Just bought the Navigators of the Mystic SEA

Le Fanu

punchinella said:
--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 . . . :?:
Can I just say - utterly objectively of course - that what you are feeling is normal & right. It is the correct reaction to this deck. Anything less would be quite the wrong reaction! })

Isn't it dreamlike and, yes, compelling? I'm being very well behaved at the moment because I'm studying the Dodal with Herzog, but over the weekend I took out one of my (7! :bugeyed:) copies thinking "wouldn't it be odd, after enjoying my Dodal studies so much if I found this flat and uninteresting now?"

But no, I tumbled back into it, remembering why I like it so much. It absolutely captivates me. There is so much to pounce on in readings. There is something so weirdly readable about this deck for me. Of course, we need to have breaks and we buy other decks and enjoy them. I don't believe in The One, but this deck never ceases to fascinate me every time I get it out.

I was very lucky as the book is quite hard to find and AJ very kindly sent me a copy, for which I shall be eternally indebted. Imagine finding your favourite deck and never, ever being able to read what the creator wrote about it? I was doing very well without the book (a kind ATer sent me a pdf of notes taken from the book) but reading the book made a huge difference to my understanding of the deck, as it will yours.

What might it be that is sucking you in? Is it the weird genderlessness of these beings (but this doesn't mean they are asexual I find!) Is it the colours? The dreamlike symbolism, the strange, bleak landscapes? I often think that it might be something as simple as size in relation to my hands that makes this deck feel right! :D

Oh, and remember, we don't have to love the artwork of a deck to relate to it!
 

punchinella

Le Fanu said:
Oh, and remember, we don't have to love the artwork of a deck to relate to it!
Too true, and you know, sometimes I find when I absolutely positively love the artwork . . . I have a harder time reading with the deck. It's as though if the art satiates, it's just too easy to accept the gift of the beautiful image and walk away happy, without having done the work of reading. Which may answer this:

Le Fanu said:
What might it be that is sucking you in? Is it the weird genderlessness of these beings (but this doesn't mean they are asexual I find!) Is it the colours? The dreamlike symbolism, the strange, bleak landscapes? I often think that it might be something as simple as size in relation to my hands that makes this deck feel right! :D
I'm thinking maybe there's an empty place in each card, or maybe empty is the wrong word . . . maybe an unfinished edge, something (or maybe multiple somethings) left unarticulated, open-ended . . . Although the art is "finished" in the sense of being free of loose brushstrokes and sketching, it's as though, in concept, more might have been left out than has been put in, which is incredibly provocative.

Of course the colors are--well, ahhh. The colors.
 

Le Fanu

punchinella said:
I'm thinking maybe there's an empty place in each card, or maybe empty is the wrong word . . . maybe an unfinished edge, something (or maybe multiple somethings) left unarticulated, open-ended . . . Although the art is "finished" in the sense of being free of loose brushstrokes and sketching, it's as though, in concept, more might have been left out than has been put in, which is incredibly provocative.
What a wonderful way of putting it. Maybe I had been subconsciously feeling this and never actually articulated it to myself, but you're right, there is an element of this in it! It's certainly very ambiguous in all aspects.
 

punchinella

I'm hoping it isn't just a symbolic language or world into which I haven't been initiated . . . if so, reading the book could spoil everything :p
 

Cassandra022

So i've been trying to work with less-used/decks i haven't gotten round to working with much lately, and for the last week or so that's been my trimmed Navigators. I must say, the imagery, so dense and psychedelic and intense has just been...PERFECT for these REALLY DEEP readings that just PICK AT MY SUBCONSCIOUS, like crazy metaphors that make perfect sense in context and just...very impressed with the readability of the deck...
 

Le Fanu

So i've been trying to work with less-used/decks i haven't gotten round to working with much lately, and for the last week or so that's been my trimmed Navigators. I must say, the imagery, so dense and psychedelic and intense has just been...PERFECT for these REALLY DEEP readings that just PICK AT MY SUBCONSCIOUS, like crazy metaphors that make perfect sense in context and just...very impressed with the readability of the deck...
Have you trimmed everything off or kept the titles?
 

Cassandra022

I kept both sets of titles. usually i don't like keyword titles but these...really do make sense/go.

basically i just trimmed off all of that huge amount of unnecessary white space the cards come with, lol
 

Le Fanu

I kept both sets of titles. usually i don't like keyword titles but these...really do make sense/go.

basically i just trimmed off all of that huge amount of unnecessary white space the cards come with, lol
Must be like mine then. I have one like this; title and keyword/top & bottom border remain but the rest went. Nice size.
 

Terrapin

I like the Navigators deck a lot too. The book is really difficult--a hodge-podge of everything mythic, ancient and hermetic rolled out in a most unorganized and pretentious fashion. I do like how Julia assigned the Majors to the various Tree of Life pathways though. Different than the traditional and makes more intuitive sense to me. I've always have had trouble seeing the logic of the traditional placements; alway gotten a sense that maybe those older placements were maybe a "blind."
 

Cerulean

I have heard the three novels are a dreamlike guide

I have the first, got to do taxes first...am looking forward to buying the next two and browsing...through deck and book. Saw someone making their own work book, as the card designs and novels are intertwined. I have to find the book thread on the first novel as an appetzer....she is said to have done fantastic work with the kabbalah and her own deck design.