[Essjay]

((((Rodney))))

Happy birthday from me too!

Hope you enjoyed your day.

[Yurikome]

Hi everyone.

I don't post much, but I did post on starting this, so might as well post on quitting.
You see, the whole ids lasted about 10 days for me... not that I cheated with another deck. I just stopped using the one I chose. I stopped tarot at all. And any forms of divination or whatever you wish to call it. Many areas of life have been really bothersome and I noticed my long time friend depression setting in, a few of the symptoms being not finding pleasure in things I did before and spending most of my time sleeping or just lying in bed. It's been pretty bad the last two weeks especially.
Yesterday I somehow longed to see my od decks. I've given some away, but looking at the ones I couldn't let go of sort of stirred something in me. I did a short reading with the Tarot of the Origins concerning my meditations and shamanic studies (which also have been dropped, around 2 months ago) and got a really originesqe answer, nothing more, nothing less. Experiencing its style I totally forgot about cheered me up a bit.
After looking through all the decks I have left, I finally pulled out the Universal Fantasy tarot and decided to trim it. I feel this activity really livening me up. I might yet end up doing an IDS with the universal f. Right now I gotta work my issues over and if quitting this will help, then that's what I'm doing.

You guys have been a real inspiration, I'll sure come back to this thread one day if I need a motivation boost

And good luck with your quests.

[shadowdancer]

aaww bless you Yurikome.

Don't feel as though you will be giving it up for good. It may well be just the IDS part that is a major factor of the block etc. I think most of us, for various reasons have gone through similar where we had nothing by way of an energy link with the tarot or other forms of divination.

It happens for a reason. In time, (and again it will vary for all of us) you may find you glance over a decks, then pick one up and browse through it. After a while that then transposes into doing studies or readings.

If the energy is not flowing for you right now, you can only go by what your subconscious is telling you. But I reckon it won't be a permanent issue.

take care

Davina

[sapienza]

Originally Posted by thorhammer

So, IDS related, I decided to take the plunge last night and "season" my deck in the manner recommended by Umbrae in one of his many threads. I liked the idea of having a nice, softened and less challenging (physically speaking, for other people, should I ever read for anyone again . . . ) deck, so I sat down and patiently treated each and every card over the table edge . . .

It's ruined.

I know it is, it's ruined and now I won't have a deck at all!

It's all lumpy and uneven, and it was a fat deck to shuffle with at the best of times, especially after I trimmed it, and now I can't shuffle it at all! I've put all the cards under a big pile of books in small stacks to try and flatten them out (so no cards today *sobs*) but I just know that they'll be all munted forever, and I'll have to order another copy which I cannot afford at all and I was getting so attached to THAT ONE and I'd have to trim it all over again and *sobs, chokes* I'm so upset!

Hi Kat,

How has your deck come along since your original 'seasoning'? Any better? I thought you might like to check out this thread:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread...7&page=1&pp=10

Particularly post 10 I think, which is Umbrae himself giving additional advice. Very interesting....for want of a better word

[Essjay]

Well, I've arrived to tell you all I'm finishing my IDS. I've really enjoyed it and can't say a negative thing about it. Quite simply, other decks are calling and I think my VR knows that I'm torn. If I ask a question all I get is, "Don't ask me, what do *you* think," so She's gone a little huffy as She knows I'm not concentrating on her properly.

I've achieved a lot, however, and have taken part in a reading experiment on aeclectic with it, done my first proper reading for an inquisitive soul. Also, as I've only been working with the tarot for about 14-16 months it has taught me a hell of a lot about working with a deck and getting to know it rather than flitting from day-to-day. Even my journaling on the readings thread wasn't too bad.

I'll still be checking in to see how everyone else is getting on.

(((((everyone)))))

[thorhammer]

Hey, all After a long absence, I'm back in the saddle, albeit still at a flying gallop!!! Aren't holidays meant to be relaxing???

Firstly, Promise, can I just echo everyone's thoughts and prayers for you. What a horrific shock for you to go through at such a young age. It's okay for you to be a bit uppity with the doctor - you're right, what would he know?? and you have to vent somehow! I hope that you've got some loving, supportive people around you to help you move past this blow and onto a more positive phase.

At the other end of the spectrum - birthday wishes to Rodney! And I hope that puppy's not causing too much havoc - yet !

Well, I started to move through the 21 Ways exercises, and tried to keep in my mind that there's no "right" or "wrong" way to do these things . . . but my puter didn't have access at the resort and it was too much hassle to get on their internet kiosks, so I didn't have access to the peace of mind and support and reassurance that you guys can always give. I got the the ?fourth? exercise in the book, where you have to tell a story using the image on the card (I'm using Strength) . . . and my story started to become more like a novel! It took me ages and ages and pages and pages!!! I think that I got a great sense of the card and its meaning, and through writing that story I really brought the card into me, if you know what I mean, but still . . . I thought it was supposed to be brief. *shrugs* I dunno. I think I got a lot out of it, anyway.

I've got a few decks in the mail recently, namely the Universal Marseilles, Pagan, Thoth and Liber T. My brain is snagged, well and truly, by the Thoth and Liber T - and despite my attachment to other decks and my wish to move into something less esoteric and more accessible than my Wheel of Change when the IDS is officially over, I think I'll be going into a bit of a Thoth/Liber T phase. Heaven help us all . . .

But it's strange, the way that, like some of you, I'm comparing cards now to the Wheel of Change cards, not the RW meanings. The Wheel of Change is so radically different to the RW, so completely off the wall, that I'm feeling very "at sea" about Tarot at the moment, and very reliant on the WoC as my touchstone. Mind you, once you start exploring that deck, its bottom drops out from under you and you don't have a stable base anyway! It's certainly been a journey and a half - and I don't regret a moment of it. It's had its ups and downs, but I think I'm starting to level out now. It's powerful and potent, this discipline, isn't it?

\m/ Kat

[thorhammer]

Originally Posted by sapienza

Hi Kat,

How has your deck come along since your original 'seasoning'? Any better? I thought you might like to check out this thread:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread...7&page=1&pp=10

Particularly post 10 I think, which is Umbrae himself giving additional advice. Very interesting....for want of a better word

Thanks, mate, for that link Yes, it is . . . interesting. I don't think I'll be doing that any time soon!

My deck has come back to the land of the shuffleable again, thanks for asking. It's very much softer and it's hard to leaf through now, like I do when I'm putting it in order or looking for a specific card, pushing single cards with my left thumb into the smaller stack in my right hand. Now the edges tend to cling together, but it's okay. It's still fat, but since I trimmed it I can get my hands around it, so it works well enough. It's strange now to handle any deck that has different dimensions and cardstock - they're all so slippery!!! I keep dropping the Liber T whenever I pick it up to move it - now it's on a shelf and I hopefully won't lose any cards under the furniture!

In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best deck to do the seasoning thing to. The stock is a little bit too soft and thick to really withstand it, and if I'd been a bit more patient, at the end of the three months it would have been soft anyway. But I like it. It feels very much like my deck now

\m/ Kat

[tarot4fun]

((((((Yurikome))))))

[Yurikome]

Thanks guys I thought I was getting back in shape with all the meditating I do etc, but that appears not to be the case - I just had the nightmare of a lifetime.

I'm officially out as I'm now consistently cheating on the gothic tarot of vampires with the trimmed universal fantasy. oh well.

What I noticed is - I wanna read for people face to face. I've done it before and it was only disturbing back then, but now, even with the newly chosen deck of cards, I find that readings online is not "the real thing". Something's really changing in me, a year or two ago I'd be fighting someone who said something like this to first blood drawn, but now I crave the acutal personal engagement, the connection in a reading, the cards are just an excuse.

Anyway, carry on and see you around

[Myrrha]

I'm sorry to hear you are depressed. It is an awful thing to go through.

Wishing you success and fun with your in person readings!
--Myrrha