People Cards In The Kipper Deck
A closer look at the Kipper's main "character" cards
Before we get onto the detail of all the card meanings individually (where we’ll be looking at some of the quirks of their designs and what it means in readings, as well as comparing them to those in other decks), let’s start by looking at the main people cards you find in the Kipper.
If you’re familiar with the different decks we’ve covered here, they shouldn’t be too hard to get to grips with; as you’ll see, these mostly stem from the Vera and Sibilla/Gypsy Oracle decks and the same characters crop up across decks, with the occasional similarity with the French Sibilla..
Unlike the Vera Sibilla, but more like the Austrian Gypsy Oracle decks, the Kipper cards do not have playing card references, so they aren’t “court cards” as such; although you’ll be able to see their correlations with court cards elsewhere. As a reminder, you can check these out here:
The traditional figures in the original Kipper are based very much on key characters archetypes from the Bavarian middle classes of the era. As such, there’s a bit less variety than in the other oracle decks we’ve looked at (aside from the Lenormand) but, as I say, all the characters should be pretty familiar.
So let’s look here at the main significator cards, the other male, female and neutral characters—as well as those cards who appear to be characters but are usually not read that way with Kipper. Read on!
Main Male and Female Cards
In a Grand Tableau, which is one of the main classic readings for the Kipper, it is the main people cards around which the reading takes place.
So for a male querent, the standard would be the Main Male card, and for a female querent, the Main Female card, just as with the two Consultant cards in the Sibylle des Salons and the Lady & Gentleman in the Lenormand. You can use others as significators if you wish, particularly in short readings, but usually those are ‘other’ character cards. If you do not have a particular man or woman in mind, then you can use these to signify a “Main” male individual important to the reading.