Lion-O
After waiting for almost a month (order date was 8 sep.) it has finally happened: today the last shipment of my order arrived bringing me two decks (Robin Wood & LS Manga) and two books (Tarot Tips & Numerology) and my collection really feels complete now. The funny thing is that my last comment about this shipment is starting to become true 
"it will give me something to do in the winter", and what do you know? The temperature has dropped quite rapidly around here, its quite chilly and raining heavily. While it doesn't make it very appealing to step outside it does make it more cozy to spend some time checking out my cards. A very relaxing afternoon all to myself (I'm currently enjoying a short but somewhat relaxed vacation ).
I really enjoy my latest two decks... I guess whatever can be said about it has already been said about the Robin Wood tarot deck, so I'm not going to get into too much details. But still, to me it really combines the best from a lot of decks.. The directness (if you can call it as such) from the Rider Waite, the complexity from the Druidcraft (look at some of those background sceneries). What I do wish to stress out is that also buying the official book really adds up to the whole experience. I've read snipplets from the book before I got the deck and its really an eye opener. Next is the Manga tarot... Being an Anime fan really made me purchase this deck in the blink of an eye. Perhaps more to marvel at the artwork, but its still a very enjoyable deck. I really like the subtleties like the changing of gender (III - The Emperor / IV - The Empress) and the initial sequence (cups, pentacles, wands and swords). But what makes this deck really stand out for me are the descriptions in several languages (English, Spanish, French, German and... Dutch (?!)). Being Dutch myself I guess its easy enough to understand that I was quite surprised to see this.
The translations can be a little off sometimes though... For example, the Emperor is called 'Herrscher' in German but that basicly means 'Ruler'. The German word here would be 'Kaiser'. The funny thing is that though different its not completely wrong as 'Herrscher' does give you a good hint as to the meaning of the card.
Though I never did buy the deck Umbea mentioned in the other thread it has aroused my curiosity as to the difference between certain decks. And so, when I was busy going over my two new decks, I started to grab some other decks and compare and study a little. Eventually I ended up with several books and decks lying on my bed and then I simply couldn't help myself and decided to snap some pictures from it. And after I done that I couldn't resist to share the results. I'm so pleased with my current collection I just had to do a little showing ;-) The pictures aren't extremely sharp but it does give a good impression I think. The reason they're not too clear is basicly because this room isn't heavily lit (and I didn't want to use the flash on my decks) and second because I like it this way. Its not my intention to publish or share pictures which aren't meant for that, and while this gives a good overal impression I don't think to be violating any copyrights here nor making it possible for others to do so.
Right, my entire collection of cards and books as I've put them on my bed. At the left side you see my latest 2 decks (upper left: Robin Wood & LS Manga). Going right you see a stack of 3 books which came with my other decks (Gilded, Celtic Dragon and Druidcraft) and finally, to the right again, you see one of the Tarot bags I got from Amazon which contains the Celtic Dragon deck. At the bottom, from left to right, you see the Robin Wood tarot book, my most popular books up untill now are right from that (Learning the Tarot from Joan Bunning & Power Tarot) and finally my very first deck in its original box: Mage the Ascention. And right above it you can see my second deck: the Rider Waite.
On the right side (skipping the things already mentioned) you can see the 'Gilded tarot box' which contains both my Gilded and Druidcraft decks and below it three books from which the 'Numerology' and 'Tarot tips' came in today.
After this little joke I decided to grab 3 cards from all the decks I have and spread those out as well. From every deck I have I grabbed the 'Strengh' and '2 of swords' cards, right below those two I've put a card which I consider to be very special for that particular deck. The rest of the deck lies face down besides it so that the backside is also visible (I guess the Mage deck is a bit vague due to the lack of light, its somewhat visible here).
In the upper left corner you can see my Mage deck (favorite card being Gaia), the Rider Waite deck (favorite card being Ace of Cups) and finally my Gilded deck (favorite card being The Hermit). Note how the 2 swords are pointed upwards on the Rider deck and pointed downwards on the Gilded deck. Continueing upper right you can see my Druidcraft deck (favorite card being The Star).
Then, in the bottom left corner I placed my Celtic Dragon deck. Because I am not as familiar with this deck as I want (in all honosty, while I do like the deck I have neglected it a little bit in the past weeks) I can't come up with one specific card which I find special. However, you can see a glimpse from the special card in the Manga deck So to finish the story and going to the bottom right corner you can see my latest two decks. The LS Manga tarot (favorite card being The Sorceress. It was this card which was used to show the deck as "Deck of the week" on Aeclectic and which drew my attention to it almost immediatly) and finally the Robin Wood deck, I'm really excited about this one (my favorite card being The Devil. An odd choice perhaps but this is such a loaded card to me; here you can see fear, despair, anxiety and perhaps even disdain if not a little arrogance. I love the picture of the monkey which got his hand stuck in a hole because he won't let go of his price (shown on the lid of the box)).
And there you have it... Right now I got the Manga and Robin Wood decks lying next to my keyboard to go over them some more. I really love the Robin Wood because it resembles my Rider deck yet in a little more detail without being a one on one copy. Somehow it makes me feel more confident to share its beauty with others (I'd never let others touch my Rider deck, but this one is different). As a side note: I really think its funny how this deck too manages to be different in its original sequence. They totally reversed it! After the major arcana you're treated with Pentacles, Swords, Wands and Cups but going from the courts and counting down to the ace.
Well, enough showing off here I'm diving into my Tarot tips book some more
"it will give me something to do in the winter", and what do you know? The temperature has dropped quite rapidly around here, its quite chilly and raining heavily. While it doesn't make it very appealing to step outside it does make it more cozy to spend some time checking out my cards. A very relaxing afternoon all to myself (I'm currently enjoying a short but somewhat relaxed vacation ).I really enjoy my latest two decks... I guess whatever can be said about it has already been said about the Robin Wood tarot deck, so I'm not going to get into too much details. But still, to me it really combines the best from a lot of decks.. The directness (if you can call it as such) from the Rider Waite, the complexity from the Druidcraft (look at some of those background sceneries). What I do wish to stress out is that also buying the official book really adds up to the whole experience. I've read snipplets from the book before I got the deck and its really an eye opener. Next is the Manga tarot... Being an Anime fan really made me purchase this deck in the blink of an eye. Perhaps more to marvel at the artwork, but its still a very enjoyable deck. I really like the subtleties like the changing of gender (III - The Emperor / IV - The Empress) and the initial sequence (cups, pentacles, wands and swords). But what makes this deck really stand out for me are the descriptions in several languages (English, Spanish, French, German and... Dutch (?!)). Being Dutch myself I guess its easy enough to understand that I was quite surprised to see this.
The translations can be a little off sometimes though... For example, the Emperor is called 'Herrscher' in German but that basicly means 'Ruler'. The German word here would be 'Kaiser'. The funny thing is that though different its not completely wrong as 'Herrscher' does give you a good hint as to the meaning of the card.
Though I never did buy the deck Umbea mentioned in the other thread it has aroused my curiosity as to the difference between certain decks. And so, when I was busy going over my two new decks, I started to grab some other decks and compare and study a little. Eventually I ended up with several books and decks lying on my bed and then I simply couldn't help myself and decided to snap some pictures from it. And after I done that I couldn't resist to share the results. I'm so pleased with my current collection I just had to do a little showing ;-) The pictures aren't extremely sharp but it does give a good impression I think. The reason they're not too clear is basicly because this room isn't heavily lit (and I didn't want to use the flash on my decks) and second because I like it this way. Its not my intention to publish or share pictures which aren't meant for that, and while this gives a good overal impression I don't think to be violating any copyrights here nor making it possible for others to do so.
Right, my entire collection of cards and books as I've put them on my bed. At the left side you see my latest 2 decks (upper left: Robin Wood & LS Manga). Going right you see a stack of 3 books which came with my other decks (Gilded, Celtic Dragon and Druidcraft) and finally, to the right again, you see one of the Tarot bags I got from Amazon which contains the Celtic Dragon deck. At the bottom, from left to right, you see the Robin Wood tarot book, my most popular books up untill now are right from that (Learning the Tarot from Joan Bunning & Power Tarot) and finally my very first deck in its original box: Mage the Ascention. And right above it you can see my second deck: the Rider Waite.
On the right side (skipping the things already mentioned) you can see the 'Gilded tarot box' which contains both my Gilded and Druidcraft decks and below it three books from which the 'Numerology' and 'Tarot tips' came in today.
After this little joke I decided to grab 3 cards from all the decks I have and spread those out as well. From every deck I have I grabbed the 'Strengh' and '2 of swords' cards, right below those two I've put a card which I consider to be very special for that particular deck. The rest of the deck lies face down besides it so that the backside is also visible (I guess the Mage deck is a bit vague due to the lack of light, its somewhat visible here).
In the upper left corner you can see my Mage deck (favorite card being Gaia), the Rider Waite deck (favorite card being Ace of Cups) and finally my Gilded deck (favorite card being The Hermit). Note how the 2 swords are pointed upwards on the Rider deck and pointed downwards on the Gilded deck. Continueing upper right you can see my Druidcraft deck (favorite card being The Star).
Then, in the bottom left corner I placed my Celtic Dragon deck. Because I am not as familiar with this deck as I want (in all honosty, while I do like the deck I have neglected it a little bit in the past weeks) I can't come up with one specific card which I find special. However, you can see a glimpse from the special card in the Manga deck
So to finish the story and going to the bottom right corner you can see my latest two decks. The LS Manga tarot (favorite card being The Sorceress. It was this card which was used to show the deck as "Deck of the week" on Aeclectic and which drew my attention to it almost immediatly) and finally the Robin Wood deck, I'm really excited about this one (my favorite card being The Devil. An odd choice perhaps but this is such a loaded card to me; here you can see fear, despair, anxiety and perhaps even disdain if not a little arrogance. I love the picture of the monkey which got his hand stuck in a hole because he won't let go of his price (shown on the lid of the box)).And there you have it... Right now I got the Manga and Robin Wood decks lying next to my keyboard to go over them some more. I really love the Robin Wood because it resembles my Rider deck yet in a little more detail without being a one on one copy. Somehow it makes me feel more confident to share its beauty with others (I'd never let others touch my Rider deck, but this one is different). As a side note: I really think its funny how this deck too manages to be different in its original sequence. They totally reversed it! After the major arcana you're treated with Pentacles, Swords, Wands and Cups but going from the courts and counting down to the ace.
Well, enough showing off here
I'm diving into my Tarot tips book some more 
