Intensive Deck Study Reboot!

fairybugg said:

Next, I will try to track down information about the various animals in the deck. I am a little bothered that the people feel tribeless. They are not identified in anyway as belonging to any tribe or area. Which in some ways is good but also feels like a hole to me. Maybe studing the environment will help???
Onward I go...

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Vision Quest is a beautiful deck. I think a study of plants and animals is a good way to go with this deck. Some of the images make me think of South Western or Mexican tribes - that might be worth looking into.
Also the minors are quite Thothy so if you feel that way inclined, you can read up on those attributions.

Dodal

HerzogIsGod said:

Le Fanu and I have decided to work with the Dodal. Below is an outline of what we intend to accomplish though December, 2010. We may extend this further into the New Year depending on how things go...

I believe Le Fanu will be posting this pledge with its own particulars, as well

The following was written by Le Fanu with my own particulars added in:

1. Le Fanu and I shall commit to the Dodal tarot. This will not be a "one card per day" type of study but rather, an analysis of cards in groups of three --sometimes more-- We plan to think about Enrique Enriquez' "Eye Rhythms", seeking out connections between cards; lines, similarities, echoes, symmetry. Studying what Enrique Enriquez refers to to as tarot's "Optical Language". Works by others such as Jordorowsky and Calvino may also be discussed as well as any other bit of research Le Fanu and I uncover as we proceed.

The idea is to allow the beautiful Dodal to inspire us to think outside the box.

2. We will do what we plan to call "Scientific" spreads (exercises in how to read the interaction between cards) and then more "Personal" spreads which will be based around questions and issues. The former will be an opportunity to think freely about the cards, the latter will be trying to make it relevant.
There will be two Scientific Spreads per week and one Personal Reading per week; I will read for Le Fanu, then he will read for me. We will study these spreads both personally, and objectively.

3. Spreads will be scanned/photographs posted. I will also scan and post excerpts from my hand written journal.

4. I will also draw/sketch my ideas based on the cards in a spread. This method sometimes brings one closer to an image as it isolates important details and forces one to slow down when observing an object

I believe this sums up the initial plan. We hope to grow as students and to understand more deeply the images of this particular Marseilles Tarot

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OK.. after a couple of days of work, parties and general hedonism, I'm back and focused. Herzog & I agreed on the above pledge.

I just wanted to add;

Le Fanu said:

Yes, we shall study provisionally, initially, until Christmas. More if we feel like it.

However, I shall still have my 15 or so decks by the bed which I happily flick through much as one would flick through magazines. I shall not be locking everything away. The collector in me shall continue to buy decks, but I don't see that as posing a threat. I regularly receive decks and continue happily with my few favourite decks. I don't see any new decks destabilising my desire to learn how to read Marseilles decks effectively (if indeed I do learn this) It is really an opportunity to think of ways of reading a Marseilles deck. The IDS focus is the Dodal, but it is ways of reading a certain type of tarot.

It won't be a card by card, *1-78* type of study. As Herzog mentioned, we plan to think about Enrique Enriquez' "Eye Rhythms", seeking out connections between cards; lines, similarities, echoes, symmetry. We will do small, three card spreads, and two types of spread; what we plan to call "Scientific" spreads (just exercises in how to read the interaction between cards) and then more "Personal" spreads which will be based around questions and issues. The former will be an opportunity to think freely about the cards, the latter will be trying to make it relevant. There will be two Scientific Spreads per week and one Personal Reading per week (me reading for you one week, then you reading for me the next). Spreads will be scanned/photographs posted.

If life gets in the way, I shalln't be castigating myself, I'll just do what I can to get back into the swing. Life is a bit hectic right now but I'm hoping it wil settle down v soon!

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What I would like to know from zan is; where can we post our "Scientific Spreads"? It isn't going to be a study group type of program. I wondered if Moonbow* & Bea would mind if we started a thread in the Historical Forum, something along the lines of "Herzog & Fanu's experiments with Eye Rhythms in the Dodal" much as people - like yourself -had those individual Thoth threads about your own personal Thoth studies in the Thoth forum?

Should I write and ask kindly to Moonbow* and Bea? Really unsure about where to put these...

I'm starting to wonder if my VicRom and I should be doing a PDR together instead.

I just can't get a handle on the study, the "academics" side of it, if you will. I don't think learning about the Victorian era is going to add to my depth of understanding of this deck, and other than reading Karen's awesome companion book a half dozen times, I'm not sure where else to go with this.

Maybe I should allow some time to get into 21 Ways, but I'm really not sure about it for these purposes, either.

Help?

Flaxen said:

Vision Quest is a beautiful deck. I think a study of plants and animals is a good way to go with this deck. Some of the images make me think of South Western or Mexican tribes - that might be worth looking into.
Also the minors are quite Thothy so if you feel that way inclined, you can read up on those attributions.

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Thanks for your tips.
I was thinking that too about the tribes. I will look into that as well.
I am definatly wanting to look into Thoth but I cannot buy any books right now so I am trying to piece together information that I find here and in other places on the net. I feel a little overwhelmed cause everything that I am finding is RWS based...
The search continues...

OctoberGwen said:

I'm starting to wonder if my VicRom and I should be doing a PDR together instead.

I just can't get a handle on the study, the "academics" side of it, if you will. I don't think learning about the Victorian era is going to add to my depth of understanding of this deck, and other than reading Karen's awesome companion book a half dozen times, I'm not sure where else to go with this.

Maybe I should allow some time to get into 21 Ways, but I'm really not sure about it for these purposes, either.

Help?

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What fascinates me about this deck, is the similarities/differences with RWS and how they give subtly different interpretations. Could this be an area for you to explore? I don't think the study needs to be academic - it can be of symbols, plants, trees etc. As you have the book, see what you can find out about the characters from the original images- some of them look like mythical themes.

An exploration of attitudes at the time to certain characters could be interesting. For example, the Fool is a circus performer- how would he have been viewed in Victorian times? Does that add to your interpretation?

Just some thoughts.

OctoberGwen said:

I'm starting to wonder if my VicRom and I should be doing a PDR together instead.

I just can't get a handle on the study, the "academics" side of it, if you will. I don't think learning about the Victorian era is going to add to my depth of understanding of this deck, and other than reading Karen's awesome companion book a half dozen times, I'm not sure where else to go with this.

Maybe I should allow some time to get into 21 Ways, but I'm really not sure about it for these purposes, either.

Help?

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looking at the pictures compositionally is more useful. I don't think history will help much. What strikes me about the VR is how it gets certain 19th century themes and incorporates them. You have the exoticism of Empire (Emperor), weepy "chocolate box" sentimentality (5 of Swords, 3 of Swords, the Ace of Cups), the threatening sexual female (High Priestess), and many other themes which are common in Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite artwork. I think you could try to put them into categories. Which are more sensual, which are more sentimental, which draw upon the "Exotic", the mythological, the allegorical. there are many different themes in there...

Le Fanu said:

What I would like to know from zan is; where can we post our "Scientific Spreads"? It isn't going to be a study group type of program. I wondered if Moonbow* & Bea would mind if we started a thread in the Historical Forum, something along the lines of "Herzog & Fanu's experiments with Eye Rhythms in the Dodal" much as people - like yourself -had those individual Thoth threads about your own personal Thoth studies in the Thoth forum?

Should I write and ask kindly to Moonbow* and Bea? Really unsure about where to put these...

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That sounds good to me. I'm fairly certain that Bee and Moonbow will be thrilled to have you Just send them a quick PM and you'll be off and running. (Off and posting? )

Removed

zan_chan said:

That sounds good to me. I'm fairly certain that Bee and Moonbow will be thrilled to have you Just send them a quick PM and you'll be off and running. (Off and posting? )

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Done!

We're off and running and posting or shuffling or whatever...

Okay, I've been thinking about it for a couple of days and I think I'll join in with my Deviant Moon.

Here are my rules:

- this will go until December 31st, at which point I'd like to do a big New Year's reading for myself.

- I'll use the DM exclusively for any readings that may pop up.

- I'll keep it close at hand in my bedroom, though I don't plan on carrying it around all day since I'd rarely get to use it anyway (and for me, tarot is really more an "at-home" thing).

- I'll use it for any writing projects for which I might want to work with tarot - in particular NaNoWriMo is coming up soon and I think I've been convinced to jump in to that with both feet.

- I'll finish off my work with 21 Ways, which is just about halfway done, apprentice steps only. I'd like to do the adept ones too if I have time.

- I won't do daily draws or individual card studies, because I feel that will become a chore more than anything else, but I will look at the deck as a whole, work through it suit by suit, think about elemental associations, the coloured borders that link majors to minors, recurring symbols, what the halved faces (light and dark) might mean in the context of a given card, spend some time in the Deviant Moon universe and see how it all fits together (all of which I'll chronicle in my dedicated tarot notebook)

- I really like Le Fanu's and Herzog's idea of Scientific Spreads, and may do something similar - spreads not meant to be a reading but a "case study" as it were of how the cards interact and play off each other.

- I have no particular qualms with touching other decks or looking through them, but I won't use them for reading. Most of them are packed away at my parents' house anyway in anticipation of my trip next year, and the ones that I do have with me hang out on my bookshelf and I anticipate most of them will stay there for the duration.

- likewise I'll put no restrictions on buying decks, but as it stands now I have no plans to buy anything for the next little while. I'm sure I'll be given some for Christmas but I'll stick it out until New Year's Eve!

- I'll make an effort to read and perhaps participate in the Study Group for the Deviant Moon.

- I'll do something to pimp the deck and make it mine, either trimming it or gilding the edges, or both!

If I think of anything I'll add it. That seems like a lot of bullet points for an IDS that I thought would be sort of lax!

I'm excited. Like I said in my other post, I've been reading the IDS threads with much interest and longing for awhile now, I can't believe it's taken me this long to dive in.