missy
The Royo Dead Moon I-Ching deck feels, above all else, like something decorative for those who crave more flourishes to boring old hexagrams, those who are "predominantly" visual in their divination but fancy a change from tarot cards. The thing is, it's not really I-Ching. It feels like a calendar. In fact, I think it might actually be a calendar. I guess it's supposed to be intuitive. I remember it has lots of naked torsos and sensuousness
The Holitza is a lovely deck. And so simple to use (you draw two cards and the different lines are the moving lines). I like the pen and ink swishes. It feels oriental but not fake.
The Royo deck feels a bit teenagery in comparison...
I own the Holitzka, two copies, and have used the Dead Moon, owned by someone else. To me the Dead Moon is just pretty pictures, very little relationship to the I Ching. While the Holitzka image (of course) doesn't interpret the whole range of the hexagram, it does give a very good interpretation, in my view. Also I love the delicacy of the brush strokes, very fitting.
Thanks for both of your comparisons of the two decks! Le Fanu, I had to laugh at the "bit teenagery" part.
And "It feels like a calendar. In fact, I think it might actually be a calendar."
Alta, your description of the Dead Moon as "pretty pictures" and Le Fanu's as "something decorative" in combination with all of the nice things that have been written about the Holitzka here and in the other Holitzka thread has me thinking the Holitzka is the one I would go for first. Plus, you stated it had "very little relationship" to the I Ching. While I am not studying the I Ching and I do not mind intuitive reading, since it is an I Ching deck, some relationship would be nice!