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If you haven't seen it, @ilweran also has had a journal on the greenwood here for years that links to art sources, etc. You may already know all these sources, but passing along in case it's helpful. Even as someone who knows little about pagan decks, I found it interesting. ilweran's Greenwood Tarot Journal - Page 15 - Journals - Tarot, Tea, & Me - A Tarot Reader's Community

Ok, that all sounds good. I think I can handle a card or two a week. Having read Mark Ryan's book in its entirety, I can say that it adds very little, but I can't say that nothing in it has influenced my perception of the cards. However, going forward I will avoid making any direction mention of him or the Wildwood. One thing that I think needs to be addressed from Chesca's book is when she says, "All the cards are based on European images." While the intent to not "steal imagery from other cultures" is admirable, I think there can be little question that she does at times reference works from outside Europe. For example, The Shaman references a photograph from the US (https://www.tworedroses.com/newsletters/newsletter09112015.html)and the 10 of Cups references a woodblock print from Japan (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/56139). It doesn't bother me that she did this; I consider her apparent breadth of knowledge of the world art to be an asset. I believe these cards tap into something that is both timeless and universal--I just think we should be honest about it. This is going to come up right away because I already have a piece in mind from the US that I think is plausible as a source of inspiration for the image on the Death card. I feel that should at least be open for discussion. Also, I joined the Facebook group that you mentioned and I will start having a look through that.

Pairing these systems with a personal anchor card made the majors click faster for me. I derived my own major arcana from my birth date, the soul/personality card method, and read the 3x7 sets and duality pairs through it - landing in the Lovers/Death/Judgement line made that trio feel personal. I looked up my card's meaning with a free arcana calculator.

It's sinking in. Takes time. Asides, I'm far from agreeing here - a lesson in applied diversity is what it is to me so far. On the rest - which I appreciate, by the way - the actual point was quite hard to formulate for me yesterday, let me try again, it'll be brief, more or less: We can afford a period of time when taking to the cards to see how they feel if we have nothing but those cards. We can have a go at them with our childlike sense of wonder. I mean not to stream about that period, or to make it gospel, or toot some horn - I mean to feel it, free from expectation. It is a period. It does pass. It never comes again. But it'll leave us curious, so curious about what's out there, how others fare, how it was and is done, and where the limits are - and which ones can be extended at what price. Might be personal, that one. We are far from perfect in that beginning, we go wrong one step every two steps taken (if we're lucky), we stumble around, stuff leaves us confused while other stuff clears up and hits home - but it's far from taking the wind outta our sails! No! On we go, for we are curious, we crave insight and: We learn to take a hint through our cards, which is what to highlight here. We truly want to learn. They become our cards in the process, and whatever we read afterwards, we'll have life, our experienced reality, to relate to - and that changes things. Talking Lenormands, the quality and density of information in Andy's writings is top-grade to date, don't get me wrong there. What I mean to say is: the above mentioned period is so much beneficial that it deserves mention - preparing the inner soil is what it does, along with becoming precious memory. Timeline for a quick start: Get cards in spring, go crazy in summer, take to Andy's writings in autumn, to your study during winter, sleep some. And then, see what grows come spring.

Sorry, I was talking about the Llewellyn website. I haven't looked at Lo Scarabeo's website.

I only told them a couple of hours ago....

Nope. And judging by the lack of response and the incorrect text still on their website, I'm guessing Llewellyn didn't contact them either.

Did you not contact LoS ? I just did.

I'm not sure I'd agree with that, personally. The Master Method is imported from playing cards, as are some other things in Lenormand, like playing card spreads. The former, however, seems quite redundant to me when Lenormand has numbers and its own house method built into it. Where does Lenormand folklore go? One could just perform a reading a la master method with ordinary playing cards. Whatever the house method, if combining cards is the second thing they look at when it's the base of the whole system, to me, it drifts away from what I understand reading Lenormand to be. If they are happy when doing it though, who am I to meddle with people's happiness.... Freesytling at the beginning-- when it comes to anything we learn, really-- seldom produces great results; or so I've seen (in reference to the group you mentioned). Taking in the different voices out there is a necessity for growth; inventing our own things is something I'd give more time to before attempting to do. I am certain that our best teachers today followed their own first before reaching that stage of building a personal connection with their cards and venturing to pass on their own knowledge to the others. Being unique is brilliant, being yourself and having your own opinions is even better. However, I'm not striving to be unique; I love what has been working for a long time and produces results for me, and I share that when someone asks since I agree with every bit of it (not everyone has to, of course). And if that means echoing someone else's voice until I get my bearings, I'm content with it. It's only been a little bit more than half a decade ever since I picked up these cards and chose to stick with them, after all. I am sure being creative is easier for you and other far more experienced readers than I; which is of course always invaluable to observe and also to learn from, dear @Mister

Hi cspacediva :) I'm in your same situation. Daily participation is off to me too. But perhaps we could consider one card/week? I have a couple of pdf copies of Chesca's handbook, that includes the three diagrams and the Wheel. On fb there's a little private group named "The art of Chesca Potter study group" where the admin has shared a lot of links, files her own studies about it etc. I may ask her if I she gives the permission to download the contents she gathered, mentioning the source. In her handbook Chesca says "The Greenwood Tarot is an initiatory cycle. I would advise that you at least once follow the cards and the text around the wheel". So I agree that this is the good point of start. As we are already almost at the half of October, perhaps it's better to start from Samhain, to arrive prepared at the moment? As you already said: Death, The Guardian, Wren, Wolf, and the 7s. We may work on Death on the 1st week of November, The Guardian on the 2nd, Wren on the 3rd Wolf on the 4th, first two of the 7s on the 1st week of December, second two of the 7s on the 2nd week of December. So we should arrive at Winter Solstice. From now to then, we could try to understand the Wheel system itself and/or other general topics related to the introduction of the handbook. I'm very new to this all, but deeply drawn to it. Like you, I'm definitely interested into the art and the artifacts that inspired Chesca but, as you, I have not the background too. I hope we can go through it, anyway, as we can. One thing: I'm not intended at all to consider Ryan's words about the Greenwood nor to mention him or the Wildwood at all.

I went ahead and ordered Tarot of Mystical Moments as a reward for konmaring 99% of the stuff in my closet. It was mostly old school assignments and homework from decades ago, and I did want to keep some sketchbooks and old journals and stuff to have a doorway into what I was like in the past. Also some of it is funny. The rest of the stuff I’ve just gotta do in categories. But I’d been procrastinating and had been too busy for at least two weeks and needed a push so I told myself I’d get this deck if I finished. I’m looking forward to it because it has a unique perspective and take on each card that makes me go “huh!” It looks like it’ll be a little bigger though, but that’s okay. I am running out of space on my tarot cabinet/shelf thing though. I might have found one janky solution but I’m gonna try and look for a taller shelf.

I recently home printed the deck and book too, courtesy of Mi-Shell. I am very drawn to this deck. I need to tread with caution here because the prospect of learning together sounds fabulous, but experience has shown me that these study groups are difficult to sustain, and I'm probably one of the worst offenders when it comes to jumping on board and then ghosting. Daily participation is definitely off the table for me. But if I were to proceed with such an endeavor, I think it would make the most sense to stick with the wheel of the year and study the cards in their seasons. So from now until Samhain, I would look at The Wheel, Reflection, Heron, Reindeer, the 6s. This would probably be the time to throw in The Seer and the 9s as well, although to be honest, that seems like a lot to me, so I could also see saving the center of the wheel for the end. Starting around Samhain, I would switch to Death, The Guardian, Wren, Wolf, and the 7s. I have access to both the Potter and the Ryan versions of the book. I do have a low quality scan/photocopy of Potter's physical book which includes a few diagrams not found on the blog. The archived study group on AT is a good resource too, with some great insights from Mi-Shell and others, although they did not get around to all the cards. I'm also interested in looking into the art and artifacts that inspired Chesca, I just don't have the background to recognize all of them.

Most of the time I don't read reversals, and the way I shuffle keeps the cards all upright. Occasionally, a reversed card will sneak in anyway and then I will go ahead and read it as a reversal. I do spend a lot of time thinking about, selecting, and modifying spreads to fit the question. I used to read with reversals and I found it cumbersome when a negative card (like 10 of Swords) would come up in a blocking position in a spread and then it was reversed. If I was more of a free form reader I probably would use reversals. I tend to think of it like the saying, 'the difference between medicine and poison is the dose.' I think each card contains the a full range of meaning, from medicine to poison, and the question, context, card position, intuition tell me which aspect should be emphasized.

So I applied knighting to this section of the keyboard...

I know nothing, but I always have an opinion...

I have had this deck for a few years now. I just found it in the drawers, and took it out. It looks so interesting with deep strong contrasting colours, and graphic shapes. This deck feels quite unique in the sense that many minor cards figures and and shapes in the cards are different from the traditional Thoth, TdM or RWS images. Each cards has the corresponding astrological signs and Hebrew letters which is really informative for the readings and studies. I wonder if anyone else has or uses this deck. Then please join here in the study group for discussing the deck in readings and also analysis on the images. I haven't seen any dedicated books for this deck. I could be wrong. Many thanks.

They sure are! Given that they make sense to you. For that to happen, the idea of using them should appeal to you. If it does not, disregard 'em for ease of use. If you stick with these cards, some will take on a directional meaning, but that should simply be allowed to happen naturally. Especially in the beginning, it is honestly more worthwhile to just interact with the cards your way, that gives you a personal base from where to approach the field. I mean, the traditionalism-craze is over, they won't hunt you if you do not do as they say anymore. At least here. You are allowed to grow, you need not be produced. Yes, both make sense. Generalisation is what doesn't make sense. It keeps away from observing tendencies, which is vital. For example, some see it as a beneficial thing if a couple is facing the same direction. They are united in their view, stand by each others side and face their challenges together. So for the Lord and the Lady, both patterns are pretty usable. They'd be usable somehow even if they'd face the sky. That's Andy's way for sure - loooking at it closely, how you first approach a system matters quite a lot. For example, here in germany, there is a crowd of people approaching the Lenormands via the houses/master-methody path, freestyling happily along as it goes and we all somehow do - it's their legit point of entry. For them, attendance is a sub-concern, if a concern at all. Forget about directionality. It does work for them. Let that sink in - I know I had to. I believe they may someday employ attendance and distance like you do knighting, as a secondary technique, if they don't already. In summary, a primary method which appeals to you is best. It has the highest chance of becoming your own thing along the way. Iris Treppner's style of Lenormand is coloured by her prefered way of reading, favouring stable pairs and relying on the images of the Blue Owl as gate to the cards core. Colette Silvestres style smacks of an introduction to reading cards via tarot, french-style, and Andy's seems to be via scenic parlour style. What makes them stand apart is that they stuck with the cards they liked long enough to develop a personal connection with them - they first became confident in talking with their cards and then they wrote their books. Then they became confident some more and wrote and write some more, it seems. After all, what matters more than any masters or methods are our personal experiences in this field - it's about life, and life tends to favour uniqueness. What regularly messes up things is when adherence to someone else's uniqueness blotches out our own, by noise or caving. What also regularly messes things up is education gone bonkers - In adhering to our uniqueness, self-reliance helps a lot is why. Divergence is a necessity, as is coexistence and unity. If all is allowed to happen, things become alive instead of simply getting lively. Which is not easy.

Glad you could make it @Rachelcat!

I haven't had a chance to do more than look through the deck since I got it. I'll have to let you know later.

As is mine.

That's interesting. I'd read the same thing but it was about the Ship. It annoyed me for a while that the Lady in my deck didn't face left and that both the Gentleman and the Cavalier didn't face her (the Cavalier can greet her if they face each other, as that card can also be a male love interest!), along with a bunch of other things. But I've made peace with my deck, happily. The way an emblem faces can be quite important and useful with some cards (for example the Fox, the Scythe, the Snake, etc.) but with others you'd just be overdoing it (the card behind the Cavalier can still show what he is bringing forward and the card ahead of him can still show what his news will result in regardless of the direction he faces. And I don't even use this convention with this particular card; I just read the cards around him.) These details, then, are quite understandably things that I try to note only when it's necessary. It's really like knighting and mirroring in a grand tableau; you should only use them when you really have to, even if it's tempting to note them all the time.

...a little venting always helps... On the bright side, the Kazanlar Tarot just got delivered to my door, and the shipping for this one was a very reasonable 12 euros, so that definitely cheered me up! 😊 Deck: Kazanlar Tarot

Thank you so much, @Moon-Hermit , for your incredibly in-depth explanation! Yeah, it makes a lot sense that the Lady and the Gentleman don't actually have to face each others, and to rely more on combinations. I remember being told that we should always choose decks on which the Rider is facing right (as if he was "riding forwards" in a reading), because he is a herald of new things and so should point to the future. BUT you see many beautiful and traditional decks with the Rider riding to the left as well. So I believe your view makes a lot of sense, or else the readings might become inconsistent across different Lenormand decks!