Intensive Deck Study Support Thread ~ Part 2

Disa

Hi guys!

I've not been reading with my cards for weeks. I dunno, my brain needed a rest. Sometimes I think I study myself into oblivion. Last night my friend sent an "urgent" reading request via email. Hurry up she says, I have to know NOW. OMG I grabbed my Buckland Romani and went straight to work-and here I am left in suspense as to whether anything I said made any sense or not, but, it felt GREAT to read.

I think the IDS is done for me. My heart's not in it. I've learned that I love, love, LOVE the Buckland Romani. I've also learned that I don't think I want to STUDY the Bohemian Gothic, but just use it when it feels appropriate and just read the cards. IT's such a visually powerful deck, I have barely looked at it at all, but when I do read with it, it's great to just see what jumps out at me.

I think I'd like to look through my other decks and use whichever one suits the mood of the situation for now. I'm actually wondering if I should begin to pare down my collection since I know more about what I like and what I don't, but I would probably regret it if I let even one deck go.

I'm really missing my beloved Druidcraft. I think I hear it calling me now :)

I wish you all well with the rest of your IDS. I'm sure I'll pop in sometime. Many thanks to all of you who inspired me to keep going.

Lots of love,

Disa
 

SolSionnach

Emily said:
The Liber T is a deck that pushes, when I did my dailies I would often get the same cards over and over again until I had the feeling that I was missing something. And in a way I was because when I started to read more intuitively then the other images on the repeat cards would stand out.

I don't always use the whole card image, especially the Minors with their smaller images - sometimes just one part of the image seems to stand out and this is what I focus on. :)
Emily, what's your sign? lol I'm a Virgo, and my tendency is to get lost in the little picky details, and lose the bigger picture - so I would have a very hard time not noticing the details! ;) I think that's why the TdM appeals to me.
Emily said:
This is what I mean about the Liber T - my son is having a few eye problems - we've found out that his right eye has a squint, I've beaten myself up about it for the last few weeks, he has limited vision out of his right eye. This morning we had the letter from the eye hospital and we've got an appointment to see if they can help him. I think he's too old and the only thing they will offer is an operation to improve the look of his eye which is unnecessary because to look at him, you can't tell there is anything wrong.

I've just been idling shuffling the Liber T, thinking about my son, his e/ye and the appointment, I turn over a card and its the Devil with its eye in the middle of its forehead. I've never read what the LWB says about the Devil so I thought I would read it.

Quote - With the Right Eye create your situation and with the Left absorb everything else created. - Unquote.

I think it is saying that it's something he's going to have to live with, like he has been, and to just carry on.
That's pretty remarkable, IMO. One thing I particularly like about the Liber T LWB is the sayings for the trumps, and the italicized titles for the courts. I think they could well be used with other decks. :)

Yesterday I got out MAAT on a whim, and found that when I threw the spread that I didn't connect with it at all. I got out Vieville, and WHAM!, it just works for me.

For whatever reason, I think that I need TdM style (less detailed lol!) decks in my life right now. Liber T will have to wait (though I may be dragging it out and looking at it for some time - perhaps then I'll get used to the 10Cups! :eek:) I'm going to IDS with the Vieville (with side trips to Hadar and my Meneghello Sverria 1804 TdM allowed) between now and Dec 21. ETA: and whenever I get it, thinbuddha's version of the Payen!!! I can't wait!!) I find that Mel's methods (including the quirky elemental attribs he uses) have made an impact in how I look at the pips... so decks with other elemental attribs are right out right now (sigh... Liber T). My IDS is actually not so much of an IDS as an exploration into TdM-style historical pip decks.

Even though I've loved the MAAT and my other 20th century decks, they just don't speak to me right now. I have a thought that I might eventually pare my collection down to a mere handful of decks... though the thought of divesting myself of the decks that are left in my collection gives me the willies right now. :bugeyed: (even as I just bought the Feng Shui and the Cosmic! I'm nothing if not inconsistent)
Disa said:
I've not been reading with my cards for weeks. I dunno, my brain needed a rest. Sometimes I think I study myself into oblivion. Last night my friend sent an "urgent" reading request via email. Hurry up she says, I have to know NOW. OMG I grabbed my Buckland Romani and went straight to work-and here I am left in suspense as to whether anything I said made any sense or not, but, it felt GREAT to read.

I think the IDS is done for me. My heart's not in it.

I wish you all well with the rest of your IDS. I'm sure I'll pop in sometime. Many thanks to all of you who inspired me to keep going.

Lots of love,

Disa
Hi Disa,
Yes, it seems that a LOT of people have gone into IDS hiatuses (hiati?) recently - myself included. It sounds like you benefited a *lot* from your study, and now it's time to use what you've learned. Bravo! Perhaps if I'd really dug in with the studying, I would be ready to spread my wings and fly, too. :rolleyes:

Good luck, and vaya con Dios!
 

Essjay

Well, I think for now I'm going to just use the Radiant alongside 78 Degrees of Wisdom. I really love this deck and it's one that I constantly return to. I've bought many decks over the summer and have just traded/sold six of them away which left my collection back to how it was before I started!

This made we wonder how many decks I really need and I felt very relieved to have reduced my collection. It seems that however many I have the Radiant is a constant so I think I shall set a time limit of four weeks and actually journal this time when I do my daily card draws.
 

Madame Squee

The Whispering Tarot

Hey, Kat, thank you for updating my IDS choice.

All right, I'm back...

First, I have to admit I totally bailed on my IDS commitment with the Druidcraft in June - I think I lasted almost a week.

Next, I want to formalize my commitment to try again with "The Whispering Tarot" (by Elizabeth Hazel).

I am choosing the Whispering Tarot, because ever since I introduced it to the mix a month ago, I have been enjoying it more and more. During the past week, it has become the only deck I drop in my bag when I leave the house and the first one I pull out to read with when I'm home. Then, day before yesterday, I saw an answer in one of its cards that had very little to do with the traditional meaning of the card but everything to do with being the correct answer, and I recognized it!

So, right now, I'm more than ready to put everything else aside and focus on my TWT deck for one month, which will take me through November 11, and I'm making the following commitments to help keep myself focused:

(1) I will keep up with reading the posts in this thread every day.
(2) I will post in this thread at least once a day.
(2) I will draw a card every day and write about it in the Daily Draw thread.


Thanks, you guys, and it's great to be back!

:heart:
c.s.
 

Onyx

I have been working on preparing for the class that I have been helping to teach and I have left the IDS alone for a bit. I have taken some time to work with the cards tonight and to do a couple of e-mail readings this weekend just to keep at it.

I am looking to see what I need to do next. I think that I have decided to keep with just 'unillustrated pips' since I am using both the 1JJ Swiss and my Fourier TdM. I like them both and they each have benefits that keep me going to those decks and not abandoning my IDS as I get busy with the class.

Likewise, I am nearing the end of listening to "The Process" for the first time. I love it still and learning a ton of stuff. I am looking then take the lessons/chapters and seeing how I can work those into study exercises for my journal and then may post them in here at the AT.

So it is slow going right now but progress is being made. I took a little time off from Tarot this week to remedy a bit of burnout. I didn't want to teach a class and be tired of the the cards.

Onyx.
 

Jamil

Well... I'm at week five of IDSing with Robin Wood, but I don't think I can count the last two weeks, as life has made such a distraction of itself that last couple of weeks that I've barely touched my cards (or anything else recreational, come to that).

The previous two Sundays I did do the weekly seven card draw for the week to come, but never managed to actually assess each day's card at day's end.

And I did fall off the tarot shopping wagon, ordering the Druid Craft Tarot, the Druid Animal Oracle and the Druid Plant Oracle. I'm afraid I've always been inclined to buy things while de-stressing, so it's not terribly surprising, and I'm not particularly remorseful, but I did say I'd post in here every month or so to see how things are going.

Of course, the trouble with buying things is their very newness gives them a glamour that's lacking in decks you've been IDSing, even if you've not been IDSing particularly vigorously: a voice begins to whisper "Why don't you IDS the Druid decks? Robin Wood will always be there. It's not as if you'd be throwing the deck away..." and so forth.

I should mention that three weeks ago I was quietly thinking this keeping to a single deck was unbelievably simple and fancying myself immune to temptation. Goes to show.

Still, the new decks will take a while to arrive, so I guess the thing to do is get back to using the Robin Wood and worry about temptation when the postman has actually slapped it down in the palms of my hands.
 

thorhammer

What a great post, Jamil :) I love your tone!
Jamil said:
Of course, the trouble with buying things is their very newness gives them a glamour that's lacking in decks you've been IDSing, even if you've not been IDSing particularly vigorously: a voice begins to whisper "Why don't you IDS the Druid decks? Robin Wood will always be there. It's not as if you'd be throwing the deck away..." and so forth.

I should mention that three weeks ago I was quietly thinking this keeping to a single deck was unbelievably simple and fancying myself immune to temptation. Goes to show.
Yeah, I had that problem, too. You know how I overcame it? Well . . .

See, I pride myself on being a bit of a black sheep - whatever "everyone" does, I'll do the opposite :D. Sooo . . . I kept reminding myself of something I heard ages ago - the "addiction to attraction", which feeds and perpetuates the materialistic, acquisitive society in which we live. Well, I could hardly subscribe to that lowly way of being, could I now? :D So I resisted. When I got a new deck, I checked it to make sure all the cards were there, then put it away.

Simple.

It really is simple . . . your mind is the one wanting to complicate it ;)

Best to you :)

\m/ Kat
 

Jamil

thorhammer said:
See, I pride myself on being a bit of a black sheep - whatever "everyone" does, I'll do the opposite :D. Sooo . . . I kept reminding myself of something I heard ages ago - the "addiction to attraction", which feeds and perpetuates the materialistic, acquisitive society in which we live. Well, I could hardly subscribe to that lowly way of being, could I now? :D So I resisted. When I got a new deck, I checked it to make sure all the cards were there, then put it away.

Simple.

It really is simple . . . your mind is the one wanting to complicate it ;)

Thanks for that! You're right, of course--though your own mind can be a treacherous enemy, since you can't escape it and it knows all your weaknesses, even all the ones you don't know you have :)

I guess I'll have to reframe the tempting whisper to: "Why don't you keep IDSing the Robin Wood? The Druid decks will always be there. It's not as if you'd be throwing them away..."

Besides, it's not as if I don't still like the Robin Wood: a few minutes ago I used it for a weekly draw, and thoroughly enjoyed it. (And forecast a reasonably good week, to boot.)
 

thorhammer

Jamil said:
Besides, it's not as if I don't still like the Robin Wood: a few minutes ago I used it for a weekly draw, and thoroughly enjoyed it. (And forecast a reasonably good week, to boot.)
Good stuff! Always nice to have something to look forward to :D May I ask, do you just draw seven cards, one for each day?

I just have to add, to be the Devil's advocate: I can't stand that deck. Really. It's the only one I've had . . . *checks database* . . . that I would actually say I hated. So there you go . . . heaps of people hate my IDS deck, the Wheel of Change. Heaps hate the Thoth, which I'm diving into now (and studying way more intensively than I ever did the WoC, incidentally :laugh:).

*shrug*

\m/ Kat
 

Jamil

thorhammer said:
Good stuff! Always nice to have something to look forward to :D May I ask, do you just draw seven cards, one for each day?

I do draw seven cards, one for each day. My thinking was (based on my certainty weekdays would be when I was most likely to have trouble making time) I'd draw all seven cards on Sunday afternoon, when I could reliably count on a block of free time.

Oddly, even in the relatively short time I've been doing this regularly, I've noticed that, across the span of seven days, the cards seem to grow less obviously relevant to whatever happens.

Last week, for a change, I drew a two cards mini-cross for each day (fourteen cards in all), and found the whole things collapsed into a complicated mess on me. So I won't do that again, at least not until I'm a lot more confident than I am now.

thorhammer said:
I just have to add, to be the Devil's advocate: I can't stand that deck. Really. It's the only one I've had . . . *checks database* . . . that I would actually say I hated. So there you go . . . heaps of people hate my IDS deck, the Wheel of Change. Heaps hate the Thoth, which I'm diving into now (and studying way more intensively than I ever did the WoC, incidentally :laugh:).

Dare I ask... dare I ask, what's not to love? (I'm genuinely curious, so don't fear I'll panic and start shouting that you're an anti-Wood heathen who should burn, or anything. ;)

One thing I've noticed myself is that it's so remorselessly positive, sometimes, that I want to hit it with a stick until it stops bloody smiling. But I did partly choose it to balance my own tendency to gloom, so I can't really complain.