Help me love my William Blake Tarot!

[Nemia]

I decided that I need help. I have wanted the Blake Tarot for years, I really love Blake and the concept of this deck seemed so wonderful. After I read Mary McGreer's article about it on her blog, I bought the deck. How long ago is that now? Two years?

I look at that deck from time to time. I love the art. I'm fascinated by the concept. I read the pdf about the deck.

I can't read with it, it doesn't speak to me. Not a single word.

Can anyone give me a hint? a key? How can I unlock this deck for me? I feel it's worth it. I bought it because its emphasis on creativity attracted me. There's something in this deck I really want to discover.

So, anyone here who can help me love this deck? Or are others frustrated like me...?

 

[decan]

I don’t know if you would like to listen what I am going to say to you…
Don’t try!!
If your intuition is blocked with this deck, it is blocked! Just to be aware of this!

You will appreciate it like a collection deck, for its art.
I have one Tarot like that, beautiful, but it doesn’t speak to me.

 

[knight_sephiroth]

I decided that I need help. I have wanted the Blake Tarot for years, I really love Blake and the concept of this deck seemed so wonderful. After I read Mary McGreer's article about it on her blog, I bought the deck. How long ago is that now? Two years?

I look at that deck from time to time. I love the art. I'm fascinated by the concept. I read the pdf about the deck.

I can't read with it, it doesn't speak to me. Not a single word.

Can anyone give me a hint? a key? How can I unlock this deck for me? I feel it's worth it. I bought it because its emphasis on creativity attracted me. There's something in this deck I really want to discover.

So, anyone here who can help me love this deck? Or are others frustrated like me...?

I have a similar lack of connection with my Feng Shui deck. Love the art, love the concept of tying Eastern spirituality to Tarot, but it just does not speak to me. I usually give the deck time, try an interview spread for it, try working with it, asking if it's ready to work with me. Eventually the ice breaks, but not with this deck.

I thought maybe I could give it time, try it off and on, to see if it resonates with me at a different point in my life. It still hasn't.

Then--I went to get the deck a couple of days ago to try again, and it's gone! LOL. I guess it finally packed its bags.

 

[Le Fanu]

I don't quite know what to say. I love the deck - absolutely love it, but don't read so much with it now.

Cumbersome systems are their own downfall, even though I keep saying "give me variations on the RWS". I think the whole "creative unblocking" theme of the Blake ("ideal for writers" etc) is a bit of a hurdle. I'm not a writer suffering from writer's block. I just want to do banal, everyday readings. I don't understand myself sometimes. This is exactly the sort of deck I think I want. The Majors read well, but the Courts are a bit too flighty, I think. The Achilles Heel of so many decks.

Too many mental transpositions are a problem - are the lyres Cups? Are the palettes Pentacles? - Is the Child court card the page?

Then you have a deck like the Ceccoli when it doesn't matter to me what the title is (I don't even look at them), the images just sing. With the Blake, I do tend to get bogged down with "oh god, Angel of Science", what is that?" If it was my only deck on a desert island, I'd remember but it isn't and each time I come back to it, I have to rememorise.

That's it, I think. Do I have any advice? Yes - mechanically memorise. That's been the only way I have used this deck. And I do love it.

 

[Nemia]

Thank you, all of you! I will give it another try, and I think I'll simply make a cheat sheet to take down that "what was this card?"barrier. LeFanu, that was very helpful.

And I'll print out the booklet.

I have a writer's block and I really wish this deck could help me un-plug my brain! I'll give it another try and if it doesn't work, then I'll move on and keep it for its artistic value - or let it go.

 

[rylla]

I decided that I need help. I have wanted the Blake Tarot for years, I really love Blake and the concept of this deck seemed so wonderful. After I read Mary McGreer's article about it on her blog, I bought the deck. How long ago is that now? Two years?

I look at that deck from time to time. I love the art. I'm fascinated by the concept. I read the pdf about the deck.

I can't read with it, it doesn't speak to me. Not a single word.

Can anyone give me a hint? a key? How can I unlock this deck for me? I feel it's worth it. I bought it because its emphasis on creativity attracted me. There's something in this deck I really want to discover.

So, anyone here who can help me love this deck? Or are others frustrated like me...?

Sorry, I can't help you. I have the exact same issue with this deck...

 

[rylla]

That's it, I think. Do I have any advice? Yes - mechanically memorise. That's been the only way I have used this deck. And I do love it.

Ok. I can do that. I did that with many decks. It's easy. Still this method doesn't work for me for practical reasons. I like to change decks a lot. So by the time this deck gets in my hands again a year or so is passed. It could be only me but I don't remember any more what I memorized So I'd have to spend some time again to refresh my memory in order to do one or two readings with it. It just doesn't worth the time. So this deck goes on my 'get rid of it' list

ETA sorry, this post is off topic. It doesn't help anyone getting used to read with this deck...I agree, mechanically memorising does help anybody who wants to use this deck for reading for a longer time...good luck Nemia! Hope you'll find a way to benefit from it.

 

[FaintlyMacabre]

I have this deck too and I think I had big ideas about getting inspired. I'm not sure it made it out of the box.

This says more about me than the deck but if I make it to going over the decks, which I certainly should, I will have to take a hard look at this one because I doubt I will ever invest the time required to use it.

I think that is the one with the Tarot Triumphs too.

 

[Nemia]

In a way it helps to know that this deck is a hard nut not only for myself! Thank you for your input everybody!