Penthasilia, you are really make me curious about the Grimoire! I had the Necronomicon tarot and that was a miss, since it was less Lovecraftian and more Tyson, but the Grimoire sounds intriguing. I shall not investigate until I've renewed my deck budget, however.
Just a tip on Navigators, I do love that deck, but the majors are a bit too much to take in some times. Try a daily draw from just minors and courts a week though! It is a way to ease into the special Julia Turk universe.
This is why I tossed the large book for the time being! Doing a simple reading and being faced with three pages of information about the symbolism on the card was...well. I had no doubt about Turk's intelligence and artistic talent, but it was a bit much. The LWB has all the salient divinatory information anyway, which is excellent design.
On the usage front, I admit I've been feeling a little stale about the deck, although I did have a lovely experience reading for Chiska in the exchange thread. I think I can chalk that up to the fact that I've been reading with oracles more than tarot recently! Oracle decks, I find, are more personal, and have more personality -- they're very much designed to feel like meeting a friend for coffee instead of going to a fortune teller or a business meeting, which is what tarot feels like to me. Very
serious. And I'm over here in the corner going very meekly, "But I just want to play!" The Navigators wants none of it.
I think I may need to do some fictional readings to loosen her up. Does anyone have tips for playing with a deck, as opposed to strictly reading with one?