following guide books?

Hi. i wandered into a shop one day n just fell in love with the Celtic Dragon pack. ...So i bought one. The problem is the guide book that comes with it does not seem to follow the normal descriptions and interpretations by most of the other cards. One major change is the association of wands to fire and swords to air. In the Celtic Dragon Pack that i bought, wands are associated with air and the swords with fire. I'm a little confused now and am wondering which reading i should follow.......

can somebody please help !!!

My advice is to start with a "blank slate" and try to read the Celtic Dragon as the guide book suggests. Keep a notebook/journal and write things down. If things aren't making sense, if you feel incoherent, if meanings pop into your head and you know its nowhere what the book says... write it down. Develop your own meanings. Work in other related tarot knowledge.

Don't let the element shift throw you. The sword/wand air/fire swap phenomenon is deep inside modern occultism. As long as one or the other or both make sense to you and you can use that symbolism in interpreting cards, all will be well.

Laurel

THANK YOU !! most people tell me i should have started of with one of the basic decks like WR. But when i look at the WR deck, nothing registers in my mind......think that is really a blank slate.

I got the Celtic Dragon deck very recently, and although I haven't read with it, I know that I'm just gonna read the book first, then use that info as a backup for my own interpretations of the cards...All this while performing a play at school as well...

I absoluty love the Celtic Dragon tarot! I find the associations really work well for me. I made sure I read the book first before useing the cards. For most of the interpretatons I go by what is in the book.I am slowly developing my sense of intuition and what the cards mean to me. There are a couple of cards that the meanings in the book I don't agree with so for those cards I go by what I feel card means to me.

I like to think each deck has its own 'personality'. Don't let the changes get in your way, they are just part of this deck's personality


Blessings!
LeaRay

i absolutely lurrve this deck too!! I've finished reading the book at least 3 times. I don't have much problems with the interpretations in the book.....but when i read other books with the more general meanings, i tend to get a little confused.

Most books out there with the general meanings are meant more for the Rider-Waite-Smith decks. It is understandable that the RWS doesn't do anything for you. It doesn't for most people. But there are other alternatives. We are fortunate enough to have several re-colourings of this deck. The nicest(in my opinion) is the Universal Waite. You can see pictures of it here. You may also like the Robin Wood Tarot. It is similar to the Rider-Waite decks...it has the same symbolism, but it is very different at the same time.

I know that this isn't really the answer to the original question, but I hope this helps.

A reson for the change in element/suit representation is that the Celtic faiths did not place the tarot suits (Celts i don;t believe had the tarot but rather runes) with teh elements themselves. The Swords being fire makes sense since the swords are tempered with heat, wands being air also makes sense by default and by teh natural actiosn one can take with a staff or rod. regarless, teh celtic dragon deck associates wands with air and swords with fire, if one feels better, they can eliminate the suit and just use the element as the base of the oracle.