Tarot: Before, During and After Decks

I am still in touch with my novice master from my Benedictine days and he recently commented that I've always had a funny attitude to authority. While I understand that he's been on the receiving end of that attitude, there's actually nothing funny about it at all: there is literally nobody more deferential to authority than me... as long as the authority in question is right! I seem to carry this attitude through into my magic and it's probably just as well I have never found my way into a coven. 

Several years ago a deck called the New Vision Tarot was published which consists of alternative takes on what is happening in the RWS deck. In true Hound style, while I rather liked it I disagreed with some of the interpretations because in my opinion they reduced the options in the card to only one. For example it allows us to see one possibility of what the Fool is walking towards but prevents the querent's imagination of what else he *could* be facing. 

The other side of this coin is of course the deck prompts some rethinking of what is happening in the cards and some irreverent interpretation, which is of course the sort of interpretation the Hound likes best. The perceived thoughts of the horse in the 6 of Wands are always revealing, for example. 

I see that there are now both Before and After tarot decks available. They seem to have exactly the same strengths and weaknesses as the New Vision Tarot. For example After's vision of the Fool hanging off a cliff by his fingertips is a common one but by no means the only one. I personally always think much of the point of this card is that the Fool is striding towards something he can see but we can't, but again this is my own favoured interpretation and it is good to be reminded that there are others out there. Similarly I would never have pictured the Fool having to catch the dog first, which is how he's pictured in the Before tarot - once again showing that the question 'What happens before/after this scene?' is one which really reveals a person's mindset. I'm not going to publish my own idea of what happened to the Fool before our snapshot of him, because now I come to verbalise it it is slightly too revealing and frankly rather embarrassing! 

The other shortcoming of this before/after technique is that in some cards there is no question: for example there is no question what happens next in the Tower - the Tower collapses and everyone dies. Of course in this scenario the alternative vision technique may still be helpful - for example the querent may see themselves as a rescuer who has not been able to get there in time, and of course what comes before the Tower can be very revealing indeed. 

Since I've deprived you of my embarrassing idea of what has happened before for the Fool, I will reveal that I have very tellingly always thought that the horse in the 6 of Wands is thinking, 'What a twat'.