Does anyone successfully use..

tarot cards for readings which just have the pips on the minor arcana with no other images? I find it weird that I struggle with such cards and yet ordinary playing cards (which again have just the pips) seem to work well for me.

hi Violet

for myself i find it easier to use cards with images and not just pips. i do not remember the meaning of the cards by heart but each time a story is unfold itself from the images. but there are special readings to do with decks that have only pips and then you do not need the pips very much but only use them as a support.
funny thing is, i started from playing cards, but since i switch to the tarot cards i find it very hard to use the playing cards as there is no image there.

i know from my students that some remember by heart the meaning of each card, and they give wonderful reading almost quoting what is written in the books, while others just create stories from the cards and give just as good readings without remembering the meaning of each card.
as for myself sometimes i get a feeling from a card that is in contradiction to what the formal meaning is and still it is the right interpretation of the card for this specific sitter. personally i feel, at least for myself, that the pips are sort of restricted to a specific meaning, and if someone like me has a hard time remembering the meanings, then working without images is very hard.

i also thing this is why i have such a hard time working with runes, though i love runes very much, and as much as i try to use them i can't remember what each symbol stand for.

but this is only my thoughts...not sure if this helps in anyway.


s

Not anymore, I used to though. I prefer images on the minors if I had to choose. There are some pretty pip decks though for instance, The Celtic tarot by Courtney Davis. Some people prefer reading with the Marseilles over other decks because they feel they can use their imagination more with the pip minors and they're not constrained or put into a box with the images on the minors.

they feel they can use their imagination more with the pip minors and they're not constrained or put into a box with the images on the minors.

That's an interesting point Seacharms, wouldn't you need a good reliable knowledge of the basic meanings of each pip card though?

as for myself sometimes i get a feeling from a card that is in contradiction to what the formal meaning is and still it is the right interpretation of the card for this specific sitter.

I'm the same Shayn, I also struggle with runes.

Well I believe they incorporate numerology for the pips. There was a course that was quite popular awhile back by Enrique Enriquez that taught how to read the Marseilles tarots though I never signed up for it. I supposed you'd want to use a combination of numerology, elements, card positions etc

Violet wrote:

they feel they can use their imagination more with the pip minors and they're not constrained or put into a box with the images on the minors.

That's an interesting point Seacharms, wouldn't you need a good reliable knowledge of the basic meanings of each pip card though?

Yeah you would, but I think they feel they're able to expand on their intuition more other than the placed image on a full minor. I don't read with pip cards often but some people prefer to and prefer the Marseilles to the Rider Waite type decks.