wulzcat
*smacks forehead* Why didn't I think of that before! It's been my goal to learn how to read playing cards for some time now, and I've even been purchasing interesting decks with the hopes that one will inspire me, but thus far I've been too nervous to really jump into it. The lack of pictures is quite intimidating. But after I read your post, I realized that playing cards are so readily available and cheap that I could certainly buy a "training wheels" deck and scrawl all over it. Thanks for the suggestion!
Yes, I'm just using an ordinary deck I had lying about the house - it works great, and I have ordered a couple of fancy-looking decks too but that's just for the heck of it! Writing on the cards was actually the suggestion by Phoenix Rising (who I'm not sure is still active on the boards?) in her thread on card meanings that I posted in my original post above.
It's quite a good thing to do too, I think, because you feel a much more personal connection with the cards when you've actually written on them... it's like they *really* belong to you now, and bear your marks!