Anyone reading with The Grail Tarot:ATV?

MareSaturni

I own two copies of this deck and it's one of my favorites. I love using it when reading for myself... I still need the book sometimes to fully understand the cards, but they always give me wonderful, profound readings!

When my readings get muddy and I cannot seem to get any insightful answers from other decks, I always go back to the Grail Tarot. And it has never failed me!

Personally, I love the images of the cards, and how they form a frieze when laid down side by side. It surprises me that sometimes two cards do not "connect" originally still seems to form a continuous image in a reading. And the book is very insightful without being mind-boggling, for which I'm thankful!

I also love the presence of the Gnostic Christ and Mary Magdalene in this deck, as they are both special entities to me.

I find it sad that this deck is so underrated!
 

littlethings

I got this for 7.95 (for the set) online at HamiltonBook, but I haven't had a chance to check it out yet. They still seem to have it in stock.
 

Myrrha

This is a really wonderful deck. I sometimes wish the book was a bit more in depth, sometimes it seems to allude to a character or mythological motif without explaining about it in much detail. Or it will say "working with" this character or bit of mythology can have such and such a result without saying what is meant by "working with" or how that might be done.

But I do love reading with the deck. It works more as an oracle for me in that I leave traditional tarot meanings aside when using it and go by the pictures and the author's description of what is going on in the cards.

Marina said:
Personally, I love the images of the cards, and how they form a frieze when laid down side by side. It surprises me that sometimes two cards do not "connect" originally still seems to form a continuous image in a reading.

I agree that is a great thing about this deck. A spread seems to make one big picture, even if the cards that are supposed to be together in the frieze aren't next to each other. Sometimes it looks like a comic strip where you see the same character in different panels interacting with different people and objects. It makes for very visual readings.

There is a wonderful layout in the book where both cards picked at random and cards you have consciously picked are interspersed in a sort of journey spread. Then you re-arrange them.

Highly recommended deck for readings that you are willing to put thought into.
 

nisaba

Morwenna said:
I finally bit the bullet and bought this deck yesterday.

I'm definitely looking forward to working with this. I'm enjoying reading about others' reactions.

I enjoy it. Currently it's one of my regular "public" decks, because a lot of Christian-oriented people find it very pleasing. Its borderlessness is a bit of a bother - it's hard to walk down a corridor into a card when the corridor is formed by a border that just isn't there - but the muted colours and artistic style very much in the style of post-Renaissance Christian iconography is well-executed and very pleasing.

The re-thinking and re-naming of the Majors are less so: I tend to have to read them as a non-Tarot oracle combined with a minors-only Tarot deck in order to make it work, but work it does.

I've been a fan of the Mathews's since the middle eighties, I think, where they were amongst the formative authors I read on my learning-process as I deepened my knowledge of modern Paganism before I got to meet any in the flesh, and I've had Caitlin's Da Vinci Enigma deck for a fair while, which I also like very much. It's nice to balance her input into my collection with something designed by her partner.

I reviewed it some time ago, here.
 

Parzival

Anyone Reading with the Grail Tarot ?

I still am very much impressed with this oracular tarot, full of mystery and magic. It does not parallel the Golden Dawn system of symbols -- Grail and Alchemy archetypes shape and form it. I like the mix of medieval settings with the universal journey of the human being from dark to light. Really original and full of healing, inspiring light. Borderless and boundless.
 

Myrrha

It is a collage deck but you notice that much less than with the Golden Tarot. A couple of the cards show the collage seams quite a bit, the ones with more computer graphics added. There were only one or two where I recognized figures from their source works, the illustrator seems to have used figures that were background figures in the source works or else from lesser known works. With the Golden Tarot it was jarring but not in this one.
 

Glitterbird

.traveller. said:
but if you don't treat it like a clone deck, it reads beautifully.

Good advice! I'll give it a try, when I get home.
 

Morwenna

Nisaba, I've been a fan of the Matthewses about as long as you have. I've never met them, more's the pity (they were supposed to be the next guests of honor at an esoteric conference that folded before their appearance was to be). I have several of their books, and I love the Hallowquest series. So after reading so many good reports about this Tarot I finally bought it. Being Christo-Pagan, Arthurian-oriented, and eagerly learning about the Templars over the last decade or so, I felt this deck would be right up my alley.

I haven't started the book yet, though I did go through all the cards, reveling in the images and in the panoramas. But that was Saturday; yesterday I wasn't home long enough to deal with it while I was still alert enough (late-evening computer time doesn't count! :D).
 

nisaba

Morwenna said:
Nisaba, I've been a fan of the Matthewses about as long as you have.
<delighted grin> That's reason enough to buy the deck just as a collection-piece, even if you end up not using it as a favourite. You just can't lose.