#5 January 29 -February 5

[Jo Ann]

What would be your favorite deck if you had to pick. Three decks for those of us who hoard decks.

[Nemia]

The first is easy - Thoth, my first deck and my most trusted reading deck. The second is easy too - Tabula Mundi, this amazing work of art and tarot wisdom and beauty.

But the third? Can I just keep a blank space for the third and change it from day to day? There are simply too many wonderful decks for the third spot ;-) Silhouettes, Dreaming Way, Touchstone, Star, Daniloff... *hrr hmp* can't do it.

[Jo Ann]

I know what you mean Nemia. that's why i haven't answered yet.

[Jo Ann]

Well my favorite deck to use at this time and probably for a while is the Sun and Moon. love that deck. Also New Orleans Voodoo. I sent an email to the authors suggesting that they make an accompanying New Orleans HooDoo oracle. never heard back. Madame Marie Laveau practiced Hoodoo a lot. New Orleans voodoo doesn't deal with zombies and stuff.

isn't the aleph letter silent? I know it means ox, but i heard, in words it's silent. in Sun and Moon the fool's letter is aleph (i can't copy the letter here)

I have to think about other decks. LOL

[Charlie Brown]

The hard part about answering that question is what favorite means. If it means what deck I would pick if I could only ever have one, then I'd pick the RWS. If it means what deck do you use the most then it would be my Fournier TdM. But if it means what deck am I most excited by when it's time to use it, then I say the Shadowscapes.

[Nemia]

Well my favorite deck to use at this time and probably for a while is the Sun and Moon. love that deck. Also New Orleans Voodoo. I sent an email to the authors suggesting that they make an accompanying New Orleans HooDoo oracle. never heard back. Madame Marie Laveau practiced Hoodoo a lot. New Orleans voodoo doesn't deal with zombies and stuff.

isn't the aleph letter silent? I know it means ox, but i heard, in words it's silent. in Sun and Moon the fool's letter is aleph (i can't copy the letter here)

I have to think about other decks. LOL

Warning! My thoughts concerning Alef! א

Alef א doesn't mean ox the way dalet means door or bet means house. Its shape reminds of an ox's head but it doesn't have a meaning except for the number One. In Hebrew, we count with letters. The first day, Sunday, is called yom alef, and the first class at school is called kita alef.

The letter alef is a consonant but one without a sound, that's right. Depending on which vowel you add to it, it sounds different. In Hebrew, you can't start a word with a vowel, you need a consonant to "carry" the vowel. There are two such consonants that can be used to "carry" the vowel, and it can be any vowel (a, e, i, o, u, ey are possible vowels in Hebrew).

An example. There are families who like to give their children names that start with the same letter. Imagine a family whose children are called Itamar, Uri, Ortal, Eytan, Ela and Amir - all these names start with an alef, but for each name, a different vowel is added to the alef so it sounds differently.
איתמר
אורי
אורטל
איתן
אלה
אמיר
All the names are to be read from right to left - they all start with an alef ;-) but each sounds different.

Now imagine this family of six travels abroad and tells people: we decided to give our children names that start with the same letter: Itamar, Uri etc. Nobody will understand what they're talking about. That's alef for you, the letter that can sound like other letters.

So while alef has no firm connection to a specific sound, the way other letters have, it does have a very firm connection to the number One, as mentioned above. Hebrew letters are used as number all the time.

I like the decks that follow the French tradition and don't have this horrible clash between numbers and Hebrew letters that you find in Golden Dawn decks. Alef means 1 and it always disturbs me to see the many many decks where alef is associated with nr. 2. It doesn't make sense. If the Golden Dawn tarotists wanted to use the Hebrew alphabet, why not use it with its proper meanings? No explanation I ever heard really made sense. I think they didn't really know Hebrew, otherwise they couldn't have just stuck the letters with the wrong numbers. If that's not cultural appropriation, I don't know what it is. The French tradition does it the way it should be done. Alef is one, bet is two etc. Yoav Ben Dov writes about it in his book.

Oh well, rant over.

[Charlie Brown]

Oh well, rant over.

That was very interesting. Thank you.

[kyan]

yes, very interesting, nemia!

i never pay attention to the hebrew letters or the planetary symbols on the major cards of the one deck i own that has them, but i’m happy to report (after checking) the magician card (1) has the alef, and not bet.

now i’m wondering why the fool card (0) has shin, which corresponds to 300, if i’m not mistaken.

anyway, thanks for the fascinating look at alef. i did not know about the added vowel sounds. a friend taught hebrew to kids in los angeles (monica lewinsky was one of her students, and apparently she was a weird cookie, even way back then) plus i worked for an israeli publisher in the bay area for over 10 years — so i’ve heard my share of hebrew, manishmas, and kens.

[Jo Ann]

well that explain it on the fools card in Sun and Moon. Even tho the fool has the number zero, it is actually the first card. is that a plausible reason?

[Belinda2]

Well for me it's RWS deck/ Robin Wood Tarot it's funny that I have other more expensive, maybe more complex decks so maybe that's why I like the two decks which are more simple and I can just go ahead and pull a card read it and go on.