spiral tarot symbols

Hope I've posted this in the right place. At long long last, my spiral tarot has arrived! I do seem to have a better understanding these cards and their meanings than most of my other decks *recently I've lost all comprehension of tarot in general, but "we" clicked* I can see there are obvious planetary symbols, astrological symbols etc but what on earth are the Hebrew symbols?? I feel they are important to the cards meanings (?) and I've searched the net for qaballah (sp?) meanings etc but its all very very lost on me lol. Ideas/advice/suggestions HUGELY appreciated! Blessed be! Nyx

I got mine second-hand - the LWB doesn't help?

A word about combining systems. Tarot is a system. Jewish mysticism is a system. Astrology is a system. Disembowelling your neighbour's annoying dog and reading its innards is a system.

Plenty of decks have symbols that are *suggestions* of correspondences with other systems, but they are not compulsory, and a good Tarot deck works as Tarot-only.

The Spiral certainly does.

Get to know it as pure Tarot - then maybe, through reverse-engineering it might tell you what you want to know about other correspondences on the cards.

Yeah, just because the deck includes the extra stuff doesn't mean you have to use the extra stuff. I didn't realize that for the longest time so I've always had trouble with the added stuff on decks that have it. Just use it as a straight Tarot, like nisaba says, and then later on if you want to learn the other stuff you can but it's not necessary.

I have the Spiral Tarot too, and I love it (I love all Kay Steventon artwork), even though it can be complex.

I would recommend the book that comes with it especially if you are not familiar with Kabbalah and Hebrew letters as I am not. Each major also has a deity/myth that goes with the card.

I find knowing the myths behind the cards helpful. I can never remember the meanings of the other symbols apart from astrological without looking at the book. I do agree with Nisaba & Grizabella that you would be able to read it fine just as a straight deck, and learning all the extras later if you choose too

all your advice

Thank you all for all your advice! : ) I have only had the time to have 2 goes with it. I'm finding it so so so much easier to really understand tarot in general with these cards they truly speak to me, its like an *AHA! NOW I GET IT!* moment. Love them! Now all my mini people are all at school full time I think I should be able to devote some Time to tarot now, after 6 weeks of conversations with children and a hefty nickelodeon overdose my brain and intuition can now recover lol. May even attempt a few exchanges! *feeling brave lol* thank you all so much, blessed be! Nyx

I really like this deck to, I have the book but not had the chance to read it yet so I am just using this as a Tarot deck and using what i do understand but I agree this deck is quite clear in its meanings which is great for me as a novice!