I'll try to answer the questions as I see them, and will check in to this thread regularly for the next couple of weeks at least. But please, if I accidentally skip a question, don't hesitate to point it out.
Firstly, though we'll all be working (those of us that do, that is!) on the 78 weeks, I see this very much as
individual work - that a number of us are 'struggling' through (which it WILL be at times) gives support to our individual and different ways of doing things.
I should point out the the first time I did something like this (which took me longer than 78 weeks, more like 2.5 years) was over 17 years ago (I think in the late-ish 1980s), and at the time also used a notebook with a template I had designed and subsequently used in a number of tarot courses in the early 1990s. It is a little different to Gregory's - and suspect that hers is more appropriate for the 78 weeks! still, I'll post it below as an attachment in case anyone wishes to use or modify it.
I'll also alter fix some errors in the dates (thanks Moonbow*
) and add to the overview post (the sticky) links to the templates.
Now to the questions:
"For the week, can you just continue to edit/update your post in diary form?"
Absolutely - I think that's an ideal that I have never met - though my notebooks DO add comments most days. For myself, when I
have posted, I tried to do in some ways the opposite: I tried on the last day of the card to reflect not so much on the card, but rather on the week's reflections on the card: a summary reflection, if you like, to see what key features or insights came to the fore. I suppose it was because of this that one of the early description I gave was as Gregory suggests: "You generally make your notes during the study week and post the whole thing at the end of it, not on a daily basis".
It should be borne in mind that if you set out to post EVERY day, I would suggest that most of us would not be able to maintain that kind of posting, and as a consequence, perhaps give up the study because of being unable to post for a few days. Posting once a week (even if the whole week's 'diary' entry) does not set up a system that encourages failure - it's hard enough to maintain as it is!
Little Baron comments that:
"traditional stuff might not be as important"
I agree...
yet for myself, part of the reason I often did not post is that these are so peculiar to my own view on things, including a mix of MBTI for the courts and I-Ching relations for the pips (except the Aces) that it seemed to me best to leave it out of these posts... but this time, I'll
attempt to commit to posting at least once a week (even if a small note).
Jewel asks:
"can I explore my card in any way I want each day??? There are bits and pieces of excercises I have done that I have found incredibly helpful in understanding cards that I might like to use (i.e. one day write a timed short story, elemental correspondences another day, etc.) is this acceptable???"
Absolutely!
In fact, I would suggest that over the course of the 78 weeks, NEW ways will be discovered that bear fruit! This is part of the reason I have done it a number of times: a new way of looking at the card comes up, and wish I had done it to the cards of the previous fifty weeks! As an 'obvious' example for
some participants, numerological reflections may not form part of the first 22 weeks, and then come to the fore, inadvertently also bringing in reflections on the Atouts (Majors).
This is part of the discovery of not only the cards, but also what tends to work for us, as well as developing a deepened sensibility to certain textures and relations within and across cards.
In that sense, we can all go off in our own 'tangents' - I do not see them as tangents, but rather as avenues (or dead-ends) of discoveries.
At least two people have designed a whole deck in previous 78 week studies. I know that I have certainly drawn some small details for items or ideas following reflection on a specific card!
Not sure how much this all helps, but we're nearly starting
...oops... better remember to add the notebook 'template' (which I have simplified a little from the original) - please note that the first is set for A4 paper size, the other for USLetter.
