Why are you an IDS dropout?

[sapienza]

I've found that what I most love about tarot is learning it in a way which is totally unlike anything I have ever learnt in my life to date. I let my passion take me wherever it wants to take me. Once I start setting myself rules and obligations, and forced monogomy, the magic just evaporates. Sure I devote myself to a few decks (I probably appear frivolous by other standards), but I study in a different way. We all study in a different way. I rotate decks and for the short period of time I'm obsessed with a deck, I feel I'm scraping away another layer. Then I move on and the whole process starts again. I do this with approximately 10 or so decks, and alternate between Marseilles, RWS and Thoth and each time I'm with a deck, I feel that I will want to use this deck for the rest of my life and "what was I thinking of studying that other deck last week?" then I move on and the whole process starts again. But generally, my decks list is pretty defined now...

I do exactly the same as Le Fanu. I've always felt flighty and unfocused, but reading this post has made me realise that it's a perfectly ok way to learn and experience tarot. I've been doing it this way for about 12 years now and I certainly know more than I did back when I started, so it's obviously a method that can be just as useful as an IDS.

(Sorry, Im not an IDS dropout, so shouldn't really be responding, but I just wanted to put my 0.02-cents-worth in. Don't feel bad...)

Glad you posted, it's been just what I needed to hear.

 

[LotusSong]

I'm just really confused by this thread. First of all, no one says you have to do an IDS with just one deck. While a few of the most-frequent posters often talk about how important it is *for them* to use just one deck, that is not a rule. To quote the first post: "To join, all you have to do is post in this thread to say you're joining and let us know what deck(s) you'll be using." Looking at the front page it seems that six members are committed to two decks.

And, in an IDS, the pace is your own. You set all the commitments and limits. (Including "I will study until I feel I have learned enough" versus a set amount of time.) Your first commitment could be "I will do whatever it takes to help me self-soothe", and I highly doubt anyone would have had a problem with it. They'd most likely say things like, "Your feelings come before anything else" or "Do whatever you need to feel better!" In the end, you're still studying the same deck and learning.

I'm not saying you need or should come back. Not at all. If you feel relieved now that you have left, then good for you! You should do whatever makes you feel the most comfortable. I am just confused by your reasoning. You make it sound like the IDS is so structured, strict, and fast-paced. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding you...

 

[Wendywu]

I don't find my IDS restrictive, disciplined or as if it takes the magic away from my deck. I chose to study just one deck because I am a butterfly brain and if I don't consciously limit myself I find that I flit from one deck to the next, a few days here, a week there - and unlike Fanu I don't seem to glean much from that. I need to spend a solid length of time with a deck to get the best from it. But it's a choice Not a prison camp...... I love Ironwing and it's my joy to spend my days working just with her. I like looking at other decks and I know that one day I may well work with one or other of them. But for the time being, Ironwing is it.

The 78 week study is an entirely separate thing from the IDS group. And again, it's voluntary...... all we are doing is studying one card each week.... it's not onerous. Any other restrictions or choices made to accompany that study are again, entirely personal. A few of us are working the 78 weeks alongside our Intensive Deck Study - a purely personal choice and in no way expected. Some 78 weekers are working with multiple decks and doing card comparison studies, others are studying TdM, or RWS.

None of these forms of study impose conditions - one chooses the way in which one will work. If you feel restricted and stifled, or even oppressed by the conditions you have chosen that is not actually a problem associated with IDS per se......

 

[emmsma]

I did a PDS last year, but didn't last very long. I felt restricted. Felt I needed to post to a blog, because so many others were doing it. Thought I should be reading their blogs too. I didn't have the time for all that and it all became UN-FUN very quickly, so I stopped.

I am doing an IDS now, but don't feel there are too many rules. I do this because I want to be able to read with pips. The way I've been "doing tarot" thus far has not allowed this to happen. When I was at my most fervent deck hopping I found it very difficult to read. I found my self saying - often - well, I haven't been using this deck long, so I don't really understand them yet.

So anything I do now, its because I want to. I don't really worry about what others think about my methods. I'm doing my IDS and they do theirs.
And yes, sometimes the support thread gets heavy. Sometimes there are lots of posts that don't really mean much to me. Its ok. Its just folk sharing their experiences. Some - maybe all - of my posts don't interest others. Thats not really the point.

But hunter, it does sound like this study was not right for you just now. Leaving is not "dropping out" or a sign of failure. Its just a sign that this study was not right for you now.

I will miss your posts if you stop popping in, but I wish you the best with getting your meds straight and your sleep schedule back on track.

 

[zan_chan]

I entirely agree with Wendywu-- in fact, the depth to which the exclutivity of the IDS allows me to go with my deck gives, rather than takes away from, the sense of magic and wonder I get from it.

Hunter-- this isn't pointed towards you, but just in general-- I can't really understand the motives behind voluntarily joining a group which, simply by name, is meant to be intensive if you find the idea overly restrictive or counter to your most productive style of learning. Our awesome IDS organizer and thread leader thorhammer can correct me if I'm wrong, but I do think that exclusivity to one deck is a big part of what makes IDS IDS. If I've got the history correct, IDS is an offshoot of One Deck Wonder, a study whose whole purpose was exclusivity.

I believe that the reason there are currently two different study groups in the forms of IDS and PDR is so that IDS can be an exclusive, intensive study of one deck, while PDR allows you the freedom of working primarily with one deck while using others on the side.

None of this, meanwhile, is being forced on anyone. If it doesn't sound like something you'd be into, then there's no reason to join.

As Le Fanu said, if you aren't enjoying the process, what's the point?

 

[teomat]

Hunter, I entirely sympathise with you not wanting to continue your IDS. I've tried to do an IDS at least 3 times before, and have always dropped-out by the second or third week.

My current IDS is different, because I have a lot of problems in my life at the moment and my IDS is helping me to focus (or distract) my thoughts. It's now into it's fourth week, and this is the longest time I've ever been exclusive with one deck. I need this discipline in my life at the moment (and I agree with Zan's comments on exclusivity - working and studying with just one deck is what I signed up to do).

I can't say if it will make me a better reader, but it is filling a void for me. However if I didn't have these problems, I KNOW I will have abandoned my IDS a week ago.

Don't feel bad about not continuing. We all learn tarot in our own ways. For most of us it's a hobby we enjoy, but if you're not enjoying it, then change it to suit you so that you are.

 

[Majecot]

Sorry for the confusion. There is no such thing as an EDS I made that up as an IDS is supposed to be intensive, but often people expect it to be exclusive......


I wanted to post right away about the EDS though, as didn't want to cause any more confusion!

WOW! My brain was starting to hurt...IDS...EDS...Intensive Deck Study, Indiviual Deck Study, In-Depth Study....Interior Design Studio??? That's what I got when I Googled it.

I kinda had the general idea though, till I tried to figure out EDS...

I used to do 78 Weeks, way back in the day of beginings, which yes I know, not quite the same thing, but I also was involved in the Druidcraft study group, I think Faeries too if I remember right. Pretty intensely, but then work and life commitments got in the way of both. I sorta just fell off the wagon. I have been thinking of starting both up again, however... so many decks to choose from and I never seem to get past the Majors. Starting a new deck, new journal....

Pretty typical of me to flit from one to another.

 

[Carla]

I don't consider myself an IDS dropout, but I have done 2 readings with a non-IDS deck since I started my IDS. I'm still studying a card a day from my IDS deck and using it pretty much exclusively. To some that might make me a drop-out. I don't know. Look at it this way, if you never came back to AT, who would know or care how you're approaching your own cards? For that matter, who would know or care how you're interpreting them or using them in your own life? I personally have a tendency to get bogged down with doing things the 'right' way, and I think a big life lesson for me from tarot is that anything is okay. That is so huge for me.

 

[Alta]

To me this thread is like setting up a straw man and then knocking it down. The IDS group is nothing like what is being 'denounced', it is a group of people here who chose to study together. They have, in general, chosen one deck, sometimes two. There is no 'accountability' to the group, only to themselves.

This is starting to sound like one group bashing another group.

I am closing the thread.

Alta