The WildWood Tarot - Stand Alone/Individual Deck/Positive Reviews

inanna_tarot

Just to add - If you are able to download podcasts I would HIGHLY recommend listening to episode 21 of the Crooked Path podcast, as it was hour long interview with Mark Ryan talking about his passion and creation of the deck.

I have to say, after listening to it, I am more open minded to the deck and the concepts behind it.
 

Lifeisabutterfly

One thing I did notice is that this deck is like a walk in a shady cool forest with alot of very tall pine trees above...like a canopy. It seems to hold much for those who have the patience to delve a bit deeper into this wood. I feel that it almost makes a better meditation tool than a regular reading somehow....what do you think?
 

Lady Iron Side

One thing I did notice is that this deck is like a walk in a shady cool forest with alot of very tall pine trees above...like a canopy. It seems to hold much for those who have the patience to delve a bit deeper into this wood. I feel that it almost makes a better meditation tool than a regular reading somehow....what do you think?

please don't laugh, I have never Meditated on only of my decks, but ever since I bought this deck I have to admit I've been contempating it. I would say that yes this deck would make a great meditation tool. The reading part of what this deck has done for me, well it has been so spot on better than my most favorite deck that I've had for years, surprised me. This deck reads extremely well.
 

Terrapin

I want to say thank you also Lady Iron Side. I like the Wild Wood a lot and have been kind of dismayed at the negativity at AT forum regarding it. For folks that don't have the Greenwood, some of the comments comparing the two decks may seem nit-picky and pointless if they only really have experience with the WW. I'd love to own a Greenwood, but can't justify the price it commands of e-bay. I feel the WW is an important deck that needs to be discussed on its own merit.

I think this deck does lend itself to more of an intuitive read rather than trying to follow some previous set RWS or some other system. Many of the images are rather RWS to be sure, but some cards present such a different view of the corresponding RWS meaning that I find it refreshing and yes, challenging in a good way. I like to use both intuition AND a defined structure and blend them in a reading.

That being said, I have trouble doing that with some of the cards and the Salmon or Queen of Vessels is a bugaboo for me. Can't wrap my head around it as well as most of the other cards. Intuivtively it may mean many things, but I can't seem to link it to the more standard Queen of Cups (whose traditional meaning I find beautiful.) The energy of this card seems to "outward" focused and lively to match any ideas I have for the Queen of Cups. So without that traditional Queen of Cups energy I have a little trouble finding balance in the deck. At the same time I realize any deck that sparks the imagination can be of tremendous value and rewards working through the rougher spots.

I'm not being critical when I talk about the Queen of Vessels; I am asking for help with it if anyone has advice.

Thanks.
 

GryffinSong

...I think this deck does lend itself to more of an intuitive read rather than trying to follow some previous set RWS or some other system...

This is one of the reasons I like this deck. I enjoy Will's artwork, and find most of the cards very beautiful. I'm especially fond of the wren, and Will's other birds, and I love his scenery and plant life. I haven't been spending much time with ANY of my decks recently, because I'm swamped with work, but when I do pull a deck out, I'm as likely to pull out the Wildwood as any of my top three. Quite frankly, I never cared for "that other deck", so am coming to this deck with a fresh and unjaundiced eye. I'm glad for that, because I do believe it stands on its own as a nice and useful deck.
 

NikkiB

I used this for my deck of the week a couple of weeks ago and was surprised how much I liked it. I had reservations about animals for the courts, in some cases it worked for me in others it didn't but the more I worked with the deck as a whole the more I loved it and it is high on my list of favorites in the decks I have used so far for this project.

I don't have the Greenwood and so can't compare but find it a little sad that it has been compared in the way that it has. I don't find the Greenwood appeals to me at all, so I see this as a totally stand alone deck which I had some really good readings from. The art is more often than not beautiful, it is very readable intuitively and I found it grew on me considerably from my expectations. It is unlikely to go into the sale/trade box...
 

Lifeisabutterfly

This is a great topic! I am starting to warm up very much to the concept of this deck after being very narrow-minded about it. I wasn't comparing it to the Greenwood, since I've never seen it, but was taking issue with some of the card interpretations which vastly if not opposed some of the more traditional ones. Sometimes one tends to get bogged down with rote and tradition...This being said I feel a bit daunted by what seems to be a complicated system of interpretation. I was about to sell this back at my flea market table, but something compelling is stopping me. After getting a definite feeling of being under a green mysterious canopy in the forest in a far away time and land, how could I not want to try and enter. This world is beckoning to me, but I would be very disappointed in failing to find my way within...I know this is just a tarot deck, but there it is.....Perhaps taking one card at a time with the book one page at time would give me the key. Hopefully it would be like one of those situations where it seems really hard but once you get going its' not.
I was also tempted to try the Druidcraft, some of the cards are quite lovely and mezmerizing but others seem a bit cartoony....
Sincerely, The Queen of Dither....
 

Lifeisabutterfly

Am in the middle of reading a very informative interview with Mark Ryan regarding the creation of the Wildwood tarot. It's a must for everyone interested in this deck.
Another thing I must confess is that due to the startling amount of new tarot decks which keep coming out I was getting a bit tired of so many out there who are trying to be something they're not without doing any research or study about their chosen topic. So I think I fell into that mode of being overly suspicious of this one lol assuming just because there were innovations, it was silly or even .... dumb....
Here a little quote to support the point "Some of the concepts are a little difficult to access until we explain it."
This interview I'm reading is showing me that the author put in alot of work and thought--and best of all remained true to his given subject--authentic. That makes all the difference in my view and makes it worth the effort to take a second look at this deck. The theme is so attractive IMHO it's magic. sigh.
 

Lady Iron Side

I want to say thank you also Lady Iron Side. I like the Wild Wood a lot and have been kind of dismayed at the negativity at AT forum regarding it. For folks that don't have the Greenwood, some of the comments comparing the two decks may seem nit-picky and pointless if they only really have experience with the WW. I'd love to own a Greenwood, but can't justify the price it commands of e-bay. I feel the WW is an important deck that needs to be discussed on its own merit.

I think this deck does lend itself to more of an intuitive read rather than trying to follow some previous set RWS or some other system. Many of the images are rather RWS to be sure, but some cards present such a different view of the corresponding RWS meaning that I find it refreshing and yes, challenging in a good way. I like to use both intuition AND a defined structure and blend them in a reading.

That being said, I have trouble doing that with some of the cards and the Salmon or Queen of Vessels is a bugaboo for me. Can't wrap my head around it as well as most of the other cards. Intuivtively it may mean many things, but I can't seem to link it to the more standard Queen of Cups (whose traditional meaning I find beautiful.) The energy of this card seems to "outward" focused and lively to match any ideas I have for the Queen of Cups. So without that traditional Queen of Cups energy I have a little trouble finding balance in the deck. At the same time I realize any deck that sparks the imagination can be of tremendous value and rewards working through the rougher spots.

I'm not being critical when I talk about the Queen of Vessels; I am asking for help with it if anyone has advice.

Thanks.

your very welcome Terrapin,

This deck totally speaks it's own lanuage, and with doing research and reading up on the Greenwood and this Deck, I honestly have to say that even though there is some simuliarities, the Wildwood deck has much more, besides the artwork, Mark Ryan made same changes ( changed the suite elements/ season of wands and swords, and court cards) and put more info into it, that was lacking in the Greenwood. so with that said this deck need to stand on it's own merit. I have found many uses for this deck, IE an oracle, tarot, Calendar and more.

To help you with the Queen of Vessels, try this take the card out of the deck place to a side. then take the remaining cards and shuffle all the while asking for the deck to show what it is to mean to you, layout 3 cards with no specific positon just read one card to the next. and see what the results are.

Note at the bottome of the page you will see in green tracks and pathways, these are your keywords.

When I was trying to work with the courts, I also struggled a bit with it untill I did a reading about my dad (whom passed away) and the Queen of Vessels showed up. the image I recieved in my minds eye was my dad and I fishing out on the open ocean for salmon. When I was a child my dad was never home much due to work, however when he was home he would wake me up at like 4 am share his work pail lunch/dinner with me then pack up everything we needed to go fishing and hooked up the boat we'd be on the water by sunrise and we'd stay out til sunset, and it never mattered whether we caught a salmon or not. I was his fishing buddy.

So when you have time contemplate the courts. think of a memory that maybe connected to the card imagery, IE like think of the Queen of Vessels going to someone place for dinner and having salmon, or going out for dinner. think of the people you were with or something else might get triggered.

Edit: you can even go through your list of family friends etc for birthdays, anniversaries etc. and match up the courts to that date (look in my threads Time of Arrow, Bows, Vessels, Stones) IE: for me I'm the The Wren

Moving from the spring Equinox towards Beltane, April 8 - April 30
Aries, April 8 - April 19 and Taurus, April 20 - April 30
Which I found to be extremely interesting, for the Wren no only signifyes the last snowfall in spring, it also is an Air/Fire, mixed with the Earthy Taurus, which is so me Red head, fiesty, hot tempered, quick witted, stubborn, organize freak, earthy grounded. smart, think too much, penny pincher intense, and sometime overly caring/nurturing then other times very cold uncaring 50/50, I call things how I see it, one min I'm liked the next Im hated, and I have lived some pretty harsh life experiences which has given me much wisdom to help others when there in need. Which explains why I'm divorced and single. lol ... in other decks my Court would be Queen of Penatcles / Pope with my personality card (how others view me and how I present myself) being Queen of Swords.

Therefore with the Wildwood tarot I found that I prefer this/the way the courts are layed out better.


hope this helps