Intensive Deck Study (IDS) Support Lounge ~ Part IV

Mi-Shell - I'm glad to have you read my Ironwing posts - I'm finding that the deck just talks and talks and talks to me; she has sooo much to say! And yet, the voice she talks with for readings for others is very different to the voice she uses for me. I don't very often read for myself - with Ironwing I have a trusted advisor who never judges me but sometimes laughs with me at my idiocy, and joggles my elbow when I am forgetting the things I ought to be remembering.

I love the Greenwood but there is no doubt in me that Ironwing is "my" deck.

One day, in the future, I'd like to study the Greenwood and I'll be lucky because I will have all your teachings to guide me

I gotta admit, reading your posts has me really wishing I could get a copy of the Ironwing...that, and then looking at the pictures, you're absolutely amazing with that deck. I think your IDS is a match made in heaven..or where ever such perfect matches are made

~Yira

KafkasGhost - you rock for posting about your decision Thanks for letting me know. I hope we'll see you back another day, when your life settles a little

Wendy - gotcha

\m/ Kat

Mi-Shell said:

Yesterday I made a full page coppy of the Ancestor and took that to our local drum circle.

Click to expand...

I often print out full page copies of cards and use adhesive putty to stick it to the wall in my computer area. Sometimes I will hang a page above one of my bookcase top altars.

Enlarging and printing out cards and hanging them up, works wonders for getting to know them.

hunter said:

I often print out full page copies of cards and use adhesive putty to stick it to the wall in my computer area. Sometimes I will hang a page above one of my bookcase top altars.

Enlarging and printing out cards and hanging them up, works wonders for getting to know them.

Click to expand...

This is a great idea, like post-it notes of foreign language words around the house to learn vocabulary! Ah-haaa...

Thanks so much, Kat. I may be off the list but I'm sure I'll still be reading this thread. There are a lot of good "teachers" here.

victoria.star said:

Also, do you just take your cards to the shop or do you use a memory stick for their printers?
Just curious, as I would like to make a working copy of Ironwing too!

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I copied all the cards (the best scans I had) into a word file, resized and arranged them there, and finally turned the whole thing into a pdf. [Word documents can get messed up sooo easily from one computer to the next, so it's really worth to make a pdf if you have the opportunity. That way, everything stays as you put it.]

I then took the file on my USB stick to the copy shop where they just opened it and printed it out with a big laser printer/copier.

Make sure you use the thickest paper available (they sell paper by weight, so ask at the shop and try to feel the paper yourself)! I got 200g paper for my small copy, and it's still thinnish. It will work fine, though, for sticking to a big Wheel of the Year chart that's going to go over my bed so I can see it a lot.

I then went to some other copy shops (there are a bunch of them really close around the university campus) until I found one that will print on 280g paper (they have a bigger machine to do it). I will have to go back there, however, as the machine was occupied and I didn't have enough time to wait and also didn't just want to leave the data there (I'm a control freak with copies/prints and always want to check myself if everything's alright ).

---

So I'm still busy with the technical side of things for now. I find it hard to make time for focused attention to my IDS (in terms of doing readings or in-depth study) when I work the late shift. On these days I stay up way too late, then I sleep longer than I want (because lack of sleep = a sick Cat very soon), and then I don't get stuff done in the mornings before work, either.

Next week should be better.

Oh, by the way, I like the idea of making big print-outs of cards and hanging them all over the place. Now if only our printers at home weren't so crappy (and the ink for them so expensive)...

I'm thinking about changing decks. I like my Bohemian Gothic, but I suspect I've gone as far with it as I can. It feels very flat to me. Another factor is that I recently re-acquired the Fey Tarot, and I can feel it calling to me.

How do you all decide when it's time to move on?

I suppose if I were contemplating moving on, I'd want to spend several days in review. Think over what your goals were initially. Did you meet them? Did you find them unrealistic? Did you reach for too much or not enough?

Make sure you are really ready to let go, as opposed to just needing a break. Take a few days and go deckless. See which deck calls you back.

If after a break you really don't feel you want to keep on with your BG, think about what your goals would be with your new deck. What do you want to get out of an IDS with it.

Remember, too, that the inherent culture of AT is variety, the more the better, and the IDS, by its very nature, flies in the face of that. So I'd lay money on what you're experiencing being no more than the simple hiccups that we all hit with our decks. See, most people outside the IDS hit that same "Oh, I've been there, done that" feeling with a deck and think it's time to move on. But really, that's the time when your own mind, your own reactions to the deck, are challenging you to move from one level to the next. If you don't challenge yourself, you'll never move out of the shallows.

I'd say stick with the BG, come hell or high water, ride this flat spot out.

But then, I'm hardcore and unapologetic for it.

\m/ Kat

I'm so sleep deprived, it's hard for me to read. I've lost my problem solving skills. I did a CC tonight and struggled so hard with it. If I wasn't using the ZF and "The Instant Tarot Reader" it would have been impossible.

Note to self. Do not start taking drugs that cause withdrawal...cause if you want to call your doc a bad name and engage in childish drama of dumping the pills on the desk and walking away...you are going to pay for it...and dearly. It is too disempowering to me to be physically addicted to a drug that someone else has the power over. Totally freaks me out. I'd rather suffer the effects of sleep deprivation, no matter how bad they are.

HaHa, I'll HAVE to stick to my IDS now, because I do not have the problem solving skills to use any other deck. Brain dead, sleep deprived people can only use the ZF's canned meanings.

The ZF is oooogly, but...my deck