DECK OF THE MONTH: FEBRUARY

Victorian Romantic - Court Cards

I'm very late, but I'd like to jump in with the Victorian Romantic, specifically a closer study of the court cards, because the VR LWB gave me a clearer sense of their differences than I had before I was given this deck last year(by a generous AT member!). That's pretty impressive, I think, for a LWB, since they're often not very helpful.

Madame Squee said:

Just checking in to see how everyone is doing and to say that I'm still at it. I missed a few days of posting daily draws, but I'm back on track today.

ETA:

I was excited to come across this article today: http://www.motherjones.com/media/2015/02/circus-photographs-norma-quintana

It contains wonderful photographs of the performers in a small one-ring circus. My husband surprised me on our first date with tickets to a circus like this one. We had such a wonderful time, and this outing convinced me he was a keeper! The acts were amazing and so close up -- breathtaking!

Click to expand...

I like the pics. They remind me of the time I got to see the Ronaldo Circus from Belgium. It's a throwback to older circuses (and at intermission you switch around to see everything going on backstage). Would have been a good first date too.

Victorian Romantic - courts

It was only a little over a week ago that I joined, but I enjoyed my refresher on the courts. I've read court cards in a few other decks in the same way they're characterized in the VR - especially if it's a deck that doesn't give me a sense of differentiation between them.

To simplify, the VR courts seem to me to break down as:

• Pages - messengers, and an enthusiastic beginner in an aspect of their suit, with little or no experience or preconceptions.
• Knights - gaining experience in different aspects of their suit through interaction with others, but not wise or balanced yet. "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."
• Queens - the pinnacle of their suit, achieving mastery, balance, and equanimity.
• Kings - maturity, but they're often constrained from embodying their suit to its fullest because of responsibilities that call for them to do what's required rather than what they want.

Rose Lalonde said:

It was only a little over a week ago that I joined, but I enjoyed my refresher on the courts. I've read court cards in a few other decks in the same way they're characterized in the VR - especially if it's a deck that doesn't give me a sense of differentiation between them.

To simplify, the VR courts seem to me to break down as:

• Queens - the pinnacle of their suit, achieving mastery, balance, and equanimity.
• Kings - maturity, but they're often constrained from embodying their suit to its fullest because of responsibilities that call for them to do what's required rather than what they want.

Click to expand...

These last two are a little like how I read the Queens and Kings. I learned this system both from a book by Gail Fairfield called Everyday Tarot and a class with James Wells. The Kings, in this system, are constrained because they are beginning to release or pass on the energy of the suit or element.

I love how people interpret the courts. It's the most flexible and creative part of interpreting tarot - it can go in so many different directions.

Aquarian Tarot

I'm glad that everyone seemed to enjoy their decks!

I really like the Aquarian and will go back to it. It's strangely abstract for me and I was glad I had the book. It's not the RWS clone I thought it would be and the information about the chakras was really fun.

I use a lot of dreamwork with my deck study and my dreams were pretty interesting. And the cards do seem progressive, even though there is something really detached and abstract about the images. The deck lives up to its name. However, there were times I found reading this deck difficult compared to the Quantum Tarot.

I'll definitely work with it in the future, but not in March.

Thanks to everyone for participating! New thread is here:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=232507