De-Enabling Thread

[inanna_tarot]

the wildwood

Well the it's all very wildernessy and earthy and all that, but good luck reading with it - they symbolism is really pretty shallow and jumbled, and unless you're heavily into animal totems I don't think you'll connect. It's all a bit obvious.

The figures have an exaggerated feel - like, the're good, anatomically correct and all that - but the poses are slightly over the top. The archer is putting EVERYTHING into drawing that bow. I get tired just looking at them. There's no subtlety.

I don't think there's anything here that you won't get - with more subtlety and layers of meaning - from another deck.

Hmmm yeah, I can see what you mean about the lacking in subtlety. I've heard people say this deck is very 'masculine' as in direct, to the point, no room for depth and exploration

Just HOW much do you like Robin Hood ?

LOL. Are there lots of men in TIGHT tights? LOL

If its anything like the recent robin hood tv stuff on the beeb, then not a lot LOL.(although I do like Merlin, but please please DONT make a cheesey tarot deck based on that anyone).

...erm ... several cards, whilst depicting fascinating pagan imagery, are typical of WW's artwork in their rather disproportionate female & child figures.

Erm ... otherwise, all I can otherwise think of is that I'm put off quite a few cards by their very cartoonish nature, which I find facile & ugly, detracting from the wonderful subject-matter & associations

The scans have seemed very cartoonish and I am not into LoS at all!!! So cartoon is no good for me!!
I never noticed the disproportionate thing that lots of people noticed in the Druidcraft, but it did bother me more in the Druid Plant Oracle in that often the plants were MASSIVE in proportion to the backgrounds. Monster-Herbs-of-the-Ancient-Druid Oracle i should have been called.

Any more thoughts to not get it?

And Im really not sure about the whole Wheel of the Year thing. Its been tried and done so many times in tarot decks and failed miserably IMO.
And Im really not liking how they have tried to seperate the Hanged Man into 2 cards.... The Hanged Man is a cool card!!

 

[inanna_tarot]

Oh and just listened to a podcast with Mark Ryan on, who spent probably 50 mins talking about Robin Hood and various stories, and 10 mins talking about the creation of the concept and the 'follow up' to the Greenwood and a tiny tiny bit about what the deck is like.

Meh. Robin flipping Hood.

 

[Cat*]

Housewives, Wildwood

[Gaian]... And new agey in a bad way. The sort of way that makes you feel you would actually like to become a very traditional old-agey Benedictine monk. And I say that as a girl, so that IS bad.

I know this is an old quote but I haven't been here for a while. Thanks for the very literal LOL!

Also I guess I should be spending more time in trendy dance clubs as per Kissa's autodeenabling attempt. Well, I *did* just complete a master class in burlesque dance and got offered a paying gig, does that count? (And there's some bonus de-enabling. The creator of the Silicon Dawn Tarot is now busying herself taking her clothes off for money. Do you really want to have your fortune told by a glorified stripper?)

No fair, this is ENabling!

Housewives will just tick off all your feminist friends. Puleeze. All those flouncy dresses and women cooking. Keep 'em barefoot and pregnant and waiting in perfect housewifely bliss when their lord and masters come home.

Even worse. Your feminist friends will LOVE it, and will then have to find a way to justify that, which will lead to many discussions about irony and its use as a tool of political criticism - or as a way to avoid the uncomfortability of taking a stand. As a result, you'll read a lot less tarot in general because you'll be busy having said discussions.

I keep seeing this deck everywhere... like its calling me saying 'buy me'
but I just need a bit of help to keep it away from the shopping cart and the till in the bookshop...

so de-enablers, work your magic on me and the wildwood!

May I refer you to what I said elsewhere? For example here or here?

[Wizards] ...I don't know how anyone can actually SEE what is happening on the cards with the light saber battle going on in the borders. They are swirly and bright and so very annoying, I had to trim mine just to SEE the darned pictures.. Every time you draw a card you will be thinking "The force is strong with this one".

Another LOL - thank you! (Sometimes I wonder if my neighbors can hear me when I burst out laughing late at night, reading the De-enabling Thread...)

Oh and just listened to a podcast with Mark Ryan on, who spent probably 50 mins talking about Robin Hood and various stories, and 10 mins talking about the creation of the concept and the 'follow up' to the Greenwood and a tiny tiny bit about what the deck is like.

Another perfect example of a creator de-enabling their own deck. Although perhaps not quite as intentionally...

 

[Bhavana]

They're really not alike. The Piatnik Wien is on terrible cardstock, more like shirt-box cardboard.

well, this is a de-enabler if I ever heard one, as I am very anal about cardstock. Maybe not such a big deal for a deck I may just look at from time to time, but I like to use them too, and I find that this cardboardy cardstock gets creased and damaged very easily, even though I am really careful. And someone else just told me this deck is huge, hard to handle, impossible to shuffle if you have smaller hands.

 

[Bhavana]

Ah, Sakki Sakki. Looks fabulous until you see the cards with the people's heads chopped off. I kid you not. Their necks just stop. No head. It's hideous. Every time I see this deck I want it. Until I remember the poor decapitated ones. Apparently the artist thought they looked ok without heads. I'm sorry. I'm an artist too. Blank faces - ok. No eyes - ok. No lips - ok. But no HEAD??? No f-ing way!!! Run away now, because if you buy the deck you'll run away screaming!!!

haha! You know, I do remember the headless thing....but I thought it was only on one or two cards. After reading your post I went back to look at the cards again and saw that a good many of them are headless. Now I am intrigued. There must be a reason for this headlessness. The artist behind this deck is pretty friendly, I emailed her before about the decks she sells on Etsy. I am tempted to see if I can find out what the meaning of the chopped off (and missing) heads are.
Not sure if I am totally de-enabled yet, though. I have plenty of decks that are more twisted, what's a missing head or two? Or twenty?

 

[Pandora MoonRaven]

HHEEEELLLPPPP!!! I am usually pretty good at controlling myself but I have been feeling the odd urge to get the Law of Attraction Tarot. I saw it today and I like the colors but also something is giving me doubt. Come on tell me I should not buy such a paltry expensive deck.

 

[Asbestos Mango]

I could use some de-enabling on the Arcus Arcanum. I've looked at the scans, and found them really attractive, but when I searched for it on Amazon.com, the lowest price I could find on it was, like $29.99, and as a general rule, I won't spend more than twenty on a deck unless it comes with a companion book, which the AA doesn't seem to. Of course, I might if it's a helluva great looking deck... or a hard-to-find collector's item, in which case I would be tempted to put it on a shelf and never use it, in which case, what's the point of owning it-

but the scans looked so cool. I want it.

Please stop me.

 

[euripides]

Arcus Arcanum

I might if it's a helluva great looking deck...
.

Which it isn't. That deck has some of the worst figures I've seen. The artist has no idea how to do foreshortening so half of them look like their arms are too short. The coloring is frankly lazy. The images I've seen look like they were cut out of a cheap comic book.... on googling it I discover that he is, in fact, a comic book artist. I'm sure woefully underpaid as all artists are.... I feel terrible saying bad things about it. But realistically, this is a Tarot deck. If I'm spending time on a daily basis with a deck, I want it to be created with a bit more TLC than the images which are pumped out for mass-market consumption every week.

 

[nisaba]

HHEEEELLLPPPP!!! I am usually pretty good at controlling myself but I have been feeling the odd urge to get the Law of Attraction Tarot.

<grimly> It's evil. It's got magnets in it to draw you closer,, and barbed hooks in it so that you will never escape. Not until the Giant Fisherman of Tarot trings you up by the gills, cuts off your head and slits open your belly, anyway.

If you're not already trapped on the Paypal hook, swim away. Very fast.

 

[Debra]

....a comic book artist. I'm sure woefully underpaid as all artists are....

If I'm spending time on a daily basis with a deck, I want it to be created with a bit more TLC than the images which are pumped out for mass-market consumption every week.

Oh boy. This de-enables a whole bunch of decks and probably almost everything from the *cough cough ahem* publishing company.