Tatiana's Fortune Cards

 

Amazon photo

Title: Titania's Fortune Cards

Price: $14.60/£10.50

Artist: Titania Hardie

Dimensions: 12.95 x 3.05 x 17.4 cm

Publisher: Quadrille Publishing Ltd

Date: 1st November 2018

Style: Colourful but in Negative pics. 

Hype or Drag: Verdict at the end

I'm always on the hunt for other methods of Cartomancy other than Tarot. So i picked this up on Ebay second hand, but you can buy it from Amazon.

Box and Guidebook.
Really great box!! it opens out like a book and its really strong! Pretty much like a good hard cover for any book. 

The cards are sitting in a pocket on one side, they are in their own little box but the box is just a bit smaller than its pocket which means it automatically falls out when i open it. Which gets old quickly. On the other side is a thick guidebook, which is just as well because this is a whole new way to read the cards. 

The only draw back is that you can't seperate the guidebook from the box, it's a bit cumbersome. 

The cards themselves aren't great quality, thin and flimsy so they won't undergo a rigorous shuffle. Luckily for me I am the world's worst shuffler and I'm not planning on using these much. 

They are also tiny

This is a Lenormand style deck!What is the difference? 

I feel they're very similar to Oracle cards, maybe on a simple scale. 
No Reversals
No Suits
No Major Arcana
No Minor Arcana
Tarot is more intuitive - Lenormand is more practical.

Spreads are limited with Lenormand - Tarot spreads are endless. - Oracle cards are also endless.

These cards particularly require you to read syntactically, and to do this you have to take in to account what card is next to them. As this immediately changes their meaning. Luckily the book is very detailed about how to use them. 

This 7 card spread is the most simple spread according to the book. 

This 9 card spread is one that should be done once every few months according to the book. With the centre card being the person in question and all cards relating to them.

I'll give you an example of how the meanings change, for example the coffin on its own means the death of something. But next to a Syth it genuinely means health wise

It's grim reading. (Sorry, not sorry) 

A sky means the death of an idea

A Heart, death of love. 

A fish, issues with money, and so on. 

It's like that for a lot of the cards, so you really have to learn about them in a different way before you use them. Whilst some are logical, some are also not. 

Also, with only 36 cards to use you are ultimately limited with combinations. Making the whole thing a pretty rigid experience. 

Artwork

I'm a bit meh about the artwork. It's high contrasting negatives and they look OK but in my humble opinion it's not very imaginative. 

Well... see for yourself. Here are some examples

Anyone can download stock images off of the Internet and mess about with them on photoshop. 

In conclusion

I am not sure about Lenormand to be honest. As a Wildling self taught Tarot and Oracle reader I appreciate having a lot more flexibility in my work. Really these are rigid in the approach and with only 36 cards it's not just limited spread wise, it's limited all round. I'm not really one to reinvent the wheel so does this need to be a deck? Is it a gimmick? Would I use it with a customer? No. 

Sometimes I like to whip my cards out and consult the Tarot or Oracle and do a quick 3 card reading. Which is not really possible with this deck.

Also the imagery isn't really pulling me in. It seems a bit naff. 

Overall I'm on the fence, I would like to try some more Lenormand cards because I believe it could just be this deck. It's cute and pretty, but this deck us all style and NO substance.