One Deck Wonder - how are we doing?

[Little Baron]

Thanks Sulis and Emily. I am happy to be here. And was never really happy to leave. I wanted to use just the one deck, as I explained in another thread, but as much as I love the look of the Buddha Tarot, it had a flatness in it that I found hard to get anything out of sometimes. So I am back with the good old RWCS deck and I don't see myself changing. I was bought Titania's Star Tarot over Christmas. I do like the courts and majors but I don't see it as a valid temptation over the Rider Waite. I feel that I have strayed from this journey for long enough now and need to get back on track. I will let you know how things go. I am really hoping that I will be able to see some difference in my readings over the next couple of months.

Best, LB

 

[Umbrae]

What I'd like to ask each of you that began this journey (especially you Elf), is…

How have your readings changed as a result of using one deck?

How has your confidence changed as a result of using one deck?

How has your belief and grasp of Tarot itself changed as a result of using one deck?

 

[Emily]

What I'd like to ask each of you that began this journey (especially you Elf), is…

How have your readings changed as a result of using one deck?

How has your confidence changed as a result of using one deck?

How has your belief and grasp of Tarot itself changed as a result of using one deck?

Hi Umbrae,
My readings have changed because now I'm learning how to read intuitively, I've never done this before but using the Old Path day in day out its easy just to take a card and pick certain images and focus on them which is something I've never done. Before I used to try so hard to interpret cards that sometimes I was missing the wood for the trees. Now its not often that I get a card that I can't see something that relates to the question that has been asked.

I think I'm a little more confident now, I can see patterns in the cards better and follow on instead of just basing my reading on the cards separately. Now I seem to be able to link a reading together. Also I've started to join study groups and do alot more readings on here in these groups. I still don't read face to face but I still don't want to do that yet.

I don't think my belief of tarot has changed, I still use them for guidance and for a lot of self readings, although the readings I do on here in the study groups has been amazing and alot of fun. I think I understand my cards now, the Old Path is an interesting deck anyway and its all a constant learning curve, it always seems to offer something new.

I still read alot of tarot books, including the book to the Old Path but now I don't always agree on what I read - if its interesting information I take it on board but if its not then I just forget it. My journal is turning into my own book anyway, I have things wrote in there that haven't come from any book but they might not fit with how other people would view a particular card.

This is a journey that I'm very glad I started - it has taken the uncertainty out of reading, if I go away for the weekend all I pack is my deck and a notebook, plus tarotbag and spread cloth lol before it would have been a least 3 or 4 decks and a mix of books - I feel liberated now.

 

[inanna_tarot]

Confessions of a 'two deck wonder'...

I started of the journey thinking that it would be the Thoth that I would really connect and sing with. Maybe because of its thinking-weight, I thought oh I could spend forever learning about its symbols and colours etc. learn about the connections astrologically. Typical Air sign thinking with my brain! Although I realised what Umbrae was getting at at the beginning of this exercise I guess I had to really learn it for myself.
In October I lost the death card from my Druidcraft and took a while in replacing it so I took it as a sign to spend time solely with the Thoth. The loss of that card was significant in many ways, but it gave me that time to work with the thoth and admit I had completely gone off the rails with the point of the exercise.
So in november I got back the death card, and worked solely with the DC. Its been a fantastic learning opportunity and I thank you all, esp Umbrae and Elf for putting the thought out there and reaching me. Its been a fabulous journey, and one I'm happy to continue for 78 weeks.

My readings havent changed in essense, but my confidence has definately changed. Because I am finally dimming down the mental process in reading, I can be more intuitive, letting the images speak to me. I remember reading in a book that when you turn a card see which symbol your eyes are drawn to first... and thats something I have relearnt and focused on. I feel more able to go out on a limb and suggest my intuitive thoughts, not thinking ' oh it cant be that, because that card or this one will be there'. The mental process was really affecting my reading and I didnt realise that till I was so relieved that I could use my druidcraft again and keep my thoth on the shelf.

I'm confident to mention my intuitive thoughts, but I'm more confident in feeling happy with using the DC. I know a lot readers like to use decks for certain questions, and I think thats been a concern in the back of my mind, wondering which decks go with each question, finding the 'right' deck for the type of reading. Again its that mental process going crazy. However now with the DC i feel I've really put the time in, that I'm not a 'fraud' in trying to read this deck for others. I've done my homework and reading and willing to read!

Belief in what way?
Well I'm going to take it about how I saw the whole concept of the system. I'm a little bit fanatical about what I call 'universal concepts', things that have happened, ideas, practices etc that apply to every human culture and society. Tarot for me has been part of that - theres nothing in that tarot that we havent experienced, that humanity hasnt realised the importance of that experience etc. Now I can focus on the bigger picture of the archetype than just wondering on the interpretation of the card. I'm not sure if i've explained that very well lol.

As far as being a collector, that will never end! However I dont want to collect to read with every deck. Its not important to me anymore. I love the artwork of my decks, but more importantly I love how learning about them, their thoughts and ideas on the 78 cards will help me with my reading, offer new ideas and perspectives to add to my DC images - an interdependent collection hehe.

Thanks again for this fabulous opportunity. Its really opened my eyes to how much I have yet to learn and that warms my heart!
Sezo
x

 

[Jewel-ry]

I have fallen off the wagon!!

I did do more than 3 months in the end and the IIT is still out but I am also playing with a couple of oracles and a couple of other decks too!

I had found myself not partaking in so many threads because I didn't feel like I 'belonged' any more and I missed everybody so I am now spreading my wings a little...just a little

 

[Satori]

Well, I've put off responding to this thread for a while, but I'm ready to post so, big breath, here goes.

There are so many levels to what my experience was like with the IIT.
So many layers of experience that surfaced and still unfold even now.

I used the IIT exclusively for about 31/2-4months.
The biggest thing that I noticed was the rich meanings that seemed to pop up even tho the cards are sparse.
So something was being engaged even tho I was not being bombarded by imagery.
The IIT relies on color and form, and the hint of a thing was enough to represent the thing and then some.

What I mean is that, my mind/intuition was more than willing to insert additional nuances to the suggestion being made by the card.

I'm not a reader that ever found that particular leap difficult in the first place, but once you are not being spoon fed every possible symbol, color, flower, persona, archtype then your own symbol set kicks in.
And you welcome and embrace the information that you co-created.

From the IIT I've moved on to Tarot of the Secret Forest!
I"ve used it exclusively for a month and recently read with the Wheel of Change too.

What I found is that my taste in decks seems to have changed!
I still love my decks, but I have had no desire to pack up my Tarot case with multiple decks and oracles....I tote around the Secret Forest and the IIT.

(The Wheel of Change is another favorite and reads well for me and continues to do so. But ever since the cat lit on fire while using it I've retired it for a time as well.)

Believe it or not I think that Secret Forest shares a lot with the IIT.
There is a simplicity to each card that is sheer poetry when reading. It seems to offer up totally new ways of looking at life thru such a primal lens, and I love that it all occurs in the leaves and the mud and in the tiniest details of the forest.

So, I'm limiting my Tarot use to one or two decks, and I still rely on the IIT to teach me about the quiet places of my mind.

Many thanks to all of you who participated, but especially to Lark and Umbrae for starting me on this journey.

 

[bleuivy]

Thought it was high time I posted here, seeing as I've been back on AT a week and all.

Participating in this One Deck Wonder study group has been one of the best things I could have done right now for my tarot reading. Before I started, my reading had hit a wall because I kept flirting with one deck for a week or two, and then moving on to another deck. I never really had time to get comfortable with a single deck’s imagery and was thus constantly at least somewhat confused.

I started out with the Radiant Rider Waite and the Camoin Marseilles. I trimmed the white borders off the RRW and promptly started having fun exploring the images I already knew. As for the Camoin, I had never studied a Marseilles in depth before, and I was getting all good and excited to make that my main study deck for the remainder of this little exercise. (You should read my journal entries from the first week and a half of this study. They are glowing - glowing! - in praise of the Marseilles.) And then. I lost the deck. By which I mean it is misplaced somewhere in my house and still cannot find it. I have never ever ever lost a deck before, so I took this as a big sign in glowing letters that I should focus on getting truly comfortable with the imagery I already knew and devote myself to learning the Marseilles later. I assume some day I will come across the Camoin sitting someplace that I’ve looked a million times before. But I digress.

So I devoted myself to spending lots of quality time with the RRW. I was having health problems in the form of migraines which made it uncomfortable to look at a computer screen or watch TV or do any of the things that usually distracted me from doing other things such as reading the cards. So I had to go away from AT for a while and read for people in person. My lovely trimmed RRW came everywhere with me; the poor thing is horribly beat up considering the short amount of time I’ve had it. I got out of my reading comfort zone and started reading for friends in coffee shops, at their houses, in bars, etc, rather than sitting alone in my room or in front of a computer. I only actively missed a couple of decks, and only just at first.

After the first 78 days were over, I started thinking about switching to the International Icon Tarot. (I had always planned to switch at some point, the question was when.) So, I packed away my beat up, but very much loved and now much missed RRW, and have now been using the IIT for a little over a month. It’s been much fun.

I have learned so much from this exercise already, and I am constantly learning more. My readings have become much more focused, and my confidence has increased exponentially. My readings for my friends have occasionally become scary in their accuracy. I don’t think my belief in tarot has changed, but like others have said, it has taken the uncertainty out of reading. Also, it has been just such a liberating experience; I don’t need a million books and a couple of decks to understand what the tarot is trying to tell me. Like elf, my taste in decks has changed as well, which is good for my wallet because I find that my wish list includes far fewer decks than it did.

Overall, I’m thinking I’m going to keep right on trucking through until Halloween, and be a full year long One Deck Wonder.

How is everyone else doing?