Just bought the Navigators of the Mystic SEA

My NOTMS Tarot book arrived and it's wonderful. Julia Turk's system is complex but accessible. The introduction is excellent; it gives you the key points of the system and tells you what to expect throughout the rest of the book. Her style isn't so esoteric that you have to make gigantic leaps to apply the ideas to every day life, like the Gill Tarot book, which I found to be maddeningly abstract (and I'm a very abstract thinker.)

This really is a fascinating set and I've only touched the tip of the iceberg. Definitely plenty to see and ponder here--for many years to come.

I'm so glad to read this! I don't have the book yet but AJ is very kindly sending me hers and I'm dying to read it. I have used and enjoyed this deck so far without reading the book but I really would love to have that perspective. What you write has made me even more anxious to read it now.

My fear was that it was a bit gobbledegooky (the deck is a bit strange, let's face it Nicely strange...).

I love this deck more and more. I love the colours, the dreamlike imagery, the fact that each time you read it, your attention is drawn to something you had never seen before. I love the cardstock, the size, the feel, absolutely everything. Even the keywords! In fact there is nothing, no card, no aspect of production, which I do not like. I am intrigued by the lack of genitals in the deck, and what it does to the feel of the deck and its imagery. I used to think these figures were genderless. They're not. They have the swagger and gait and presence of male and female. I don't quite know why but I just cannot put this deck down. And I have a beautiful gold silk-lined purple velvet bag made by Sulis and a turquoise blue dupion silk reading cloth. The combination is breathtaking!

I keep meaning to get posting in the (rather extinct) NOTMS study group!

As someone who prefers historical decks, its unusual for me to be enthusiastic about others but I have always loved and related to the NTotMS. We had a thread going once where Cerulean gave us some great ideas for reading with the keywords of this deck and after that keywords became another way of reading with the cards, with this deck. The book is great, and goes into a lot of depth about the cards, things that you just wouldn't notice or know about unless pointed out to you.

Enjoy!

Moonbow* said:

As someone who prefers historical decks, its unusual for me to be enthusiastic about others but I have always loved and related to the NTotMS.

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This is so interesting because I totally identify with this! It is always the historical decks which grab me, and yet this deck has something captivating. And I have read all your posts in the study group threads!

I found a wonderful post yesterday by Little Baron on the 4 of Swords which really sums up what I also feel about the deck. He also said when he bought it that it really is like stepping into a different universe and it really is...I start looking at the cards and just lose myself...

So as not to derail the thread in which the comment below was originally posted, I'm replying to it here:

Le Fanu said:

I find myself wondering if a 3rd edition of the Navigators of the Mystic SEA might be in the works and how it would feel on Printed in China stock. Those fabulously rich colours...

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I had to find the right thread, but in post 15 Debra says that the copyright has returned to Ms. Turk, so I doubt we'll be seeing any US Games printed in China versions of the deck any time soon.

Rodney

But I had heard a rumour - cannot for the life of me think where (though it must have been either here or at the corner shop ) - that this deck was being reprinted. Why did I think this?

No great shakes for me, I have more than enough spares!

Le Fanu said:

No great shakes for me, I have more than enough spares!

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So do I!

rwcarter said:

So do I!

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Go on, confess! How many? More than me?

I only have 2 spares (cause I've sold a couple).

--Reviving this thread to say that I have owned the deck for 24 hours now and find it strangely compelling, particularly when I am not actually looking at it. I cannot stop thinking about it. I fell asleep last night thinking about it, and took the run of the year (through Halloween country) dreaming not of the haunted houses and costumed children before my eyes, but of the NotMS deck. I went to Amazon and ordered the book and . . . ahem . . . a back-up deck . . . (*punchinella casts eyes aside in some embarrassment*)

I'm not really sure why the deck is sucking me in like this, it's nothing I can put my finger on. The artwork is, to be honest, not even that attractive imo. But I am intensely stimulated by it . . .