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General Notes on the deck you're using for 78 Weeks of Tarot


Trogon

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This is the thread where you can post some general thoughts and notes about the Tarot deck you will be using for the 78 Weeks of Tarot study group. This can be about things such as the artwork, the tradition it follows - or doesn't follow very well, what you like or don't like about it (again, in general terms), how you acquired the deck ... anything that strikes your fancy. You may briefly discuss particular cards as they apply to your impressions of the deck. No real rules for this thread (other than forum rules ;)), but remember that you will be posting in depth about the individual cards as we go through the study.

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I am going to be studying the Haindl Tarot for the 78 Weeks of Tarot study group. It is different from most of my Tarot decks and so I thought I would write down some general notes and impressions of the deck before I started the actual study. Not having a better place to put said general notes, I thought I'd start a new thread in the Tarot Decks forum. It is a deck I've had for years and I really like it and have gotten a few good readings with, but there is more depth which I wish to explore. Without further ado, here are my general impressions of the deck;

 

In general, the Haindl Tarot seems to combine elements of both the Thoth and the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarots. When I look through the Majors, I find #XX is called "Aeon" and XXI is "The Universe" as in the Thoth. However, Haindl put "Strength" at VIII and "Justice" at XI, following the RWS & the Golden Dawn tradition. Crowley put "Adjustment" (Justice) at VIII and "Lust" (Strength) at XI. When we look at the Minors, the numbered cards (pips) are not illustrated with detailed scenes as would be seen in the RWS, rather they show the appropriate number of Wands, or Cups, or whichever, along with a keyword as in the Thoth. But when we come to the Court cards, we have the "Princess" and "Prince" as in the Thoth, but then Haindl uses "King" for the highest Court as Waite did. Although, saying the Pips are completely unillustrated wouldn't be true - they have very minimalist illustrations, often with rocks, trees, water, etc. For example, the 4 of Wands, keyword "Perfection", shows 4 spears in front of a "perfect" circle - or the 3 of Swords, "Mourning", has a single teardrop.

 

The suits of the Minors are aligned with compass directions, which also corresponds with a particular part of the World and it's culture. Wands are East for India, Cups are North and the Celtic culture, Swords are South for Egypt and Stones are West for North America. The cards numbered 2 through 10 of each suit show I-Ching hexagrams, which I will also be looking into when studying the Minors.

 

The Majors follow the lead of Crowley's Thoth, showing a letter of the Hebrew alphabet along with an astrological symbol/correspondence. However, Haindl also included a Rune on each Major as well, so that will give me another branch to study.

 

The artwork of Hermann Haindl has a misty and subdued quality to it. The colors are muted and he used a lot of Earth tones. To an extent I feel as though I'm looking through time to an era which is long in the past - or catching misty glimpses of a possible future. As a result, the images are also subdued, no garish costumes and snapshots of people, but there is a feel of deep symbolism. The images add new facets to the symbolism of the Tarot, but sometimes you have to look hard to see them.

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Fairytale Tarot, by Karen Mahony, Alexandr Ukolov and Irena Triskova

 

Rachel Pollack says in her Foreword:

 

The Fairytale Tarot is based on the Rider, but in an unusual way….Here...Karen has taken the concepts and themes of the pictures and found particular stories that bring out those same qualities. Thus the pictures do not at first glance resemble the well-known Rider scenes...but under the surface they will strike a chord with anyone who knows the Rider tradition.

 

Each of these cards illustrates a particular story. But Tarot cards have a way of taking on a life of their own….When we look at them we may find that our mind strays from the original tale and begins to construct a whole new narrative….

 

In Karen’s Introduction, she writes about the difficulty of choosing from among the many tales to match to each card:

 

I decided that the way to see clearly how to construct a working, reading deck was to focus on looking for stories that really could add something to our understanding of the tarot and to our recognition of wt it is to tell the story we see in a tarot spread.

 

I can’t find a quote right now, but somewhere in the Introduction, she encourages readers to find the full-length stories that are summarized in the book. I intend to do that, and I will place a link in my entry for each card.

 

She also has this good piece of advice:

 

When you look at these cards, and even more so when you read with them, please allow yourself to withdraw to somewhere apart from day-to-day life and enter the place of magic that they can conjure--whether or not this is a place that you literally believe in.

 

The entries for each card in the book are quite extensive, and I'm not going to reproduce the full versions in my entries. Just the highlights.

 

Also, I don't use reversals.

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This deck sounds like a lot of fun, Bookworm! I went and looked at the images on the AT list of decks, it really is going to be interesting to see how many of the stories I'm familiar with (I have a feeling there won't be as many as I think).

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General Notes on the Everyday Witch (Blake & Alba, Llewellyn 2017)

 

I only received this deck and book set recently but I have been using the app in my phone since it came out earlier this year and it has been working incredibly well for me. This deck is almost a direct opposite to my other favourite candidate for this 78-week-exercise, the Dark Angels (Luca Russo, LoS 2010).

 

Everyday Witch is a very colourful, upbeat, optimistic and happy deck. Even the traditionally dark cards are a bit muted and in some cases their negative messages have been considerably softened. The author thinks that “many people are afraid of these cards [meaning Death, Tower etc.] and become alarmed when they show up in a reading.” Hmm, I have to disagree with that. Removing all possibly scary stuff is not the way to go, not with tarot, not with anything in life. Needless to say, my fear has been that as a result of this approach this whole deck might be shallow and fluffy.  But like with the Crystal Visions (or the Halloween Tarot) this seems to be just the first impression. I have a feeling that the cartoony quality of the images is hiding depths that I think are worth a deeper study. At least I hope so. I’m not quite sure if 78 weeks is a bit much for this deck but we’ll have to see about that.

 

The cards are very rich in symbolism and imagery so I think there is a lot of material for a deeper study. There are lots of animals and plants which I think is always nice in a deck. But I must admit that there are so many cats that it is almost off-putting. There are at least 200 of them in this one deck. And this is not a “cat deck”. 78 cats (the card backs) plus more than a hundred in the pictures themselves is a bit much. Yes, cats are nice animals -but come on..! Luckily those cats are well drawn and do not pop out in any way from their environment.

 

The deck structure seems to be rather a traditional RWS. Strength is 8 and Justice is 11 and RWS symbolism seems to be present in most cards. There are some exceptions, like the Hierophant (yoga teacher) but overall this is a classic RWS deck.

 

I like the card pictures and I think the artist has done a great job in creating a world where Tiffany Aching, Nanny Ogg and possibly even Granny Weatherwax would feel at home.  My problem is the book which seems to be written mostly with a teenager/beginner in mind. I’m not saying that it’s bad as such but the author is trying very hard to be funny and explain things in a very simplified way. She manages to annoy more than anything.  She starts the description of the Fool with “Getting the Fool card does not mean you are a fool..” (Omg -really!?)  Or: “..there are a few dogs, but please don’t tell the cats.” -See what I mean? I think I’ll do best to avoid the book altogether and just concentrate on the cards themselves.

 

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The Slow Holler Tarot is a non-traditional collaborative deck with a focus on queer, American South, and queer southern perspectives. More than 30 artists and 4 writers worked on this deck, and the art features a red/gold/black palette throughout. Many people (including the writers themselves in the included booklet) likened this deck to the Collective Tarot, what with the queerness and the non-traditional names and the politics, but in my experience it is a deck that stands on its own.

 

The nature of exactly how connected the deck is to its theme has been a critical discussion point about this deck, and I do agree with many that I was a bit disappointed in the lack of overt Southern imagery and diverse people (to be fair, this is due to the lack of people in general). There's lots of reasons why this might have happened, from this being a collaborative project in which not everyone was Southern to the fact that the South is a big big place with lots of differences in culture and landscape to perhaps a side effect of MASSIVE HYPE, and we probably won't ever know exactly what produced the results we got.

 

(Of course, one who is neither LGBT or Southern or either might ask why it matters, and to make a long story brief: There is a storied history of minorities and political movements in the South being ignored, silenced, or hand waved for the sake continuing to see an entire region as one thing. [You can see this in action right now with certain "jokes" surrounding Hurricane Harvey and Irma and the states they impact.] The Slow Holler Tarot specifically mentions amplifying that oft ignored voice, so if people with that intersection feel ignored with the end product that's a bit of an issue!)

 

However, the queerness of the deck is very much there. The deck has the standard 78 cards with many of them renamed. The Courts are renamed to remove both the gender and hierarchal structure, the suits are renamed to more Southernesque/natural things like Branches, Vessels (which often take the shape of mason jars and mugs), Stones, and Knives (specifically pocket knives and switchblades all throughout), and there are quite a few renamed Majors to sidestep certain issues. I'll touch on these renames as I get to them.

 

Also, as you've probably noticed, there are images and mentions of queerness, intersectionality, oppression, and activism all throughout the deck. It's impossible to not bring up these topics when talking about a card, and as long as it's allowed within the rules of the study group and the forum itself I'm not going to shy away from talking about it when it comes up.

 

There is also an amazing booklet, one that I do think encapsulates the views and politics of the queer South and also gives amazing reexaminations of how the RWS system can apply to modern day queerness, activism, and culture. The only issue with the book is that it doesn't go into the imagery of the cards, probably because collaborative projects don't lend themselves well to having everyone on the same schedule. You can sort of tell reading the book which cards were finalized before and after the writing was in progress.

 

As for my personal feelings and experiences with this deck? As of writing, this is my absolute favorite deck. If you saw mention of this deck on any of the forums, there's an 85% chance it was me. I felt instantly connected to it, even with the issues mentioned above, at a level I just haven't with a deck before or since. Even without the overt imagery, there is something Southern in spirit about it. As with any tarot deck (especially a collaborative one) there are some dud cards, but as a whole? I adore it and am so happy it exists. Hopefully that feeling grows in the next 78 weeks.

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Here is a bit of information about the deck I chose and why I decided to use this one for the '78 weeks of Tarot' adventure!

 

Name of the deck : Manga Tarot

Author : Riccardo Minetti

Illustrator : Anna Lazzarini

Release date : 2006

Publisher : Lo Scarabeo

Tradition followed : RWS

 

Particularities :

-Justice is VIII and Strength is XI

-All traditional genders (from the RWS) have been swapped. Major Arcana number II becomes The Priest and number V becomes The Priestess. Pages are Princes and Knights are Princesses.

-Each card is associated with (at least) one of the 4 seasons and particular colors. The seasons are written in Japanese kanji on the cards.

 

Now about my relationship with this deck

 

When did I get this deck : Probably about a year ago?

Do I use it a lot : Not really yet

Do I feel confident using it : Not really yet

What do I like about it : The art (drawings and choice of colors) is beautiful

What is challenging about it : The gender swapping is confusing for some cards, like the courts (Queens and Kings) and some Majors (Priest, Priestess, etc).

 

Why I choose this deck for this study group :

Since I really like the art and concept of the Manga Tarot, I really want to keep it and use it more, but I need to get more comfortable at interpreting its messages. I believe a thorough study like this one should do the trick! Also I think there is enough material to study to make the task interesting, while not being too 'crowded' or esoteric.

 

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/manga-minetti/

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I love to see what deck everyone is choosing. I hope it will not make my wishlist grow too much!  ;)

 

I chose the Tarot of the Sevenfold Mistery by Robert Place.I admire Place’s books and most of his decks (the decks I like a bit less are the ‘themed’ decks like the Buddha and the Vampire). I think the deck deserves and/or needs this in-depth study.

 

The artwork of the deck is influenced by the pre-Raphaelites and in particular by the painter Edward Burne-Jones in particular. The style is characterised by idealised pretty men and women, so this is not a deck that celebrates all body shapes and forms. He was a 19th century painter who got his influence from Renaissance artists like Botticelli and Michelangelo. These Renaissance artists admired Plato so we see his influences in this deck as well. Place states that Burne-Jones made paintings that looked like they were meant to be tarot cards, and this gave him the idea to create a deck that looked like it was painted by Burne-Jones. But it is also in the characteristic style of Place with crisp lines.

 

The trumps in the Sevenfold Mystery are mostly influenced by the pre-Raphaelites and the minors are based on Place’s Alchemical Tarot, but re-drawn in pre-Raphaelite style. The Alchemical mostly follows RWS but there are also influences from Thoth and historic decks. Justice is VIII  and Strength is XI.

Some cards have Latin names on them of Roman Gods, of the virtues or of the platonic souls. According to Plato’s theory every person has three souls: the soul of appetite, the soul of will and the soul of reason.

 

The real companion book for this deck is expected for December. Until then, I rely on the lwb (which is quite good), the other books by Place and my own vision, which may not be a bad thing but I may expand/adapt once I have the companion book.

 

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I'm looking forward to reading your posts about this deck, Wolfspirit. I think it's such a beautiful deck, but I admit I found the three souls thing a little confusing.

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I'm posting some notes on this deck as well because I may end up using this one (instead of the Everyday Witch that I posted above). I'll make up my mind in a week or two -promise!- but I'm not quite ready yet. I'm working on this..

 

General Notes on the Dark Angels Tarot

(Luca Russo, Lo Scarabeo 2010)

 

I must have used this deck for some years before I read in the LWB (Little White Booklet that came with the deck) that there is a story behind this gothic and dark deck. This apparently shows the end of mankind and life as we knew it. Some angels have decided to descend and help people during those last days in the ruined earth.

I have always found this concept too sad and depressing and so I have ignored it for the most part. The description for the Star in the LWB says:  "The angel pours the poisoned water upon the wasteland and it is hope itself that grows." -Poisoned water? Wasteland? In the Star? I don’t think so!

Tarot decks are often mysterious and obscure in symbolism so I do not think the “End of Days”- story is in any way necessary. I prefer the cards to remain mysterious and enigmatic and I prefer them mirror the life of the querent (or myself) instead which this deck has always done extremely well.

 

The deck is visually dark, colours are muted and some cards are almost monochromatic. I have found it makes one more sensitive to the colours there are. It’s like with sound. You can hear the smallest sound in a quiet room whereas when there is a lot of noise you just become desensitized. Thinking about sound, I think this deck is very quiet and I like that in a deck. One gets the feeling that the people and angels are moving about quietly. The Fool is just wearing socks in fact. I imagine one can perhaps hear distant music, and it is probably Gregorian chants or Bach that is flowing from the ruins of those old Gothic cathedrals.

 

There is very little animal or plant life in the deck which is a bit disappointing but it makes sense if it is showing earth at the end of its days. Most of the dark angels themselves are strangely non-human like which makes up for that, though. As a wolf lover, I sometimes like to think of them as wolves, kind but powerful, calm but ready for quick action.

 

I have always assumed this is a RWS deck but I recently noticed that Justice is 8 and Strength is 11 so I’m no longer quite sure. Maybe this is a mixture of Thoth and RWS.

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Celtic Wisdom Tarot by Caitlin Matthews

General Notes for 78 Weeks of Tarot Study Group

 

The Celtic Wisdom Tarot draws on the wisdom and shamanistic tradition of the ancients Celts, aiming to transfer that knowledge through the cards so that it continues to illuminate for those who choose to walk this path today. The deck is non-traditional in the sense that all of the cards are renamed and all relate to aspects of Celtic myths or spiritual teachings. However, the design of the deck is such that each of those concepts very much relates to the cards of the RWS tradition, although more time and study is required to understand those connections that the deck makes.

 

I was first drawn to this deck by the bright, vibrant colors when I saw images online. To me this is still probably the most beautiful of all decks. When I learned more about the deck and it's basis in Celtic shamanism I was even more drawn to it. I've had the deck now for about a year, and am glad for the opportunity to study it more deeply with this study group.

 

The deck is divided into two main groups: the Wisdom Cards, which correspond to the Major Arcana, and the Story Cards, which correspond to the Minor Arcana. I'll first talk about the Wisdom Cards.

 

Wisdom Cards

 

From the book:

 

The immortality of the soul was a central tenet of druidic belief, and the track of the soul through many lifetimes had it's own distinct shape and patterns...[the deck] follows the track of the soul's path through the 22 Wisdom Cards...The Wisdom Cards do not depict individual stories, myths, or gods but rather the deep archetypes, aspects, and thresholds of the Celtic Otherworld. It is at these initiatory thresholds that all life is subject to mighty transformations.

 

For me, the Wisdom Cards have been easy to understand and read from my first moment of using the deck. (Not to say the concepts they represent are easy! They are in fact the most profound concepts of universal existence.) I think this is due to the archetypal energy of the cards. For me, and this is one of the reason I connect with this deck so much, the way the archetypes here are presented is for many of the cards how I naturally view the traditional archetypes of the Major Arcana. My personal outlook is very shamanistic and mystical in nature, and I use the tarot primarily as a tool to align with spirit both internal and externally, so my first reaction to the Wisdom Cards in this deck was something like "A-ha! A deck that speaks directly to the that!" And of course archetypal energy is universal, so for me all of the cards in this group just relate so naturally to the traditional tarot archetypes. All are based in mystic traditions anyway of course, so it's kind of a matter of perspective on the concepts related and how they're presented.

 

Here is the list of Wisdom Cards and their correspondences to the traditional majors:

 

0 The Soul              The Fool

1 The Decider          The Magician

2 The Guardian        The High Priestess

3 The Shaper          The Empress

4 The Keeper          The Emperor

5 The Rememberer  The Hierophant

6 The Lover              The Lovers

7 The Mover            The Chariot

8 The Empowerer      Strength

9 The Counselor        The Hermit

10 The Spinner          The Wheel of Fortune

11 The Balancer        Justice

12 The Dedicator      The Hanged Man

13 The Liberator        Death

14 The Mingler          Temperance

15 The Challenger      The Devil

16 The Changer        The Tower

17 The Dreamer        The Star

18 The Imaginer        The Moon

19 The Protector        The Sun

20 The Renewer        Judgement

21 The Perfecter        The World

 

Additionally, each of the Wisdom Cards corresponds to a tree from the Celtic Ogham alphabet, as well as to one of the four Quarter days of the Celtic agricultural calendar (Samhain, Imbolc, Lughanasadh, Beltane). The Soul and the Perfecter stand in the center of the Wheel Year circle rather than corresponding to a specific part of it. I'm not going to discuss these Year and Ogham correspondences more here, but may do it for the individual cards.

 

The Wisdom Cards can also be related to what are called Seven Candles of Life, qualities that illumine the journey of life. The Seven Candles are Will, Truth, Growth, Harmony, Lore, Devotion, and Energy. If you were to divide the Wisdoms/Majors into three rows of seven excluding The Soul, the columns going down would be the candle correspondence of each card:

 

Will: I The Decider (The Magician), VIII The Empowerer (Strength), XV The Challenger (The Devil)

Truth: II The Guardian (High Priestess), IX The Counselor (Hermit), XVI The Changer (Tower)

Growth: III The Shaper (Empress), X The Spinner (Wheel of Fortune), XVII The Dreamer (The Star)

Harmony: IV The Keeper (Emperor), XI The Balancer (Justice), XVIII The Imaginer (The Moon)

Lore: V The Rememberer (Hierophant), XII The Dedicator (Hanged Man), XIX The Protector (The Sun)

Devotion: VI The Lover (The Lovers), XIII The Liberator (Death), XX The Renewer (Judgement)

Energy: VII The Mover (The Chariot), XIV The Mingler (Temperance), XXI The Perfecter (The World)

 

Finally, just like the traditional Major Arcana, the Wisdom cards can be divided into 3 groups of 7 (cards 1-7, 8-14, 15-21), which can be considered 3 stages of the spiritual journey. In the Celtic Wisdom Tarot this is called the Triple Spiral. The First Spiral of Revelation (cards 1-7) concerns the primal exposure to wisdom. The Second Spiral of Revelation (cards 8-14) is the implementation of wisdom. The Third Spiral (cards 15-21) is the deepening and maturing of wisdom, and involves initiatory revelation.

 

Phew! This is a very long post so I think I'm going to continue into a second post.

 

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Story Cards

 

The Story Cards correspond to the Minor Arcana of the traditional tarot. From the book:

 

The 56 Story Cards reveal the more mundane features of life, depicting the rich variety of human experience through the tales and legends of the Celtic storytellers. The stories are codified into four families or suits: Battle, Skill, Art, and Knowledge, which were the four chief activities of the Celtic people. In these cards, gods, people, trees, ancestors, and animals reveal the rich nature of life.

 

The suits in this deck are Battle, Skill, Art, and Knowledge. Each suit is also related to one of the quarter days or seasons from the Celtic calendar. Those correspondences are:

 

Battle (traditional: Swords) - Samhain. Symbol is Sword.

Skill (traditional: Wands) - Imbolc. Symbol is spear.

Art (traditional: Cups) - Beltane. Symbol is Cauldron.

Knowledge (traditional: Pentacles) - Lughnasadh. Symbol is stone.

 

The court cards in each suit are Woman, Warrior, Queen, and King.

 

The number cards in this deck are very unusual- this is a feature I'm really hoping to delve into in my study. Each of the number cards 1-10 is given a name that is based on a Celtic storytelling genre. I'll give a little bit of information from the book about each one here.

 

1 Auguries: Like a seed, each of the Augury cards encodes the essence of its suit. Auguries represent primal beginnings and initiations.

 

2 Dialogues: Dialogues involve give and take, listening and speaking; they fight for the development of the augury. They reveal relationships and communication.

 

3 Courtships: The seed of the Augury takes its first manifest shape in the threes. The Courtships make the first attempt to make the Auguries manifest. The threes indicate growth, expansion, and implementation.

 

4 Judgements: These teach the essence of the Augury and bring it a stage nearer by the physical enactment of the principle. The fours indicate stabilization.

 

5 Combats: The lessons of the Judgements cause insecurity and require adjustment of attitudes. The fives indicate change, friction, and testing.

 

6 Foundations: These cards demonstrate the harmony that surrounds the principle of each treasure- the warrior training of Battle, the smithcraft of Skill, the poet-craft of Art, the druidic congress of Knowledge. The sixes represent balance, sharing, and security.

 

7 Adventures: These cards represent the exploration of the principles previously grasped in the Foundations. The sevens represent promotion of ambition and ideals.

 

8 Elopements: These represent the realization of what is yet lacking, of the need for wholeness. The eights represent struggle to assimilate or succeed.

 

9 Revelations: These demonstrate the integration of the principle of their suit. The nines represent attainment and achievement.

 

10 Quests: Quests represent the culmination of the principle augured in the Four Treasures. The tens represent endings and conclusions.

 

Why I chose this deck for my 78 Weeks of study

 

Wanted to save what I've written but will be back shortly to finish this section :)

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I am new to joining this forum so very late to joining this party  ;D.  I have been ho-humming about which deck to use for this project and where to jump in.  In September I started studying the Wizards Tarot for fun and following through the guidebook which is supposed to be a year-and-a-day study of the deck.  I thought maybe I should combine the two projects and just start on the Hermit as that is where I am in my Mandrake Academy studies lol.  I will actually try to do a little catch up (maybe 2 cards a week) until I catch up to the group.

 

About the Wizard Tarot:

 

This is a deck by Corinne Kenner, and has to be inspired by the world of Harry Potter and Hogwarts.  I was first drawn to this deck because I am a huge fan of the wizarding world of Harry Potter (even if I am older than dirt LOL).  The book invites you right on in to become a student (Apprentice/The Fool) at Mandrake Academy and study with the professors (Major Arcana)  I have to admit the deck is not hockey like I thought it would be, Ms. Kenner used this platform to create a really solid and fun deck.  The book is excellent and not only teaches tarot and gets you exercising your intuitive muscles early on, it has really nice descriptions of the key elements in the cards to help one understand them.  There are practical magic bits in the book.  In addition, each Major Arcana has its own designated spread.  I am an HP fan so hey why not play? right? Well I have my notebook and have been doing all the Tarot related work and spreads and I have come to really enjoy this deck.

 

The Majors (Teachers) are not numbered so one can place Strength and Justice anywhere one really likes, but the companion puts Strength at VIII.  Each Teacher has a familiar animal.  The Fool has been renamed The Apprentice,  Temperance has been renamed The Alchemist, Death has been renamed "Transfiguration", and The Devil is the "The Dark Lord."  Suits are your traditional Cups, Wands, Pentacles and Swords with Wands corresponding to the element of Fire and Swords to Air.

 

The imagery of the majors have some strong departures from the RWS (a Centaur as the Hierophant, a wyvern instead of Lion on Strength for example), but meanings do fall pretty much down the line of the RWS.  The Minors are divided into 4 houses corresponding, and have color correspondences seen in the student uniforms (Cups/Water/Blue, Wands, Fire/Red, Pentacles/Earth/Green, Swords/Air/Yellow with the suits and the imagery being recognizably RWS based.  The court cards are very interesting as they are not your typical royal family though they retain the titles Page, Knight, Queen and King.  The court cards for each suit are Elementals that correspond to the element of each suit Cups/Water/Undines, Wands/Fire/Salamanders, Pentacles/Earth/Gnomes, and Swords/Air/Sylphs.

 

I love decks with elemental correspondences and this deck is all about them.

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Will be working with The Journey into Egypt tarot.

 

The LWB is not very helpful, so I will approach it intuitively. More to come.  :)

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Both the Wizard's Tarot and Journey Into Egypt Tarot look beautiful! I'm especially drawn to the Wizard's as I'm also a fan of the Harry Potter books and movies ... well, and wizarding in general. The Journey Into Egypt Tarot is beautiful as well and interests me as it is quite different from the other Egyptian themed decks I have. Looking forward to hearing how your studies go with these.

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Both the Wizard's Tarot and Journey Into Egypt Tarot look beautiful! I'm especially drawn to the Wizard's as I'm also a fan of the Harry Potter books and movies ... well, and wizarding in general. The Journey Into Egypt Tarot is beautiful as well and interests me as it is quite different from the other Egyptian themed decks I have. Looking forward to hearing how your studies go with these.

 

I will definitely share the Journey into Egypt. I'm I so glad you like it, too, Trogon. It is beyond stunning. I like it so much that I purchased a second copy that I will keep as a collector's item. The box comes signed, since it is a limited printing.

 

The Wizard's Tarot is OOP, right? I do like that world, too, but I think it's the borderless JIET cards with their beautiful depictions and the size of the cards that endears it so much to me.

 

Do you happen to have the Tarot of Saqqara?

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Both the Wizard's Tarot and Journey Into Egypt Tarot look beautiful! I'm especially drawn to the Wizard's as I'm also a fan of the Harry Potter books and movies ... well, and wizarding in general. The Journey Into Egypt Tarot is beautiful as well and interests me as it is quite different from the other Egyptian themed decks I have. Looking forward to hearing how your studies go with these.

I need to post my journaling.  I have been working on it just have not made the time to type up my stuff and post it.

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Am I allowed to post in this thread if I'm not still 100% committed to my deck?

 

I am loving the Margarete Petersen, but the more she introduces me to shamanic ideas, the more I'm drawn to study my other two shamanic decks, the Ironwing and the Greenwood.  I admit, part of me wants to go on a collecting spree and acquire all the shamanic decks!  But that probably wouldn't help me focus on the 78 week study, would it?

 

Anyway, one good reason to stick with the Margarete Petersen is that of the three, I love it the most.  I admit, I sometimes find it hard to read with.  It's easiest to read with the RWS clones, for me.  To be confronted with abstract images is to be challenged to read only intuitively, which always reminds me how much I rely on my teenaged study of the Hanson-Roberts LWB.  Those keywords are burned into my brain.  I'm about to do my first all-intuitive reading for the ISG, and I'm worried about how much I'll want to lean on the ol' LWB...  But a deck like Margarete Petersen is great for insisting on the intuitive deep-dive.  On the other hand (there are so many other hands!), a deck full of abstract pictures and almost no symbolism outside the Majors is going to make for a challenging "Study."  If I were to switch to the Greenwood, I would get symbolism while keeping my shamanic leanings.  Have my cake and eat it too.

 

On the third hand, the Ironwing creates its own symbolism, forcing me to analyze the guidebook like a scientific text.   Each card is rich with imagery of animal, vegetable and mineral, all correspondences created uniquely for this deck.  Talk about a study!

 

Now I'm more confused than when I started this post.  I will probably explore the Ace of Wands for all three decks, since as others have pointed out, it's pretty quick to analyze a single Ace.

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In this study I am using the Forest of Enchantment Tarot deck by Lunaea Weatherstone. The art of the cards is by Meraylah Allwood. The deck is RWS-based but the author has renamed the suits and most of the Major Arcana cards even though the core meanings are aligned with the traditional meanings. The suits are Spells (Wands), Visions (Cups), Challenges (Swords) and Boons (Pentacles). The court cards are also renamed, Page being Child, Knight being Seeker, Queen being Weaver and King being Keeper.

 

The book that accompanies the deck is a piece of art itself. It has nice little details like instructions how to care and feed your deck in addition to the beautiful art and the meanings of the cards. Each card also has a story of what happens when you get to that card on your adventure in the forest.

 

This was the second deck that I bought for myself. I loved the art and I wanted to have something little bit different from my first deck (Everyday Witch Tarot). I’ve owned this deck for about three months now, I guess (I am still a newbie).

 

I use this deck for my COTD but otherwise I don’t use it much because I don’t yet feel a good connection with it. I am definitely not confident using it yet but that’s why I am studying it now.

 

What I really like about this deck is the art and the themes of the cards. I also like the mythical forest idea. The main challenge for me is to learn the Major Arcana names and get a good connection with the meanings of the cards because the art is so different from the traditional RWS. On the other hand it feels like the cards have so much to say. 

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When I saw Gardener’s post calling for interest in the 78 week tarot study, I was already in the process of starting a more formal self-study on the Qabalah. This study group came around at the perfect time. I had been exploring the Hermetic Deck and been getting such good results from it, I wanted to go further down the rabbit hole. In deciding to delve into it deeper, the Qabalah seemed the obvious next step as it was an area where my knowledge was most elementary.

Decks like The Hermetic are often relegated to the more academic, or intellectual realms of tarot study, and said to be better used for self-exploration and meditation. Oddly enough, I found it such a delight to work with in readings that I have been using it almost exclusively since I purchased it. Yes, it is heavier going. One 15 card spread takes me a good hour and a half to get through and feel like I have sufficiently sucked every morsel of insight I can for my querents, which they seem to appreciate at least!

One of the things that struck me the most with The Hermetic Tarot (and frankly surprised me at first), was how well this deck suited me as a reader who incorporates 'intuitive' practices. The lack of colours, the static almost scratchy flat images, almost paired back emotion, but heavy symbology work really well for me especially as a clairsentient, who feels deeply enough as it is. The pips are an especially good example, as on first glance many look very similar. But it is the small differences in the external stimuli that really sing loudly to me when I read with them.

They do fall flat when it comes to 'prettiness'. It is not what I would call a beautiful deck. And yet something about it held my interest enough to purchase it, and I'm glad I did. I'm very much looking forward to uncover more in the context of Qabalah and through the eyes of the Golden Dawn.

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Well, here is my deck for this round:

 

The Mermaid Tarot

(by Leeza Robertson & Julie Dillon (Llewellyn 2019)

 

I first bought this deck because of the ocean theme and because of the slightly cartoony quality which I often like. The artwork is just stunning, the colors are very vivid and the cardstock is excellent. The cards are borderless but slightly too large for my hands. Too bad there is no mini version of this deck available. I certainly did not expect this to become my primary reading deck but the more I have been using this deck the deeper it has been taking me (pun intended).

The Majors are mainly RWS but with some interesting interpretations and ideas here and there. Seems like each card has been very carefully thought out instead of merely copying the RWS symbolism. (More about this in the individual threads to come.) The book that comes with the deck is excellent, with big pictures of each card and space for your own notes.

Minors represent different mermaid kingdoms.

Wands: Fire, volcanoes, Hawaii and other Pacific islands. Their tool is the Fire Pearl. Gods and Goddesses: Pele, Kamohoalii (Shark God).

Pentacles: Sweet water, lakes, rivers, ponds, waterfalls. Tool: Golden Coin with a stylized Pentacle. Gods and Goddesses: Lady of the Lake. (The King is just a King)

Cups: Deep ocean. Tool: Golden chalice. Gods and Goddesses: Nammu and Triton.

Swords: Polar and arctic waters, ice, snow. Tool: Sword of knowledge and power. Gods and Goddesses: Snow Queen, Boreas (The North Wind).

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hanks to katrinka for resurrecting this thread. I hope to use it to put up things I find about the deviant Moon deck that don't fit into the single card analysis.

 

I started looking at the deck by asking what it was best at. The Page of Wands came up.

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The Page is far from home in unknown territory. He is crossing the ice on a pair of stilts he has made. The ice might crack but he is carrying on with his exploration. The deck should be good for these out on a limb explorations and be good at helping in these sort of situations.

 

The Page of Wands is also the card that comes up for my oldest son who has Aspergers syndrome which is a type of autism. The deck may give me insights into him and be good for reading about him. I wonder if it will be good for reading about autistic people in general?

 

My next question was what can the deck could help me with. The card drawn was the Hierophant.

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This is the bad side of the Hierophant. It is a religion in decline. The original Mary El tarot, which I nearly used for this study, had a hierophant in a similar vein.

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Unfortunately she has since altered the card and I prefer the older deck.

 

So the Deviant Moon can help me reexamine old outdated philosophy. As he says in his book on the Deck “break free from the group and find the truth in yourself.

 

This may also apply to the Autism angle. We abandoned the conventional wisdom of forcing our son into school and instead we home educated and it worked fine. He is now doing an open university degree in computer science.

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@surreall,

 

You've got me thinking about the Deviant Moon.  I've always been hesitant to work with this deck, because like one of the Tough Cookies said, it comes across as creepy,  But as they also said, watching you explore this deck has shown us that it's actually subtly sweet sometimes, and that's intriguing.  Have you gotten any closer to realizing why you are drawn to this deck?

 

I was also wondering if you've ever checked out the Deviant Moon study group on the old boards?  It doesn't have all the cards, but maybe half the majors and almost all of the minors.  I have been exploring the Margarete and Ironwing study groups and finding some of the comments really deep.

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