unpopular opinion
stop making tarot cards with pictures that don’t inherently represent the original image of the specific card. Don’t draw “death” as a butterfly, or “the high priestess” as an acorn. The pictures on the cards are symbolic and the meaning of the card heavily depends on what scene is playing out through them. that’s literally what tarot is all about. The cards tell stories, and you can’t just put your favorite sea creature on them and claim it means the same thing, and personally i dont think you should even call it a “tarot” deck.
Since the oldest tarot deck was (and still is) used for playing games and people ascribed esoteric significance to the images later, I guess every deck that isn’t used for gaming isn’t a true tarot deck?
If someone doesn’t have the cultural context in order to understand a symbol, it’s meaningless to them, and some people resonate more with death as a butterfly than death as a skeletal being on a horse trampling people. Butterflies are associated with the soul, death, rebirth, transformation, fate. Many deck creators choose their symbolism with care, and I’ve found a lot of them are happy to explain why they made the choices they did.
I agree that the cards tell stories, but there are many stories, and each storyteller tells a story differently. Even when two tellers tell the same story, each one puts their own spin on it. The best rendition of Rumpelstiltskin I ever heard was a story set during prohibition, and in the end, it took nothing away from Rumpelstiltskin. It was the same story with just a bit of a twist, and that’s what made it great.
If tarot is supposed to be a “universal” system of symbols, then it should appeal to people with a variety of symbolic languages, and sometimes those languages don’t mesh well with “traditional” tarot
If the symbolism on a tarot card is so inherently tied up in the “”“original”“” artwork, then I guess no one should design new tarot cards ever again.
yes, but people have studies the original deck and figured out what those specific images mean, if you make an entirely new deck with different pictures then it doesnt have the same meaning
i’m not saying people can’t create new types of decks with different meanings, but you can’t assume a picture of a butterfly is the same thing as a picture of a burning building with TONS of symbolism and meaning built into the images
Except when you say “stop making tarot cards with pictures that don’t inherently represent the original image of the specific card.” and keep using the word don’t, yes you are saying that. You are policing what people can and cannot do. Additionally, you straight up say “The cards tell stories, and you can’t just put your favorite sea creature on them and claim it means the same thing, and personally i dont think you should even call it a “tarot” deck.”
You’re being hypocritical saying you are not saying people “can’t” create new types of decks. Yes, that is exactly what you are saying and did say.
and i said “DIFFERENT MEANINGS” as in IF YOU CHANGE THE IMAGE OF THE CARD YOU ARE CHANGING THE MEANING. as in DONT MAKE TAROT DECKS WITH WEIRD IMAGES AND GIVE THEM THE SAME MEANING. i fully understand that people are going to do WHATEVER THEY FUCKING WANT this was literally just a thought you can calm the hell down
Lol you’re the one yelling and cursing at me but yeah okay I will calm down.
fair--y backup 