Deck of the Week Sign-up Thread, Week 334: Nov. 27 - Dec. 3

[fire cat pickles]

A thread for those who would like to work through their collection of decks, participants choose decks from their collections to work with for the week. Some use one deck, others use two or more. Some combine methods: Tarot, non-tarot (e.g. oracle), playing cards, or any other divinatory method is welcome. All we ask is that you use at least one tarot or oracle deck.

 

No collection is too large or too small. The only rules we have are the Tarot, Tea & Me Rules; Be respectful of one other. Please join us!

• Please post with your choice of deck(s) for the week
• Chat away about your deck, how you're finding it (or not), etc., it's all up to you 
• Participants may either choose to share their readings here in this discussion thread or opt to have their own journal in the Journals Forum and link it here
• Yet others may even have an offline journal in paper & pencil/pen form

Share as often, as much, or as little as you like. You can drop in and out at anytime—reality and life permitting. New to tarot? Long time reader? Come on in!

 

Participants:

1. fire cat pickles: Hermetic Tarot
2. Natural Mystic Guide:  Mary-El Tarot
3. Rachelcat: Tarot of the Crone
4. Bodhiseed: Tarot of Durer paired with the Philosophers Stone

 

Click here for DoW 333 (11/20 - 11/26)

Click here for DoW 335 (12/4 - 12/10)

Edited December 4, 2023 by fire cat pickles

[Natural Mystic Guide]

2.  Natural Mystic Guide:  Mary-El Tarot

[fire cat pickles]

Welcome to the group @Natural Mystic Guide!

 

 The DoW Group is a fun and enlightening way to share how your decks can work for others, to highlight new or unique reading techniques and spreads, and perhaps to introduce new decks for other members. 

[Rachelcat]

Hi, crew!  Thanks as always @fire cat pickles for leading us, and happy to see everyone here!  (I'm remembering to post this week!)  This week for me will be Tarot of the Crone by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince (creator of Dark Goddess Tarot and a Minoan Tarot).  Another colorful one!  It was published by Arnell’s Art and came with this lovely red bag and a pdf booklet.

 

 

My calendar and the Spirit de la Lune booklet say that this is the Crone Moon (full moon in Gemini, new moon in Sagittarius), so I thought I’d finally get around to using this deck.  (I have a complicated relationship with the Dark Goddess, so I hope I get along with this one a bit better.) 

 

Some of the majors are renamed.  The suits are Wands, Cups, Swords, and Disks, and the courts are Beast, Witch, Grandmother, and Shadow.  There are keywords for all the minors, along with the booklet info.  The art is simple but evocative, but having the keywords handy is a help to understand what we’re looking at.

 

Well, let’s get started with a shuffle and interview!

 

 

What is your most important characteristic?  Ten of Wands, transformation

Well, that makes sense.  It’s about the effect of age and the wisdom of age.  A burnt out tree contains the shape of a potential person.  Do you think the tree was struck by lightning?  The person couldn’t emerge until the top of the tree was gone.

 

What is your strength?  Seven of Wands, risk

The deck takes a risk of reworking tarot for its theme.  It has to burn the old before it can become the new.

 

Your weakness?  Witch of Cups, siren

It tempts us to give in to emotion.

 

What can I learn from you?  Nine of Disks, community

(I think of 9s as individual, but let’s go with the keyword here.)  I can learn to reconnect with the tarot community.

 

How can I learn it?  Magician

By being creative and active.  An actor puts on the mask to create a new character.  It’s magical.

 

What will be the outcome of our work together?  Four of Cups, isolation

Well, that goes against what I said before!  Not everybody can connect with the crone theme.  But it will be emotionally helpful to me as an crone myself.

 

I'm posting my full moon readings in my journal thread.

 

[fire cat pickles]

Welcome back @Rachelcat 😀

 

I'm finally able to take some time off for the next week or so. So maybe I'll actually have a chance to play this round!

[Bodhiseed]

Hope you have some time to play with the Hermetic this week, @fire cat pickles - glad you have some time off! 

Welcome to the DoW group, @Natural Mystic Guide. ❤️ 

I'm in this week with the Tarot of Durer paired with the Philosophers Stone.

[fire cat pickles]

Welcome back @Bodhiseed 😀

 

Thank you! I'm looking forward to some time off.

[Bodhiseed]

From the Tarot of Durer, the Three of Swords; from the Philosopher's Stone, Skill:

  

 

Trust takes time to develop but can be destroyed in a moment. Our connections to others make us feel secure and accepted, but when severed can create a mental or emotional crisis. We tend to be sensitive about our ideas, opinions and sense of self; a joke at our expense, a dig at our viewpoints or a snarky comment about about anything we identify with can feel like a betrayal. Yet Skill hints at the ability to use our mind to cultivate clarity and wisdom, seeing what's beneath our reactions (rather than focusing on what someone else said). We may realize that we all want similar things (joy, companionship, etc.), but we all have different ways of getting there. Rather than accepting any abuse heaped on us, we can simply choose not to hate the other or be swamped by self-pity.

 

Happiness is not simply the abundance of pleasure in the absence of pain. Rather, it is to remain confident and optimistic in the face of everyday reality.

–Tricycle editors

[Natural Mystic Guide]

OK, so I've been delving into the Mary-El Tarot.  I have the second edition.  I'm reading through the book and studying each card as I go.  My husband and I had a nice flip though together, too.  He really likes the card images.  (My husband also co-opted my Föhöxa deck.) I'm watching the two videos that were recommended on this site for studying this deck by Sacred Seed.  These I find quite subjective and not giving me enough real 'meat' to understand what a Marseille deck is and how it works.

 

                     So here is my initial hit:  I was at a dance club and picked up a tall, dark handsome stranger.  The next morning, I wake up and I think WTF was I thinking?  Who is this?  Where am I in this alien landscape?  I find some of the descriptions in the book to be repugnant.  Some resemble the heady gobbly gook I associate with Thoth stuff.  My eyes gloss over and I feel a headache coming on.  Some of the images are truly beautiful and arresting.  Others are just from outer space.  I'm committed to moving through this, but I'm seriously wondering how am I going to use this deck.  Am I going to use this deck?  Suggestions anyone?  Anyone here who loves this deck?  How do you work with it?

 

I've done one personal reading with this deck so far:  The Rosh Chodesh New Moon spread.  It worked fine for that.  It featured a reversed King of Disks which I took to mean that for that particular week I should be careful not to be too distracted by hedonism and sexual frustration.

[Bodhiseed]

@Natural Mystic Guide, I agree about the Mary-El Tarot - I love the artwork but not so much the book (which seems more personal philosophy in some ways). I tend to look at Thoth descriptions and then look closely at the art on each card to come up with my meanings. For instance on the Corax website, it shows the Thoth title of this card as Lord of the Wild and Fertile Land for the Knight (what the Thoth Kings are called) and says: 

"The materialism is the dominant aspect in this card, showing the Knight as a complex person of amazing strength, representing Earth in its function as provider of life.

The Knight of Disks is industrious and patient, steady and reliable, clever in material matters. He is the one working without asking much, concentrating on his tasks without getting distracted by mindgames or high flying ideas." 

 

[Bodhiseed]

@Rachelcat, the Tarot of the Crone is a deck I never thought I'd like as much as I do!

[Natural Mystic Guide]

11 hours ago, Bodhiseed said:

Lord of the Wild and Fertile Land for the Knight (what the Thoth Kings are called) and says: 

"The materialism is the dominant aspect in this card, showing the Knight as a complex person of amazing strength, representing Earth in its function as provider of life.

The Knight of Disks is industrious and patient, steady and reliable, clever in material matters. He is the one working without asking much, concentrating on his tasks without getting distracted by mindgames or high flying ideas."

I really like this.  Very interesting and helpful.  I'm making a note to check this Corax website.  Thank you @Bodhiseed