Outlaw effects - The Carnie Tarot

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Outlaw effects - The Carnie Tarot

Postby IAIN » Jun 13th, '08, 09:19



From: http://outlaw-effects.com/outlaweffects ... &Itemid=83

Price:
Around £28 at current exchange rate, BUT! remember these are hand-made, each and every deck will look different to the next. These are not machine printed to look old. They are hand aged!

From the site:

The 1930's and 40's were the golden age of traveling carnivals in the U.S. They went from small town to small town across the mid-west with their side shows and games of chance.

A feature at all carnivals was the fortune tellers tent. For fifty cents you could find out what your future held, was it love? Could it be riches? Was there something ominous?

Some used a crystal ball, some used tea leaves, most used tarot cards.

Throughout the Carnie underworld there was common knowledge that certain fortune tellers attracted more customers than others.
They seemed to have a real 6th sense about their "clients", even before the cards were turned over, they would reveal "things".

They all used what appeared to be similar tarot decks. Decks with spooky clown like polka dot patterns on them.

They were known as the Carnie Tarot. We've re-created the Carnie tarot 22 major arcana cards for you. They are marked just like the originals. One way and coded with the card.

These cards are printed on 100 pound stock, hand sanded and hand aged. They come with a "letter of provenance". You will know which card is up and which card is down. You will know what the card is before you turn it over.

Use them wisely...
_______________________________________________________
What i say:
Well, to be honest, I'm a little over-awed at the moment. As i'd also ordered the M3 Panther wallet, and some SOMs. So i've got lots to play with before settling down to work with them properly.

I wanted to say that these cards are stunning. They are not "perfect", by that i mean, each set will have tiny differences if you were to buy two sets. To buy and own something genuinely hand-made is an experience in itself.

Clear instructions with photos, a nice old cardboard box to keep them in, and a smart yet odd looking cloth to wrap them in.

The markings are easy to work out once you know what you're looking for. These are fantastic in fact.

Each one of the cards scream "old freaky circus show" tarot. I used to collect tarot, and without sounding too much like a gushing fan-boy, these are superb and sit very, very highly in my collection.

Some tarot are pretty and evocative to use. Some you may just want to admire from a distance. These feel like you're using something that may of been used in a travelling circus in the 1930s...

well done Outlaw Roth...

9.5/10

Other reading:
the booklet will not "teach" you how to read the tarot, and why should it? you want it all dontcha? My personal recommendation is to seek out Enrique Enriquez's material for that. His ebook is only a tenner and is a very clever different methodology to your standard tarot teachings.

IAIN
 

Postby Lenoir » Jun 13th, '08, 09:59

Double Posting eh abraxus? Gawdddd almight! :lol: (Note from Mods: duplicate post now removed!)
I'm just reading some relatively basic stuff about Tarot reading, so it might be a bit of a jump at the deep end, but I'm certainly going to invest in something similar when I get a bit more profficiant.

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Postby Replicant » Jun 13th, '08, 11:32

Just as Queenie's tarot thread was getting me interested in the subject, you go and post this! ;) My PayPal finger is itching again....

Seriously, this looks like a very nice deck but it doesn't sound like a first purchase for the likes of me. Just to clarify - the Carnie Tarot deck only consists of the 22 major arcana cards, right? You don't get the minor arcana cards? Excuse my ignorance, but can this deck still be utilised to give standard readings or would you need a full deck? Or are these cards meant for magic and/or mentalism purposes? That's four questions in a row - I do apologise.

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Postby IAIN » Jun 13th, '08, 11:39

only 22 cards - the major arcana
the major arcana are the "trumps" - the most visually emotive/descriptive of cards
no minor cards
you can give a reading purely with the major arcana

i have to explain - I'm certainly not a reader. i do enjoy the psychological approach to the tarot, thats why i mentioned enrique's approach...

IAIN
 

Postby Wills » Jun 13th, '08, 12:00

Dam you Abraxus!!

I've just went and bought that ebook, you should at least offer to pay for half of mine for making me do so.

But seriously I read the personnal statement on his website. I thought his theories were a bit "out there" at the beginning but he brought it all together nicely in the end and made good sense. He seems to have a very practical and modern approach so I thought I'd dip my toe into the murky sea of tarot with this ebook.

Just waiting for it to be delievered now, here's to no work being done today if Here's to no work being done today if it arrives soon.

Can anybody please help me? I'm having terrible problems controlling my streetmagic- I can't walk down a street without turning into a pub.
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Postby DrTodd » Jun 13th, '08, 13:20

Wills wrote:Dam you Abraxus!!

I've just went and bought that ebook, you should at least offer to pay for half of mine for making me do so.

But seriously I read the personnal statement on his website. I thought his theories were a bit "out there" at the beginning but he brought it all together nicely in the end and made good sense. He seems to have a very practical and modern approach so I thought I'd dip my toe into the murky sea of tarot with this ebook.

Just waiting for it to be delievered now, here's to no work being done today if Here's to no work being done today if it arrives soon.


I guess you mean EE's ebook, which would work well with the Carnie Tarot, especially with the added extras...

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Postby IAIN » Jun 13th, '08, 14:29

oh and to clarify, the little booklet does explain the basics of tarot within carnie terms..i meant for proper readings, best you get enrique's work to get much, much more than an overview...

the marking system is now firmly planted in my tiny brain..took an hour's practice..and i was watching a film at the same time...easy..

EDIT: and yes, you can use it for bizarre/mentalism effects...there's even a dai vernon effect in a book of his that is highly adaptable to mentalism...

IAIN
 

Postby themagicwand » Jun 13th, '08, 14:50

Darn it. Just wish this was a full 78 card pack. But as Tarot Boy I think a pack of these will be winging their way over to Mansion Bell very shortly.

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Postby Roth » Jun 13th, '08, 19:27

These 22 major Arcana can most certainly be used for readings 8)

Here's your fortune:

carnie tarot




Rick

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Postby themagicwand » Jun 22nd, '08, 22:59

Just ordered mine. Looking forward to having a play. They do look rather excellent. Any chance of a minor arcana add-on at some point?

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Postby Robbie » Jun 23rd, '08, 11:34

Just to say, I never use the Minor Arcana for readings, unless I'm using an unusual layout that requires them.

The Major and Minor Arcana are really two completely different decks with different origins. The Major Arcana derive from educational cards that were popular teaching aids in medieval times, depicting classes of society, zodiac signs and planets, important symbolic animals, the vices and virtues, etc. The Major Arcana derive from numbered slips that were used as a substitute for dice in various games; and in turn they evolved into the ordinary playing cards we use today.

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Postby Mandrake » Jun 23rd, '08, 11:36

Variations on the Minor Arcana are still used in Italy for card games as well as for 'fortune telling'.

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Postby themagicwand » Jun 23rd, '08, 14:10

I believe (and it is all just folklore and myth) that the minor arcana actually derive from playing cards. Playing cards came first.

Some bright spark then put the playing cards together with the major arcana, et viola! C'est la tarot. Or summat.

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Postby VoodooMick » Jun 23rd, '08, 15:17

themagicwand wrote:Some bright spark then put the playing cards together with the major arcana, et viola! C'est la tarot. Or summat.


Are you hinting that the guy that put the two sets of symbols together was French?

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Postby themagicwand » Jun 23rd, '08, 16:04

VoodooMick wrote:
Are you hinting that the guy that put the two sets of symbols together was French?

I was really just messing around, but it actually would make perfect sense. The odd game that one can still see been played along the mediterranean by old guys outside bars is called (I believe) Tarocchi. In France, early card makers were called Tarotiers.

Although there is an awful lot of new age wishful thinking around the tarot, my personal belief is that they have nothing to do with the Jewish book of life (Tora?), nothing to do with numerology, and nothing to do with signs of the zodizc, the elements, etc. etc. My own opinion is that they were playing cards, and the 22 cards of the major arcana (which may have been in existance beforehand as a means of illiterate people "enjoying" tales from the old testament) were introduced as "trumps" in a particular game. By "trumps" I mean cards that beat all other cards or can be used to represent any card required by the holder - a bit like one eyed jacks in 3 card brag.

I imagine that European gypsies then began to use the cards for fortune telling as a more "up to date and cutting edge" alternative to crystal balls. Tea leaf reading is I think uniquely British (though I may be wrong, and of course it would have travelled to the colonies - the USA, Australia etc - from here).

One story that I invented myself but which seems to work well particularly with a "blokey" audience is that poker was actually originally a form of divination. Explain how poker was introduced to the States by slaves from Africa (hence why poker was always more popular in the US than the UK). It was originally five cards that would be used for divination. These 5 cards were the past, the present, the environment, the advice, and the most important card the future.

One strange oddity about this African form of divination with cards was that spectators would place bets on the outcome of the reading. What card would the future card be? What kind of hand would be dealt? And from these beginnings the game of poker originated, "poker" originally being an East African word for "future".

It's all made up of course, but is a nice way to shift seamlessly from a very blokey gambling routine to fortune telling. Or as a way of getting blokes interested in having a reading.

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