Interest in a Deviant Moon Study Group?

Sulis

Moderator message

Cosmic Ray said:
I'm ready! How many do we need?

You don't need a specific number to start a study group, one person is enough :).
I think you'll find that with such a popular new deck as this one that people will just join in when the threads start to be posted.

Take a look at this thread before you begin: Thinking of starting or joining a study group - guidelines.

I've started an index thread and added it to the study group index at the top of this forum and if anyone who starts a new thread could PM me with a link so that I can index it, I'd be very grateful :).

The index thread is here: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?p=1553685
And it's now part of the Tarot Study Groups Index which is here: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=34124

Sulis - Tarot Study Groups Moderator
 

Onyx

We are Indexed!

Hello everyone!

I just got my cards and they are as awesome and great as I had hoped they would be.

I am in on the study group! It looks like there are quite a few of us. That is great! I think that we can get started at any point we want though I think it is may take more time for more people to get their decks. It is selling great and retailers seem to be either running out or not getting it.

If I can be so bold as to make a suggestion of how we can start. Normally, it seems that there is a progress of card by card through the Majors or the Minor suits and every contributes. This is a very valid process and would be great.

But I was wondering what if we all split up the cards and took different suits or sections of the deck and each focused on those and then that way we could all generate an awesome study group and equally contribute and learn from others. This way we would all study what interests us the most. What do you all think?

I personally like to start with the minors and work up to the majors. I will likely be looking at the suit of wands but I am intrigued at the Courts as well so I might study them and compare and contrast them.

Boy! This is going to be fun!

Onyx.
 

Penny Dreadfuls

I think we should all just post on whatever card or thoughts on the deck as it strikes us! I've noticed in the study groups the precise Majors to Minors studies never last long, and people lost interest fast.

Let's just post whatever strikes our fancy, I think it'll keep going longer that way. :)
 

Onyx

Penny Dreadfuls said:
I think we should all just post on whatever card or thoughts on the deck as it strikes us! I've noticed in the study groups the precise Majors to Minors studies never last long, and people lost interest fast.

Let's just post whatever strikes our fancy, I think it'll keep going longer that way. :)

This is exactly my point! I look at this amazing deck and so many different topics for study just flood my mind.

A couple of interesting topics to consider:

The Role Woman play in the deck – I think that the list of interesting women in this deck is fascinating. Ace of Wands, Ace of Swords, the Five of Cups and the 8 of Wands to name a few.

The Issue of Race – I am not sure if the creator intended race to be an issue in these cards but I see it playing a part. There are darker moon people in some cards that seem to draw this comparison. The 2 of Swords, The Sun, the Hanged Man, The Lovers, the 2 of Cups, the 2 of Wands, Strength, and the Fool to name a few. These may even to me to fall into stereotype like the couple in the Sun card. I may be reading too much into this but it is worth study.

The Suits as families

The definition of what it means to be Human. – The depiction of humanity, if it can be called that in this deck is almost insectlike. Can there be a thread in the study group about how this deck describes us as humans and our behaviors.

Is there a Fool’s Journey to see in the Majors?


All in all I love this deck and think that our study group of it can be as surreal and different as the deck that inspired it. I just don’t think that following an traditional study group pattern will work for this deck. I don’t think it honors the energy it produces and evokes from us.

Onyx.
 

mac22

Onyx said:
This is exactly my point! I look at this amazing deck and so many different topics for study just flood my mind.

A couple of interesting topics to consider:

The Role Woman play in the deck – I think that the list of interesting women in this deck is fascinating. Ace of Wands, Ace of Swords, the Five of Cups and the 8 of Wands to name a few.

The Issue of Race – I am not sure if the creator intended race to be an issue in these cards but I see it playing a part. There are darker moon people in some cards that seem to draw this comparison. The 2 of Swords, The Sun, the Hanged Man, The Lovers, the 2 of Cups, the 2 of Wands, Strength, and the Fool to name a few. These may even to me to fall into stereotype like the couple in the Sun card. I may be reading too much into this but it is worth study.

The Suits as families

The definition of what it means to be Human. – The depiction of humanity, if it can be called that in this deck is almost insectlike. Can there be a thread in the study group about how this deck describes us as humans and our behaviors.

Is there a Fool’s Journey to see in the Majors?


All in all I love this deck and think that our study group of it can be as surreal and different as the deck that inspired it. I just don’t think that following an traditional study group pattern will work for this deck. I don’t think it honors the energy it produces and evokes from us.

Onyx.

To that list I'd add mental states --- I see various stable & unstable mental states in this deck.....

Mac22
 

Penny Dreadfuls

Race? Hmmmm, not sure he intended race to a meaning with the dark or light people, perhaps more aspects of the phases of the moon? Others may want to get into that aspect, but I don't get that from the cards.
 

Onyx

Penny Dreadfuls said:
Race? Hmmmm, not sure he intended race to a meaning with the dark or light people, perhaps more aspects of the phases of the moon? Others may want to get into that aspect, but I don't get that from the cards.


I think that a study thread on how the phases of the moon would be essential to this study group. I think that you may be completely correct that the issue of race was not a part of the design of the cards but when I look at them I see it in a couple of cards.

An example is Strength. Great card. A break from traditional imagery of a woman, it is a man. (Of course it is a dragon/fish creature and not a lion too) When I first saw that card my first thought was of the story of John Henry. The moral of the John Henry story is that the strength of a man won the race against a machine but died from exhaustion. Could this be a message of a Strength card? "You have the strength to face a challenge and may in fact may need to but the toll for the effort will be great."

Now is it a racial issue to use the story of John Henry no, nor is the story even about race. I have to admit at times it seems absurd for me to even consider an ethniticy of inhabitants of these cards (Four Arms, and I am thinking about they ethnic background?), but it is something that has happens. It also seems okay to examine the inhabitants in regard to their gender. So why not race?

Onyx
 

Penny Dreadfuls

I want to express what I mean without offending anyone :) I guess because when I see images or people or whatever race doesn't really enter my thinking in terms inferring my opinion on something. I know any discussion on race can get heated and misunderstandings abound, and that perhaps disussing the cards from a racial standpoint might lead to stereotyping or something like that, that others here might get offened.

But mainly it's the fact that for myself someones race doesn't really affect how I see or relate to people be it cards or in person etc., so it's something I can't really add to in the discussion. Of course others with thoughts or ideas along that vein can discuss, I only meant I didn't see race as an aspect in the cards so I wouldn't be coming at the cards from that 1 particular angle.

Hope that clarifies and I didn't upset anyone :)
 

Cosmic Ray

I dont see it as a race thing at all. I think that subject is being implied by us and not what the creator had in mind? After all, I see the guy in strength as "blue". And I see circus tents in the background. I feel he is like the strongman at a circus? I do see the tail of the beast has a grip on the strongmans ankle, so I can see what Onyx said about:: "You have the strength to face a challenge and may in fact may need to but the toll for the effort will be great." ::that is interesting.

Temperence is also "blue", the Star is "blue-ish?"...perhaps the "black and white' thing is like the two sides of chess? There is a B/W chess set in the 10 of pentacles, or perhaps B/W is like the ying and yang? Night and day?

For having no "humans" per se in this deck, it sure is a deck about "humanity".


I love it!
 

Onyx

Again, I completely agree!

I love anything that expresses the amazing diversity of the human experience. One thing about this deck is the richness in variety and that the creator seemed to stretch the bounds of the fantastic to bring both a feeling of uncomfortable dissimilarity and yet we can identify with the characters clear as they show genuine emotion and spiritual struggle.

And the more I look at the cards the more I agree with you that this might be a non-issue. Every time a explore a new deck I feel a bit like Sherlock Holmes and I try to catch everything that is going on in the image. The amount of time and work that clearly went in to the deck demands that if I am going to use them for readings to be as observant as possible. I know that everything in the card is based on a choice. I know that most choices are planned and important and there are some that may be arbitrary but at this stage in learning the cards, I don’t take anything for granted.

An example is in the Major Trump XIII I wonder about the sinking ship on the horizon. In the 7 of Pentacles what is the significance of getting blood from a tree? Why does Justice have keys? Can I examine the chessboard on the 10 of Pentacles for any significant information about the game? (Who is winning? Did the fellow under the table cheat and steal that piece from the board or was it out of play when he got it?) Why does the Queen of Wands have both breasts on one side of her body?

This deck has loads of questions that I am happy to work with and wonder about and some I learn and others I won’t. I don’t want a deck that is too obvious and this one promises to always be a bit mysterious.

Onyx.