DECK OF THE MONTH: MAY

merissa_88

swedishfish612 said:
Hi everyone,

Hope it's okay if I post in here, because I'm not actually doing DOTM yet. But I'm considering trying it in June. I typically do Deck of the Week b/c I have a short attention span with my decks, lol! But I have recently fallen head over heels with a deck and I feel ready to spend a long period of time with a deck.

Anyway, I'm posting wondering if you all do anything special to prepare to work with a deck for a whole month? For instance, do you keep a separate journal just for that deck? Do you pair an oracle with it? Anything else I'm not thinking about? I feel this urge to make it special in some way...light a new candle, maybe, or change up my altar/create a new one, when I begin working with my deck.

I look forward to joining you all in June, unless I suddenly get cold feet!
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All those sound like fun ways to get started. For myself, I do 3 things:

1. journal
2. read a book that is related to the deck or my tarot studies and do readings based on this.
3. dreamwork with the deck- this is because I don't meditate with cards often. Dreaming is easier.

I'm posting this to say that everyone does something different and it's all good. :)
 

merissa_88

Lycanthropos said:
I have just posted a reading in the forum. I like using this deck on the full moon (and new moon) because of the design on the reverse of the cards. (see attached) I also like the Page of Cups in the deck. The card tends to represent my daughter, and in this deck the card is a young girl who looks similar to my kid, so it's perfect. I've had that card show up twice in the last week.
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Beautiful card! And I like the card backs. I will check out your reading. I like to see how a deck reads.
 

merissa_88

Voyager Tarot

James Wanless, the Voyager Tarot creator, is teaching a class at my local New Age bookstore tomorrow. I'm slightly disappointed that I can't attend because of schedule conflicts.

Voyager is slightly influenced by the Thoth. Justice (Balance) is card 8. The deck is like a New Age, multicultural Thoth. James Wanless wrote a book about the Thoth Tarot called New Age Tarot, I think.

The Voyager minors are really plugged into the first 10 majors. Like all the fours are related to the Emperor in a really obvious way. I'm also getting a lot of major arcana cards in my layouts. I'm exploring two card layouts to begin with. One thing I'm noticing is that there are lots of flowers in this deck. I'm into wildflowers and herbs so it's really fun.
 

Rose Lalonde

merissa_88 said:
I have the Rosetta and have enjoyed watching this deck progress. The Thoth influence feels less obvious on the Tabula Mundi.
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Yes, having gotten my first look at some Tabula Mundi minors, I agree. While a Thoth minor has symbols for its planet and sign, TM illustrates planet and sign with art from the majors attributed to them. And those TM majors have (great!) original art, so the minors do too. The artist really made those GD and Thoth influences their own. :)
 

Rose Lalonde

merissa_88 said:
Voyager is slightly influenced by the Thoth. Justice (Balance) is card 8. The deck is like a New Age, multicultural Thoth. James Wanless wrote a book about the Thoth Tarot called New Age Tarot, I think.

The Voyager minors are really plugged into the first 10 majors. Like all the fours are related to the Emperor in a really obvious way. I'm also getting a lot of major arcana cards in my layouts. I'm exploring two card layouts to begin with. One thing I'm noticing is that there are lots of flowers in this deck. I'm into wildflowers and herbs so it's really fun.
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I knew the name sounded familiar when you mentioned it in your earlier post! I don't have his book. (With Crowley, Wang, DuQuette, and Snuffin, I'm more than set.) But I saw him mentioned on threads re Thoth books.

I don't really know anything about the Voyager except what you've mentioned, so this could be completely random, but the minors matching up to the first 10 majors makes me think of the Mary El.

Hope it's an enjoyable month with the Wanless decks. :)
 

Lycanthropos

Voyager Tarot

merissa_88 said:
The Voyager minors are really plugged into the first 10 majors. Like all the fours are related to the Emperor in a really obvious way.

One thing I'm noticing is that there are lots of flowers in this deck. I'm into wildflowers and herbs so it's really fun.
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I like the idea of relating the minors to the first ten majors in a noticeable way. I try to keep that concept in mind when I'm reading, especially if the major and it's related minor(s) show up together in a spread. Very cool!

I looked at some of the deck online and they've incorporated some interesting stuff (including flowers) in the images. It's a fascinating deck. As an art piece I really like it, but it looks (to me) to be really difficult to interpret. Are you finding you tap into the messages of the cards well?
 

Lycanthropos

Witches Tarot

I've been getting along very well with the deck. I've only used it a handful of times before, mainly to read with a new or full moon. I skimmed through the companion book when I got it and shelved it pretty quickly because it is written for witches and pagans (and I am neither), but I pulled it out for this month so I could look up the symbolism. The cards are very thoughtfully done. A lot of the symbolism is pretty easy to read from traditional studies, but the added imagery or retelling of imagery for witches and pagans is quite interesting, and I don't think it's necessarily exclusive to those groups. It adds another layer of depth that's quite fun to work with.
 

Rose Lalonde

Lycanthropos, I love those card backs. They're beautiful, and it helps that I like anything to do with astronomy. :)
 

merissa_88

Lycanthropos said:
I looked at some of the deck online and they've incorporated some interesting stuff (including flowers) in the images. It's a fascinating deck. As an art piece I really like it, but it looks (to me) to be really difficult to interpret. Are you finding you tap into the messages of the cards well?
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I've worked with this deck off and on for years before attending a talk by James Wanless. He really emphasizes combining the images with the keywords. I like that for quick readings, but often use image details in cards for specifics. So as long as I don't get distracted by the busy-ness of the collages, it works really well.
 

merissa_88

Lycanthropos said:
I've been getting along very well with the deck. I've only used it a handful of times before, mainly to read with a new or full moon. I skimmed through the companion book when I got it and shelved it pretty quickly because it is written for witches and pagans (and I am neither), but I pulled it out for this month so I could look up the symbolism. The cards are very thoughtfully done. A lot of the symbolism is pretty easy to read from traditional studies, but the added imagery or retelling of imagery for witches and pagans is quite interesting, and I don't think it's necessarily exclusive to those groups. It adds another layer of depth that's quite fun to work with.
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She is a really interesting writer so I can see why the book would be helpful. It sounds like the deck is not a RWS clone for witches, but is worth exploring. I'll have to go back and take a look at the card images online.

Is the elemental information in the book helpful? I use elements a lot in readings.
 
"Faith of the Seven" (GoT) and the tarot Daily tarot