Emily said:
Hi sravana,
It is more intuitive with me - I've read through Scion's PDF and thoroughly recommend it for getting to grips with the decans in the deck but I'm still more of a straightforward saying what I see reader. I work with the Thoth images as a base then let the smaller images speak.
That's interesting. I can tell that if I was using the deck I'd probably start out with the images first - don't they show what the picatrix or some such shows as the images from the decans?
Emily said:
I read everything I can about the Thoth but many of the books specifically detail the Thoth artwork and the Liber T is different. I know the Liber T includes other symbolism too but the way I read it is definitely working for me.
I've noticed the Egyptian symbolism and am eager to get started and see how it relates to the cards. The Moon card is a firm favourite of mine, I think the lines look like biorhythms - actually I was a little surprised to find out what the artwork is supposed to be. But that's just what the Liber T is about, a deck that runs a lot deeper than you realise. LOL
What are those lines in the Moon card supposed to be? They do look like biorhythms, don't they!
I liked how Serio re-did the devil card, as well - not as phallic as the thoth, imo. That was one thing I noticed. My fav card in the thoth is the justice (adjustment?) card, and I do prefer the thoth one to Serio's.
It must have been a wee bit mind-boggling to have come across "THE" deck, when you weren't completely enamored with it from the first. I noticed that with ALL of the decks that I *thought* would be the one - it was as though the art was almost too much, or there were cards that were just 'wrong'. I'm thinking of some of the cards in the Ma'at (egypt!! lol) that really don't do it for me, like the 3/coins, or the 5(?) wands - the one that shows the chess game. Then I suddenly found the Hadar, and POOF, I see what a completely *balanced* deck looks like.
In fact, that's something about Thoth, Liber T, RWS, TdM - all these decks are *balanced*. Not only do they have a system behind them, but they also don't have cards which are either way higher or way lower quality. They are of a piece. I suppose you could argue about the 2/pents in the RWS being a bit below the standard of the rest of the deck... or maybe not. In the case of the Maat, the Death card, for instance, is absolutely breathtaking. But then there are cards which have obviously been copied from Old Masters (and not credited, much to my dismay) - or cards that are just weird (the Chariot is a real wtf? for me). Too uneven for me to live with on a daily basis.
This IDS idea is helping me define what I think constitutes a *real* tarot deck - and believe me, it's more than 22 trumps with the traditional names, 40 pips and 16 courts. I've gotten to the point that I would qualify many popular so-called tarots as something else entirely - perhaps as an organized oracle? - because while they hew to the tradition, and maybe even read really well... they aren't complete. They are 'thin' and trendy, or they aren't well-thought out, or they aren't coherent artistically (even if well-crafted). They don't hang together color-wise, or for whatever reason they are not something that one (I) could live with for more than a few days at a time.
You know what I'm saying? This comes back to the huge blowup that was the "Different Decks" thread, where Scion and I were making the point that if you're using a RWS clone, then you are *using* the GD system, whether or not you acknowledge it. People don't want to acknowledge that, because it's unpopular.
Tarot is more than 22 trumps, 10 pips, and 16 courts and pretty pictures. Much, MUCH more.
That being said, I'm in line for the Shadowscapes when it comes out - because I like the pictures! But is it a tarot? Sadly, I think not, by my own criterion.
Are most of the decks in my collection true tarots? Probably not lol! It appears I'm turning into that most despised of creatures - the TdM snob. lol
Okay, I've got to stop, otherwise I'll be typing all night.
But it was the smell of the copy I had that really put me off . . . ugh. Hideous. I can't even look at online scans of it without smelling that odour now! LOL
Even though it's the new Aquarian deck (the one in the green box).
