Moon Garden Deck

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 24 Oct 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

cait_inthe_moon	24 Oct 2004
I have just bought the Moon Garden Deck. Its my second deck, and I feel like I've jumped in to the deep end. My first deck was Nigel Jackson and the two seem really different. As much as I love the beautiful artwork on the Moon Garden deck, I'm having trouble with it. There are so many different things on some of the cards that I can't seem to focus on what the card is trying to say. It makes it so that I can't seem to get the pictures and the meanings on the cards to match up. Any advice for a confused Cait?

RedMaple	24 Oct 2004
Hi Cait, The Nigel Jackson is an unusual deck, though lovely, and the Moon Garden deck is, as I understand it, a RWS based deck. ( I don't have the deck myself.) Spend time with each card - what does it seem to say to you? What are the colors? The general emotional feel of the card? Ultimately, it will be your own meanings that will be important when you do readings, so trust your reactions to the cards. If you haven't already invested in a basic RWS deck, either the Universal Waite (my favorite) or another of the standards, it is worth it, even if you don't love the artwork. The RWS is the basis for many decks, and if you learn the cards and symbols, you will have a good base for understanding, not only the MoonGarden, but a huge variety of wonderful decks that take their inspiration from the RWS. Meanwhile, focus on the main image, and don't get hung up on other symbols that could be astrological (planetary symbols), letters or runes from other languages, alchemy symbols, etc. These are all systems you can learn in time, and they can deepen your understanding, but you certainly don't need to know them to use the deck. Good luck. There's probably a MoonGarden thread here somewhere. Click Search at the top of the page, and you should find them. RedMaple

cait_inthe_moon	24 Oct 2004
I was planning on buying the RWS deck when I had enough money for it. I have also been thinking that it would have been a better deck to start off with. I have also been flipping through the Moon Garden deck some more. It seems the more I flip through and just glance at the pictures, the clearer the images become. I guess I was looking too hard for the meaning to come to me. I'm beginning to understand the deck better now.

Ruby7	24 Oct 2004
I had the Moon Garden deck but ended up sellling it on E-Bay. I liked the artwork (hated the border though) but found this deck impossible to read with. We all have different experiences with decks so maybe this will in the end work out for you, just wanted to share my personal experience with this deck. I also believe that a RWS (or clone) is the best to begin with. All the best, Ruby7

Myrrha	24 Oct 2004
I don't have this one but it is beautiful. There aren't many decks that are all night scenes. It looks like the illustrations in the minors aren't really meant to give you the whole meaning just from looking at the picture. You are supposed to already know the range of meanings and then remember it from subtle clues on the cards. If you don't want to get a RWS deck, you could go to Joan Bunning's Learning the Tarot site and read through the material there. The section on card meanings is illustrated with an RWS you could compare to your Moon Garden deck. I think you will see that most of the cards in your deck support the RWS meanings. There are a few that I cant see any clues in, like the Seven of Swords. http://www.learntarot.com/cards.htm --Myrrha

Sulis	25 Oct 2004
Hi Cait, I don't have either of the decks you're talking about but I think I may know one reason why you may be confused. The Nigel Jackson deck has changed the elemental correspondences of the Wands and Swords suits to Wands / air, Swords / fire. Decks such as Moon Garden which are based on the RWS deck use Wands /fire, Swords / air. Love Sulis xx

cait_inthe_moon	25 Oct 2004
The elemental differences confused me at first, but it's getting clearer now. I really do like this beautiful deck, but it is definitly going to take me awhile to learn. Sometimes when I'm looking at the card, a meaning will jump out at me, but other times I can look and not get any message at all. I'm going to keep trying though.

lark	25 Oct 2004
I have the deck cait and I have the same problem. So it's not just you. It seems to be a hybrid deck of sorts. Its not a true RWS or a true Thoth or even a Marseille type. I've never really got the hang of it. But it is a pretty little deck. :)

Sulis	25 Oct 2004
HI Cait, I see from your profile that you're new to tarot. Have you thought about getting a deck which is either a RWS deck or a RWS clone deck to learn with? I say this because just about every tarot book you care to look at (unless it's obviously aimed at Thoth) is based on the Rider Waite deck. There are loads of different versions - The Universal Waite or the Radiant Rider Waite are nicely coloured and if you just can't stomach the RWS artwork you could go for a deck like the Morgan Greer, Aquarian, New Palladini, Robin Wood - they're all good for beginners - maybe once you've got the gist of things you can go onto decks where the elemental correspondences are switched around like Nigel Jackson or where the imagery is a bit different like Moon Garden. Just a few thoughts :) Love Sulis xx

cait_inthe_moon	25 Oct 2004
I am planning on getting the Robin Wood deck as soon as I have the funds to do so. :-) Tarot is an expensive habit. :-) In retrospect, Nigel Jackson was probably not the best deck to start off with. However, I am doing fairly well at understanding it. Hopefully, I'll understand Moon Garden eventually. I usually seem to jump into the wrong end of something when I decide to learn something new. But now I'm rambling... -Cait

ferrous	25 Oct 2004
Quote: Originally posted by cait_inthe_moon Tarot is an expensive habit. :-) lol!! Never were truer words spoken than in this place. That sentiment echoes around here constantly. :D Quote: Originally posted by cait_inthe_moon I usually seem to jump into the wrong end of something when I decide to learn something new. I'm a bit the same sometimes. It's hard not to jump in the deep end when something exciting comes along, isn't it? :)

cait_inthe_moon	25 Oct 2004
Yes, but I'm not disappointed in jumping into the deep end, just feeling slightly like things are over my head. Surfacing shouldn't be too hard though.

lelandra	26 Oct 2004
*If* you want to hone in more closely on RWS, which is actually quite a complex deck symbolically, this page compares many variations on it: http://www.advancenet.net/~jscole/tarotrwsclone.htm The Moon Garden is not actually a very close RWS variation; nor is Nigel Jackson. Nigel Jackson has the advantage in being clear and uncluttered, though. The problem Moon Garden has is the great similarity across all the cards. With that night-jungle effect it can be very hard to tell cards apart, and very hard to get a relaxed gaze overview (if you do that sort of thing). You have to get in close and really look for symbols. It's also fairly minimalist on symbolism once you strip the foliage out of the way. Very pretty though. Lelandra

The Moon Garden Deck thread was originally posted on 24 Oct 2004 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.