Manga Tarot: Thoughts on actual use?

Hiya! I checked with Sulis to see if general study/discussions is allowed for a deck study and got her permission... so here I am. I've been feeling especially connected with the Manga Tarot recently, but I'm also noticing some quirks about it and got a bit curious as to how you're all reacting to the deck as a whole when it comes to reading. In short, I have found this deck to be very vocal about how it wants to be read...

Here are some of my thoughts- please do share yours too!

Reversals or not?
I know everyone has different preferences in terms of reading with reversals or not, but for those who do... have you been using reversals with this deck? The LWB doesn't really talk about reversals, nor does it have reversal meanings and quotes for the individual cards. Yet, the back of the cards are clearly designed to be read with reversals if you so choose. My question is, how have you been reading it?

Personally, I use reversals with some decks and some I just don't. For the Manga, though, I simply can't seem to do so even if I wanted to. I've been studying the individual cards a lot recently... and each time I flip it upside down for a look, I just end up frowning at it. It just feels wrong and it's like my mind goes blank. :S Has anyone been getting this feeling too? I'm wondering if it's because the cards are all so expressive and story-telling as it is that when it goes upside down, it just doesn't make sense to me anymore. I've used reversals with other "expressive" decks before though... so I'm not entirely sure what the problem is for this one.

Or on the other hand, if you do use reversals with this deck... how is it going for you?

Preference in reading:
Anyone else noticed how expressive (yes, I'm overusing this word) this deck can be when it comes to love or relationship-type readings? Maybe it has to do with the art, but I'm finding that this deck is slowly becoming reserved for most relationship type of readings. Perhaps it's psychological, but this deck doesn't do as well for me when I'm reading general stuff or business issues. It keeps wanting to talk about feelings, relationships, and interactions! Even when I do dailies with it, it just wants to tell me about how my mood will be or how my interactions with others will be for the day. lol...

Which reminds me... I've been thinking about starting a daily draw thread for this deck (thought with how insistent this deck is on its preference, I might be doing dailies in specific to people interactions only). Would anyone else be interested in the daily draw?

Ocean Light said:

Personally, I use reversals with some decks and some I just don't. For the Manga, though, I simply can't seem to do so even if I wanted to. I've been studying the individual cards a lot recently... and each time I flip it upside down for a look, I just end up frowning at it. It just feels wrong and it's like my mind goes blank. :S Has anyone been getting this feeling too? I'm wondering if it's because the cards are all so expressive and story-telling as it is that when it goes upside down, it just doesn't make sense to me anymore. I've used reversals with other "expressive" decks before though... so I'm not entirely sure what the problem is for this one.

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I don't read reversals myself. However, if I did read reversals, I don't think I'd want to with this deck. The images in this deck feel more dynamic, less static, than what's found in most decks. It's like the difference between a posed painting and a frame from a movie scene. I could see myself flipping a painting upside down to get a different perspective on it, but flipping a frame upside down in a scene would feel disruptive to the natural flow. I'm not sure if this is making any sense, but that's my take on this.

Anyone else noticed how expressive (yes, I'm overusing this word) this deck can be when it comes to love or relationship-type readings? Maybe it has to do with the art, but I'm finding that this deck is slowly becoming reserved for most relationship type of readings. Perhaps it's psychological, but this deck doesn't do as well for me when I'm reading general stuff or business issues. It keeps wanting to talk about feelings, relationships, and interactions! Even when I do dailies with it, it just wants to tell me about how my mood will be or how my interactions with others will be for the day. lol...

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This deck works fine for me for general readings. But as I've mentioned before, this deck has a gentle and non-threatening feel to it, which are qualities I look for in a deck for relationship readings.

Alan

Yes, it is beautifully expressive.

I also agree that the illustrations are unusually dynamic in this deck. The analogy between still life and film is perfectly apt.

I don't use reversals and don't shuffle for them. If they pop up anyway somehow, I turn them right side up unless I get a gut feeling about it being significant. The other day that happened with this deck for the first time. I was asking yes/no questions and I immediately knew the reversed cards were noes. It was very clear cut.

I think it is because the cards usually prompt an immediate emotional/intuitive response and convey so much movement. So, reversed just says 'nope, nothing'. lol It's kind of like an old TV - back in the pre-cable days - with horrible reception. Mostly dark screen with a few wavy, flickering, narrow strips of color or image, looping continuously. The color's displaced from the images and maybe even the images are upside down. I didn't see it as problematic at all though. I thought it was great! Direct and really funny.

I don't use different decks for different topics, so I can't speak to that.

Even though I'm still getting to know it and sorting out in my head the differences between it and other decks, I'm drawn to use it surprisingly often. I find the readings accurate, too. I've been using it quite a bit ever since I bought it.

I would have to agree about the reversals, they're some cards that seem alright if they're reversed but a lot of them just don't give a lot of meaning when it is reversed. I had that same struggle, were my mind had trouble understanding. I told myself that it is better to keep the cards upright.

I also noticed about asking questions about career or any other things that are not related to interaction and it just didn't work. I will have to agree that this cards are more about interactions/relationships. Sometimes I mix the cards with my other deck, to have more variety and it seems to work wonderfully.

not for newbies?

I bought this deck a couple years ago, when it first came out. I LOVED the gorgeous art but ended up giving the deck away because I didn't really identify with it.
As a newbie, I had trouble with how they switched the genders and the court cards. I also had trouble memorizing the seasonal symbols and the fact that so many characters were warriors or samurai.

Every time I looked at the deck, I thought "so-and-so would love this" so I gave it to him. I was right- he was delighted with it.

This morning I cut the top and bottom borders (with the titles and numbers) off these cards.

It's a beautiful, vivid deck and the pictures - in most cases - ignite the intuition very well, but I've found over the last couple of years that the irrepressible urge to try to reconcile or match up these cards to other, more traditional decks is a huge intellectual distraction and tangent. It stresses me out and leads to indecision over what the readings are actually saying and therefore to inaccuracy. I really wanted to just be able to relax and use this one (more often and) with greater ease, because I like it a lot.

So, I cut the words off.

The things is, in a fair few instances, not only are the genders (and therefore numbering) switched around or displaced throughout the deck, but the actual concepts represented in the images are quite different to what I'm accustomed to when I reach for a tarot deck. Sometimes it seems like they are divided and recombined in various cards. Sometimes it seems like things are included or excluded uniquely in this deck, as compared with other ones. Obviously, a lot or most of it is heavily influenced by traditional tarot (RWS tradition, as far as I know; I'm not familiar with or even interested in the other systems), but there are enough differences that I'm thinking, now that the words are gone, it's probably going to function more like a non-tarot oracle for me.

Wondering if anyone else has done this, or thought about doing it? (I'd thought about it many times before today. Finally, I just went ahead and did it.) Experiences? Thoughts?