Inaugural Intensive Deck Study (IDS) Support Thread

WolfSpirit said:

Hey Alamaris that is great news

I understand you miss tarot, but tarot is patient, school is not. You know you are doing the right thing you can study tarot later at a more convenient time.

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Exactly my reasoning. Although homeschooling is pretty darn patient, since its self-directed using distance education...but still!

A quick interesting note; I always sleep with a tarot deck behind my head, on a little round table that juts out from my loft bed. Last night I put the new (old?) RWS up there and fell asleep... promptly having one of the most bizzare and epic dreams I've ever experienced. The weird thing was, it didn't follow the usual theme of my dreams or nightmares (I tend to dream in "genres"). I'm not usually a believer in residual energy or anything to that effect, but it makes me wonder if that was some sort of subconscious remnant from its previous owner.

I'm already enjoying the original RWS over the Universal Waite recolouring... it almost seems more pure, if that makes any sense.

Alamaris said:

I'm already enjoying the original RWS over the Universal Waite recolouring... it almost seems more pure, if that makes any sense.

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That makes perfect sense to me. After 3 years with the Universal Waite, I had the urge a few weeks ago to buy a RWS deck, and now I too like it much better.

I got some time over the long weekend to work with my Wheel of Change cards . I actually *gasp* journalled one of the cards that has had me very confused every time it appears (rarely, as it happens). It was the Five of Swords, and off the back of my explorations of the 21 Ways to Read a Tarot Card, I sat with the Five and investigated its nuances. I made some serious breakthroughs with it, which was wonderful. But . . .

Why, why, do I always feel like this is hard work? I sit, writing and letting these amazing insights and ideas flow through me, and I love it so much! But when I think about the next card that I could journal, it's just all too hard, and I feel so tired and blocked. It's so strange that I can feel so enlivened by one card, and yet so blank and stymied by the next, whatever it be.

And 21 Ways.

Sooooo over it! Maybe I just overdid it this weekend, but I'm finding it overbearing and preachy, and although I'm making progress, it's progress tainted by the sour feelings aroused by the book's tone. And it's so Stop-Start, and I never really feel like I'm doing it *right* . . . or more to the point, I always feel like I'm doing it *wrong*. And there's no *wrong* . . . is there? I don't know any more. Maybe I suck. Maybe this whole fiasco of Tarot is just a way of deluding myself and creating some sort of importance for me. Ugh.

Why do I always have to poison a constructive experience?

\m/ kat

If it helps, thorhammer, I find 21 Ways quite preachy myself. I had a copy just long enough to read it, and figure out I didn't like her method at all. I'll channel Umbrae for you: "Ditch the book, and just read the cards!"

We all have those days where we wonder if tarot is hooey or not. Keep a stiff upper lip, hun! I promise, it'll pass. I just got out of one of those cynical slumps myself.

As for my IDS, I'd like to say I've been busy with my RWS, but I still haven't gotten the courage up to do a larger spread -- although I've been craving one for a couple of weeks. I've been doing a little light studying, but nothing major. Bad Alamaris, bad! I did have a humorous experience with the deck, though. Over the last two days, the Emperor either fell out, leapt out, or was randomly pulled from the deck at least half a dozen times while I was aimlessly shuffling. Out of the two times I asked the deck what the Emperor was trying to tell me, both times I got the Queen of Wands. (I'll be damned if I can figure out what they're trying to say.) But it got even more amusing when I realized that the Emperor had a lighter back than the rest of the cards, which, being well used, are a little yellowed and faded. I kept shuffling. The Emperor kept jumping out. Finally, a card landed face down, and I was a little relieved -- the back was faded and worn, with a dog-eared corner. Definitely not the Emperor.

I flipped it over... and the Emperor was staring me in the face! Exasperated, I flipped through the rest of the deck, and what do you know, there's two Emperors. One that matches the deck, and one that looks 5 years newer. I got out my spare 1971 RWS, which is basically unused, and compared the backs -- the "newer" Emperor matched it. I was quite smug in my assumption that I'd somehow stuck the new Emperor into the old deck... when I found the newer deck's Emperor right in the middle of the stack. Now there's three of the little bugger, and I still can't figure out what he's trying to tell me. I've taken the spare, "newer" looking one and propped him up on my desk as a reminder. *shakes head* Insistent little dude!

thorhammer said:

Why, why, do I always feel like this is hard work? I sit, writing and letting these amazing insights and ideas flow through me, and I love it so much! But when I think about the next card that I could journal, it's just all too hard, and I feel so tired and blocked. It's so strange that I can feel so enlivened by one card, and yet so blank and stymied by the next, whatever it be.

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This happens to me also. I think it is the structure. Having an expectation for myself that I will do a certain amount makes it an intensive study. It also becomes more like work.

As far as my own IDS, I'm still doing my intensive focus. I had given myself permission to look at (but not read with) other decks but the temptation to do that went away. I've been using the Thoth as a reference but not looking at other decks much at all. It is going much much more slowly than I thought it would as I have taken some breaks, but I've really enjoyed studying the deck and journaling.

Because it is going so slowly but I still want to continue, I'm thinking of not doing JMD's TdM by PDF class. I was looking forward to that class (on the Noblet TdM) but I don't feel like I'm done focussing on the Cosmic yet. I need another couple of months. OTOH I don't want to miss this opportunity to learn about the TdM. The Ancient Egyptian is another one that I think I would like to spend some time with after the Cosmic.

--Myrrha

Alamaris said:

Now there's three of the little bugger, and I still can't figure out what he's trying to tell me. I've taken the spare, "newer" looking one and propped him up on my desk as a reminder. *shakes head* Insistent little dude!

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Maybe keep the "spare" Emperor with you throughout the day? He might be jumping up and down, screaming for an interview?

I've been chased by a few of the cards in my WoC, as well, and recently it's helped if I "interview" them, using that card as a basis for a free-form sort of spread, just drawing cards at random to see what I can find out about the stalker card . I find the random approach, and the formlessness, helps, because I'm not after an answer to a specific question; rather, I'm sort of brainstorming. Letting ideas pop up and out, and free-associating images and concepts. It's helping, it really is.

\m/ Kat

Myrrha said:

Because it is going so slowly but I still want to continue, I'm thinking of not doing JMD's TdM by PDF class. I was looking forward to that class (on the Noblet TdM) but I don't feel like I'm done focussing on the Cosmic yet. I need another couple of months. OTOH I don't want to miss this opportunity to learn about the TdM. The Ancient Egyptian is another one that I think I would like to spend some time with after the Cosmic.

--Myrrha

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I know what you mean - I'm enthused about joining in with a Thoth/Liber T focus with all those academically-minded souls who know so much more than me! But OTOH, as you say, I'm so attached to my WoC I don't want to break this bond, this spell. It's like we're in our own little world, and every day it becomes more and more robust.

As an experiment, I got out quite a few of my other decks a couple of days ago. I shuffled them, I admired them.

I didn't feel a thing. No, I lie - I felt a certain coldness from them. Maybe it was just the room I am keeping them it (faces East and is freezing at the best of times ), but I think it's more than that. I just don't have that connection. Now, the interesting thing is, when I recently got the Thoth and Liber T in trade, I didn't put them in that room (too lazy to walk three metres ). I kept them in my study, in my wee antique bookshelf. In my mind, they are inseparable, and more than fascinating. I wonder, could I work with them whilst keeping this magic I have with the WoC?

I realise that this post's tone is in diametrical opposition to that of the first post I made in this thread today . . . and that is indicative of the sort of turmoil and confusion and wild roller-coaster emotions I'm feeling about Tarot in the last few days.

\m/ Kat

Join ussssssss.

Whenever you're ready, Kat, we're ready for you.

My own IDS has been amazing. Better readings than ever. 154 page sof book written (though I imagine half of it is crap... I'm not thinking about that yet) It's funny. I have all these other decks, and I could read with them if you made me. But the Liber T just keeps getting deeper for me the more I learn about the underlying structure.

IDS til the cows come home!

Now, this might be a little off-topic, but I feel the need to bring your attention to a book that I was lucky enough to be gifted with about a month ago.

It's called Tarot For Every Day by Cait Johnson, and it's full of some really awesome ideas for breaking oneself out of a mould. I love the alternative ideas to spreads, shuffling and laying out.

One exercise, called Wind, has you "mix" (as opposed to shuffle) the cards, then gather them into a "conventional deck". Holding a problem or issue in your mind, you hold the cards up to your lips and BLOW really hard! The cards that land face up are influences that will bring change (as in, the winds of change) to your life. The ones that land facedown (which I would have otherwise ignored) give clues as to how best to facilitate the change and make the most of it.

When I did this last night, I wanted to know about the coming week, as the end of a weekend always has a momentous, auspicious feeling to me and I wanted to wade into the week with all guns blazing! The cards that came up were surprising . . . and yet not . . . and using them, I was able to mix them around, move them about to find connections and a sense of consequence and cause. Then, with the facedown ones, I used them to connect the other cards. I laid them facedown in such a way as to connect this card with that, and these four at the corners, and bound the influence of the other at the outside edge. When I turned them over, the story they told had me entranced for quite a while. I really enjoyed this experience, so much, and I wanted to share it with you all.

If anyone else has this book, don't judge it by its tacky, confectionery-coloured cover. It's brilliant, in places, and deserves much attention.

\m/ Kat

Scion said:

Join ussssssss.

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OMG! It's like the voices in my head have taken screen form!

Scion said:

Whenever you're ready, Kat, we're ready for you.

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Cheers, mate. I'll be there. Hopefully, with some backup from Discs energy, so that my Wands influence doesn't burn out like it always does. I have commitment issues . . .

Scion said:

My own IDS has been amazing. Better readings than ever. 154 page sof book written (though I imagine half of it is crap... I'm not thinking about that yet) It's funny. I have all these other decks, and I could read with them if you made me. But the Liber T just keeps getting deeper for me the more I learn about the underlying structure.

IDS til the cows come home!

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Hurrah! I am so looking forward to the book! I do hope you're going to publish? I, like so many others here, will be clamouring for a signed copy!

\m/ Kat