decks you'd buy at big bookstore chains.

I was sorting through the deck I bought for a dollar. Everything is in it, I got it at a thrift store. The problem is how vague, ugly and lifeless the deck feels. It's a convenient pocket size, affordable, and color coded on the face for any elemental or astrological references. The illustrations themselves are small and have black backgrounds. There's very little to go off of.

They were actually the first deck I tried years ago since they were so discrete and easy to hide from my parents.

I'll attach a sample photo.

[fraterai]

I use made up hand drawn cards that don't seem to fail me. I think you can use anything for divination, as long as you assign meanings and are consistent with your meanings and methods. If you don't ever get good results you should try something new

[Desecrated]

Two sides of the argument.

A. Obviously not, The cards in themselves are not "good or bad". It's up to the user to utilize them and we need different decks for different people.

B. Yes most decks are fucking horrible. I fucking hate fucking new age fucking robin wood fucking unicorns and fairies, puppies, cat Marseilles bullshit.
I hate when people use tarot for divination mainly and especially hate those that concentrate on the major arcana. I hate crowleys deck and everything associated with it.

If the rider-waite isn't working for you, you are the problem and you need to study it more. It's the best insight to real magic we are ever going to get on the open market.

[DarkSchneider]

@fraterai

I've seen some cards that are blank that you can design yourself. Another deck where you can personally color them

@Desecrated

I collected quite a few themed decks but I mostly rely on my Rider Waite deck. I'm still learning, how I can use the cards in other rituals. I've been reading a pretty helpful book on various subjects. The Witch's Bag of Tricks by Melanie Marquis.

I didn't say the Rider-Waite isn't working for me, on the contrary it's been helping me learn more about myself. I was just cleaning my room, wondering what to do with my Tarot Nova set I have a mild hoarding case. lol

[Desecrated]

@fraterai

I've seen some cards that are blank that you can design yourself. Another deck where you can personally color them

@Desecrated

I collected quite a few themed decks but I mostly rely on my Rider Waite deck. I'm still learning, how I can use the cards in other rituals. I've been reading a pretty helpful book on various subjects. The Witch's Bag of Tricks by Melanie Marquis.

I didn't say the Rider-Waite isn't working for me, on the contrary it's been helping me learn more about myself. I was just cleaning my room, wondering what to do with my Tarot Nova set I have a mild hoarding case. lol

That wasn't meant directly at you, I was just posting the two arguments I see most time.

[DarkSchneider]

No worries I appreciate the clarification and your insight.

[the_spiral]

I'll fight anyone who casts shade on the Crowley deck! I am not even remotely a Thelemite or a Crowley fan but that deck is fire

And I tend toward the first argument, I don't know how you'd objectively judge a "bad" deck but I've sure come across a few that didn't work for me at all.

[DarkSchneider]

@the_spiral

My question is based on this idea of functionality. With the example of Tarot Nova, the pictures are quite vague, and leaves much to be desired for backgrounds if there were any (I don't know if you can see the picture).

I didn't mean to be ignorant sounding, it's just a question

[Nahemah]

I quite like the look of it, I like black backgrounds and the pics are interesting.

It's a personal chioce matter, I think, some folk love decks that others despise. Pick one that suits you and experiment often, with other decks, to see if you like them too. [grin]

If you don't want to just throw it away, there are tarot swap groups on Facebook where enthusiasts exchange and review decks?

[the_spiral]

I think you just don't connect with that deck and the images do nothing for you. Someone else like Nahemah might have a different experience. But I don't think price is a factor, I've known gifted people who could do amazing readings with playing cards or Old Maid cards. That's how my mother taught me divination as a kid.

Ideally you want to find cards with images you can use as gateways for scrying and pathworking. That's part of why the good old Rider Waite remains so popular.