nicky
Rodney,
Will you be starting a new IDS thread for 2010?
xoxox
thanks
Will you be starting a new IDS thread for 2010?
xoxox
thanks
Intensive Deck Study (IDS) Support Thread ~ Part 3
rwcarter
Typically, new threads get started when the old one gets over 1000 posts. But it may not be a bad idea to start IDS Support ~ Part 4 with the New Year....nicky said:
Rodney
rwcarter
Llynn
Cat - I agree with you about the keywords on the Greenwood. If I do do an IDS with it I know that they will affect my initial response to the cards and I would be tempted to trim. I have guilty feelings about trimming an OOP deck, but then thought it's my OOP deck and I can do with it what I want!
Faolainn Storm - I love your working version of the deck. I have the patience to trim but but not to make one for myself from scratch.
zan_chan - I enjoy reading your (and everyone's) posts. The Haindl deck is not one that I've been able to "get" but it is nice to see someone who does.
~~ Lynn
Faolainn Storm - I love your working version of the deck. I have the patience to trim but but not to make one for myself from scratch.
zan_chan - I enjoy reading your (and everyone's) posts. The Haindl deck is not one that I've been able to "get" but it is nice to see someone who does.
~~ Lynn
Promise
Hi everyone!
I'm still here, quietly plugging away with the Bohemian Gothic. I've been working to develop a game plan, trying to figure out how I want to go about working with the deck, and I think I'm most comfortable bridging "study" with intuitive reading. I've been pulling a card and jotting down my impressions of it in my journal, then I read what the companion book says about the card. I don't let the book completely change my impression, but rather I let it augment and refine that impression, morphing it into something that blends tradition with personalization. I'm getting a lot out of it so far, and I honestly don't feel like I'm being forced to do anything. If I don't feel like working with the deck, I don't. Simple as that. I'm not going to beat myself up over it!
The more I work with the BG, the less it feels like a "dark" deck. At first, the color scheme and the imagery made it feel confined and depressing, which was the problem I had with it the first time I tried to seriously work with the deck. But now that I'm getting to know the cards individually and making them mean something beyond just pretty pictures on paper, it isn't an intimidating deck anymore. In fact, it feels rather comfortable at this point. It's becoming familiar and safe, in that the deck and the world it creates are like my safe haven, an escape when I need it and touchstone to pull me back to reality.
It's an odd relationship, but I like it. I really, really do.
I'm still here, quietly plugging away with the Bohemian Gothic. I've been working to develop a game plan, trying to figure out how I want to go about working with the deck, and I think I'm most comfortable bridging "study" with intuitive reading. I've been pulling a card and jotting down my impressions of it in my journal, then I read what the companion book says about the card. I don't let the book completely change my impression, but rather I let it augment and refine that impression, morphing it into something that blends tradition with personalization. I'm getting a lot out of it so far, and I honestly don't feel like I'm being forced to do anything. If I don't feel like working with the deck, I don't. Simple as that. I'm not going to beat myself up over it!
The more I work with the BG, the less it feels like a "dark" deck. At first, the color scheme and the imagery made it feel confined and depressing, which was the problem I had with it the first time I tried to seriously work with the deck. But now that I'm getting to know the cards individually and making them mean something beyond just pretty pictures on paper, it isn't an intimidating deck anymore. In fact, it feels rather comfortable at this point. It's becoming familiar and safe, in that the deck and the world it creates are like my safe haven, an escape when I need it and touchstone to pull me back to reality.
It's an odd relationship, but I like it. I really, really do.
Faolainn Storm
Making one from scratch really isn't that hard. And I wasn't going to put scissors ANYWHERE near my GreenwoodLlynn said:
. It took me TEN YEARS to find a copy of it and I am not going to do anything to risk it. Beside the pictures on the majors and minor are different sizes - you would either have to leave some white border on the minors or cut into the majors (and any trimming would cut into the image on the back). So scanning and printing my own copy was the best route.I have only been working with the Greenwood for three weeks now, but I can report a success! As I posted in another thread I found a lost earring by drawing a card from the Greenwood. *YAY*
Its the first time I have succeeded in finding something using the tarot, and the best reading I have had yet. I'm really happy about the way this is progressing. FS
Cat*
Thanks for all the scans! Now I'm intrigued - how did you get the majors and minors/courts to all be the same size without cropping off parts of the majors? That's the part I've been puzzled with most...Faolainn Storm said:
Yesterday after posting, I took some time to digitally white out the text on the scans I have. Printing those would be a solution that wouldn't require me to spend forever on resizing everything just so - that is, much more likely to be realized soon. I might take off a bit more of the white border, but actually the borders themselves don't bother me that much. I think this is one of the decks where I may even like a small white border around the image.
I like the idea of making an additional card from the back! And I love your green background - very nice, calm color.
Yes, I see the difference in color. The scans I have look very similar to yours.
Maybe I'll try printing a deck and see how it works. Color laser copies/printouts (I'd have them done at a shop since our printers at home are old inkjets that aren't up to the task to make a pretty deck) aren't that expensive anymore, and if I print the backs with some tiny pattern, I might not need to glue anything else to the cardboard, thus keeping the deck somewhat more shuffleable.
I'll let you know if I ever find anything specific about Reindeer! There is a bit about Heron, Woodpecker, and Kingfisher in Ted Andrews' "Animal Speak" - which may or may not be useful. I have mixed feelings about his book but often find it a nice collection of bits and pieces that can serve well as an introduction to the animals he writes about. I've also often found Wikipedia articles to be surprisingly great starting sources for animal/plant mythology.
Well, I've seen plenty of horses, several deer and woodpeckers, a couple of hawks, and even a heron or two outside of zoos. There are also many rabbits near where I live (no hares, though). I "know" foxes, bears, wolves, lynxes, stoats/ferrets, reindeer, and adders from zoos/wildlife parks (then again, that doesn't make these European animals feel any more familiar to me than the giraffes, elephants, tigers, and tropical fish I also saw there). I have no idea if any of the small brown birds that visit our garden are wrens but they could be. I know there are kingfishers in some parts of this area but can't remember ever seeing one. I've eaten quite a bit of salmon but don't know if I ever saw one alive.
I find it easy to love snakes or to like foxes because I've never had to worry about them (I'm not even sure there are any snakes in my area).
Fox, Bear, and Wolf feature in some of the fables/fairytales I vaguely remember reading as a kid, so they might be closest to any sort of mythological/cultural/spiritual concept of animals to me. We do come back to archetypical versions of elements in this deck, huh?
Yes, that sounds like the way to go. Maybe going to the local zoo and watching some of the animals there still would be better than not being able to watch them at all. Ha! I bet my Greenwood would love a study trip to the zoo and/or wildlife park...
And, hey, there must be youtube videos out there that show some of these animals in movement! Or some good nature documentaries or something. That still doesn't tell us much about the spiritual aspects of these animals, but I bet I'd find the animal court cards much easier to read if I saw them moing in my head...Thank you and the same to you!
I believe if the borders were the same size on all Greenwood cards, I'd have snipped them off long ago, OOP/HTF or not! What keeps me from doing it is the fact that the Majors have only one border with text (tarot title on the bottom), but the Courts and Minors have two borders with text (tarot title on top; animal name/keyword on the bottom). I guess I could cut off all the bottoms so I'd have Majors without text, and Minors with the tarot title on the top... I'd prefer to have no text at all or titles on all cards, though.Llynn said:
ETA: Faolainn Storm explained the trimming problems with the Greenwood better than I did...
Just printing out an altered copy is my safest bet for now, though, until I make up my mind what I want/need to cut off (if anything).
Faolainn Storm
I used Word (I have no experience with working with images in any other wayCat* said:
). I inserted the pictures into a document. Then for each picture I opened the menu for sizing pictures, unticked the box marked "lock aspect ratios" and then manually sized all the images to 13cm high and 9.15cm wide (that being the width of a 13cm high Major). It stretched the minors a little (approx 133% high to 124% wide), but no so much that it is noticeable. Though you could reduce the percentage of stretch on the minors by stretching the Majors slightly width-wise. I decided on 13 x 9.15 cm as that was the largest I could make them, and still get four on a page for printing . I then simply printed them off on photo-paper. I tried a white border, and a green border (the backing paper) and no borders and finally settled on no borders.
The back is too pretty to simply discard! And Green was the ONLY colour for the backs. It is such a Green deck (not in colour but in feel - if you get what I mean).
If you do get them professionally printed, I would recommend getting a couple of spare pages, so you can experiement with the final result. I didn't do this at first and ended up having to reprint three pages I had used to experiment with backing and laminating
. I would have loved to have printed it on card, and printed a patterned back, but I couldn't find any card. So I went with photo paper (which unfortunately has the brand printed all over the back and therefore had to be covered with something else - otherwise I would have simply left it white).
I wish there was a zoo around here that had some of those animals. I'd be there in a shot. But there are no wolves, foxes, deer, herons or reindeer at our local zoo.Maybe going to the local zoo and watching some of the animals there still would be better than not being able to watch them at all. Ha! I bet my Greenwood would love a study trip to the zoo and/or wildlife park...
I hadn't thought of youtube as a source of video! In fact I hadn't thought of nature documantaries either
. I guess I'm just more verbal, than visual. But it's a great idea. I'll have to go to the video store and see if I can rent some. I hope my explaination of how I resized the images helps.
FS
Cat*
Oh, okay. I know how to do that stretching (in more than one computer program, evenFaolainn Storm said:I used Word (I have no experience with working with images in any other way
), so your directions make sense. I actually looked for such non-aspect ratio stretching (or whatever the technical term for that may be) but couldn't make it out, not even in the side-to-side comparisons. So its effect is indeed rather subtle! Well done!I can do that.
I think I'll go for six on one page or something, slightly smaller than the original.Yes, yes, and yes.
The back is pretty, and I guess I'd like it even better if it weren't on every card but just on one of them. I'd have picked the same kind of green for the predominant card back color. And I know what you mean about the 'green feel' of the deck.Good idea, I bet I'd have forgotten that again.If you do get them professionally printed, I would recommend getting a couple of spare pages, so you can experiement with the final result. I didn't do this at first and ended up having to reprint three pages I had used to experiment with backing and laminating
How did you laminate your cards? I meant to ask about that yesterday already but must have forgotten. And how did you glue on the back paper? Doesn't it come off when you shuffle the deck? Or don't you shuffle it that much in the first place since it's mainly your study deck?
I was thinking that I can maybe do without lamination if I have the copy laser-printed...
Does photo paper also come in matte? I usually don't like the shininess much, except on actual photos...
I made an oracle deck for a friend once (just black text on white) and the cardboard they had in the copy shop works just fine. I'd take more time cutting the Greenwood copy, though, since my friend's deck ended up slightly uneven despite my best efforts. Then again, I didn't have any lines to cut along, so I probably did well considering.
Heh, it also took me quite some time until I arrived at the idea of looking at moving images...I hadn't thought of youtube as a source of video! In fact I hadn't thought of nature documantaries either
Oh dear, this is totally turning into a technical discussion of making working copies of decks...
So, to get back on topic:
I recently tried zan_chan's IDS spread and had to laugh about my result: My deck threw three(!) courts at me (out of six cards altogether) and gave me "Frustration" for what it is trying to teach me at this point, and "Struggle" for what I need to know about the future of my IDS.
Yeah, thanks for the uplifting message... 
Seriously, though, the main point of that reading was to make up my mind about my actual goal for this IDS. So I'm still trying to work that out and bring it to the surface of my consciousness...
zan_chan
Cat* said:I recently tried zan_chan's IDS spread and had to laugh about my result: My deck threw three(!) courts at me (out of six cards altogether) and gave me "Frustration" for what it is trying to teach me at this point, and "Struggle" for what I need to know about the future of my IDS.
Seriously, though, the main point of that reading was to make up my mind about my actual goal for this IDS. So I'm still trying to work that out and bring it to the surface of my consciousness...
<red faced> Thanks for trying out the spread, Cat. Sorry it didn't take a bit more.., er, pleasant turn. Maybe struggle is a positive message. It's testing you, making you want to work harder and overcome its challenge.
If anyone else is curious about the results of the spread, but would like a more objective viewpoint than your own, feel free to join next week's IDS Exchange, hosted by yours truly, in which the IDS spread is the spread of the week. Sign up here:
http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=129980
My own IDS is going pretty well the last couple of days. Got to try a couple of readings in the IDS exchange and COS, which was a lot of fun. Studying along, lost in a few different books at the moment, Rachel Pollack's "The Kabbalah Tree" mainly. I actually IMed Rachel Pollack last night on Facebook and got crazy nervous and felt like a Jewish girl in 1989 meeting Patrick Swayze. (thats a lot of cultural reference, sorry haha). I basically just managed to utter, "hi love your work have them all sorry to bother you bye now." So I'm officially THAT guy.
By the way, do you guys get, I don't know, deck protective? Yesterday, someone in the de-enabling thread asked about the Haindl, so I gave it my all. To help her out? Nope-- really just to avoid someone stepping up on my Hermann. Since obviously Hermann is a small, unknown deck that's NOT sold anywhere tarot decks might be available, or anything.
Is that really weird?
Anyway, happy IDSing.
(And FS-- glad to hear your making so much progress with your Greenwood!)
