Richard
I don't want to derail the thread, but I have a question relating to the discussion. What exactly are the "RWS meanings?" Whatever they are, I don't think I ever use them, not even with RWS.
I was (and am) more drawn to the TdM than to the classic RWS deck. However, when I started learning Tarot, most of the good books I found were pure RWS, so I studied those, and eventually came to appreciate Smith's deck.
Eventually, I found some good Marseilles books, so I have ended up making up my own mishmash, particularly for the minors.
I choose decks depending on my mood, so it depends. Sometimes it's RWS, sometimes it's TdM, and sometimes it's Thoth.
Do you have any Marseilles books you'd recommend?
Do you have any Marseilles books you'd recommend?
And were you can see that a woman will need surgery on her shoulder? Thats very impresiveThe RWS was my only reading deck for years.. years..years. All the other decks I got that I would read with were RWS based as well. I collected all types of decks including a sizable collection of Il Meneghello historical decks. These decks in their hand made boxes with supple matt card stock were decks I handled but never read with, yet they had a draw for me. It's not that I found the art particularly evocative or firing the imagination but rather drawn to the history of the deck.
I began to research how people use the deck on here and in the meager number of books published in English. They grew on me more and more. I began to experiment with them reading for friends and soon get very comfortable with them. It took about a year of solidly working with different styles to find the one that worked for me but now it's my go to style for predictive readings. The TdM is a very down to earth type deck to read with. It had to be. People didn't want to hear about their 'soul path' or be told to 'embrace your inner Queen of Swords" they wanted to know real life answers and that is what this deck gives me.
I gave a class on how to read with it and a lady there asked to be given a demonstration by seeing how her health was going to go. Without her saying anything I told her she was going to need to have a surgery in her shoulders or abdomen and that while it looks as if she has gotten two different opinions she felt more comfortable with the first so she should look into that more. She was floored (as was I to tell the truth) at how dead on it was. I do carry my RWS with me for people that want that style of reading but I'm a TdM man all the way now
When I read for clients I have a few different decks on the table for them to choose from: an ancient Italian style, a Marseilles, a Thothian style, a RWS clone and one other. I have the same Major Arcana card visible on all of them. The client is asked to choose which image they like the best, then I work with that deck.For those using both systems at the same time, why you choose one deck or another? Depending on your mood?
Excellent. Now you've worked with both, get yourself a Thoth-style deck and an Ancient Italian deck and familiarise yourself with those as well.So many questions, but I started with TdM and I never got any RwS deck in this time.
Thank you!!!