Fantastical creatures - looking good!

It does look gorgeous, but I would find it hard to read with. Not enough symbolism, in my opinion...

Wondering how people are getting on with this deck.

I got mine about a week ago and I love the artwork. I am also delighted with the wide variety of unique and fascinating creatures that have been assembled for this deck.

It's definitely not a "read out of the box" deck though. The companion LWB does not give nearly enough information on the myths and folklore surrounding the figures represented. This deck would benefit from a companion book.

My biggest quibble with the deck is that the divinatory meanings suggested in the LWB are often completely illogical and do not correlate at all with the descriptions of the fantastical creatures. It's almost as if RWS meanings were just tagged on. I think this would really frustrate a beginner. I don't mind that the meanings vary with traditional Tarot symbolism; I think it's good to stretch our conception of Tarot "archetypes." But I do find that the discrepancy between the mythical being that is depicted and the ascribed meaning is frustrating and misleading.

The first card, for example, is the Amphisbaena. It is a serpent with a head on each end. Quoted from the LWB, "According to Greek legend, the Amphisbaena can move in the direction of either head, if the two halves hold onto each other, forming a circle, which enables it to roll. The two heads are capable of acting independently, although they often think and work together, as if as one mind." It then goes on to talk about the card being reminiscent of the Fool's inability to make decisions, without taking the time to assimilate all the necessary information to make a wise choice. Suggested divinatory meanings are things like indecision, unconventionality, and a leap of faith.

The idea of the Amphisbaena forming a circle makes me think of the number 0, the Fool's number. I can definitely see associations of coming full circle in a journey, sometimes ending up where we originally began. The suggested "leap of faith" meaning just didn't fit right with me given the creature chosen. Again, this is fine. But putting that in there because it's a traditional RWS way of looking at the card just really rubs me the wrong way.

I'm very attracted to this deck and I'd like to work with it enough so that I can read with it. I'm starting my IDS (Independent Deck Study) with the Fairytale this Wednesday for 3 months and I may at some point do something similar with this deck.

For those of you that have it, how do you read with it? Do you keep RWS meanings in mind? Are you learning about the mythical creatures and then creating your own contexts and meanings based on their stories and folklore?
I think that would be my approach. I might keep RWS in the back of my mind but I think it's a deck where you could definitely stretch your imagination to find some new ways to look at traditional Tarot symbolism.

Also, I dearly love Lisa Hunt's decks. With all of them though, I find them a bit nebulous and difficult to pin down and connect with everyday life and questions. Are they only useful for more spiritual type questions?

I think one of my own personal goals with this deck would be to find ways of making the associations and meanings more practical. I think it's a treatment that many of her decks could benefit from and I think we might see them used more frequently.

Of all of the companion materials for her work, I prefer the book she wrote herself, with Animals Divine.

Okay, before I go off on a tangent, I'd like to hear some other thoughts on Fantastical Creatures.

Just started using this one. I'm afraid the LWB seems to be on crack, but I love the descriptions of the creatures.

But if I dont like the description of the creature, I find the rws meaning to be more true for that card, like the Tengu.

I think I might just throw out the RWS idea in my head and treat it like a wonderful oracle.

I'm loving single card draws, where I can just sink into the card and it's amazing artwork. It's like of like getting a personal consult with whoever is on the card.

Doing spreads gets so complicated fast though. Way too much visual overload for me.

What do You All Think?

I am considering buying this deck finally & have read through this thread & am wondering how everyone has found the deck so far to read with....While I love Animals Divine I have never really been able to read with it....I just love the art in FC so much its absolutely stunning...
What does everyone think now its been out for a while??

MM

I find the Animals Divine is far more logical as a Tarot deck than this one. I think that it may be because for the AD Lisa did both artwork and deck design/ LWB... it makes more sense than this collaboration.

I love the artwork, but as has already been said it is difficult to reconcile the chosen creatures with the card in the way suggested by the LWB. Get it for the pictures if you can accept that you may have to use it as an oracle rather than a Tarot.

I find it most useful for one card draws as sleepingcat says above.

If you want a Tarot deck then there may be decks you want ahead of this one.....

Aerin

Aerin said:

I love the artwork, but as has already been said it is difficult to reconcile the chosen creatures with the card in the way suggested by the LWB. Get it for the pictures if you can accept that you may have to use it as an oracle rather than a Tarot.

Click to expand...

To be honest I have always loved Lisa's artwork and gotten her decks because of it, but have never really been able to use them until I changed my way of thinking recently. I will use the Celtic Dragon (CD) as an example, as the lessons I recently learned with it are what gave me my breakthrough in being able to use Lisa's decks and is what I am going to apply to the Fantastical Creatures (FC).

I tried doing the 78 Weeks with the CD, in part of that work I was comparing it to the RWS, and I was also using the companion book to the CD and 78 Degrees of Wisdom. Bottom line is that after about 25 cards I was ready to toss the deck out and burn the book. I vowed never to touch the thing other than to look through it when I was wanting to see pretty dragons. In the meantime I have been working with the book 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card for over a year now (with a non Lisa Hunt deck), and the other day out of the blue I offered a friend of mine a reading with the CD and I opted to apply some of the steps I had learned to see what would come of the reading.

Surprise, surprise, surprise. I was right about the book, it is useless to me. But when I looked at the color symbolism, number symbolism, suit and element symbolism, and the illustrations on the images themselves and quit trying to compare the deck to the RWS I was able to read beautifully with the deck. The meanings in all honesty did not come out all that differently from those of the RWS but they had their own tone, mode of expression, and often new insights into the meaning of the cards.

Over the last couple of days I have been just playing with the Fantastical Creatures deck. Doing non tarot related exercises just enjoying the art and the colors, etc. I honestly think that I might have a very similar experience with it as I did with the Celtic Dragon which I so malaigned last year. What I intend to do is find out more about the creatures, and look at number, color, other symbols I can see in the cards, and the artwork in general and go from there. I have a hunch that I will find this deck to be more tarot than oracle as I found with the Celtic Dragon.

Just thought I would share.

this deck is very cute. i think i will add it to my tarot wishlist!