Deck of the Week : Sign-up Thread: Week 306 : June 10 - June 16

Luxa

You should see VG's collection :D Will be great to use the Chrysalis for something a little deeper... my usual tarot questions tend to be pretty mundane, so nice to test out its full potential.

Wow - I've just had a look!! VG your collection is awesome!!

Good news on my missing 6 of wands, it's on its way to me now. It's going to make a fantastically late appearance via first class post :-D. Beth at Little Red Tarot rocks! :-D

Despite the missing card, we're getting on well. I've managed to do a new deck spread this week. Lovely energy :)
 

RiverRunsDeep

Good news on my missing 6 of wands, it's on its way to me now. It's going to make a fantastically late appearance via first class post :-D. Beth at Little Red Tarot rocks! :-D

Despite the missing card, we're getting on well. I've managed to do a new deck spread this week. Lovely energy :)

Great news, that your Six of Wands is on its way! And what a good idea, to use the info card as its replacement in the meantime. :thumbsup:


Loving my Hekate tarot. :love: The cards are BIG!! Most people seem to prefer tiny cards, but I like them oversized; no need to squint or wear my glasses. :D The images are somewhat elongated to fit the cards, but it gives them a surreal and dreamlike quality that is appealing to me. They are loosely RWS based, enough so that I can default to those meanings. On the whole, they are nontraditional and work extremely well for intuitive readings. Receiving deeply honest and personal readings from these cards. Though this deck works well for daily draws and a variety of issues, I wouldn't use it as an everyday deck. The images encourage bonding and connection, and it feels very special to me. :)
 

EmpyreanKnight

For the first time I will be documenting my concurrent use of two decks - the Centennial for my Daily Draw and the Barbara Walker for the Sacred Days of Midsummer, which happens to be a daily draw of sorts too. I'm excited. :D
 

Carojulie

Hi all,

I come to chat a little about my chosen decks.

I have the Mermaid tarot in two editions : the 2d edition and the 3d edition.
I cannot say which one I prefer ; about 22 cards have been changed from one edition to the other, and about half of these cards I prefer the first version, and the other half I prefer the second veersion.

I know there has been some controversy around this deck (rumour of possible plagiarism with a Mermaid deck from Lo Scarabeo). I read through several posts on the web, and also a whole tread of 80 pages here, plus some other posts here and there, and it made me a little angry with people who accused an artist of plagiarism without proof. Dame Darcy has been repeatedly and publicly accused of plargarize a deck from Lo Scarabeo, when, as far as I know, nothing proves that it is the case, and even more important : Lo Scarabeo made a public statement that there was no problem and there was no plagiarisme or copyrigh infrigement.

I do not like plagiarism, and I do not like the destroying of someone's reputation. The latest is very easily done ; probably easier than the first.

I saw the pictures from the Lo Scarabeo Mermaid deck (cute by the way, very blue and water vibe), and there is no doubt that in several cards, the poses of the characters are strikingly similar to the ones found in DD's deck (it's true that in some cases it is rather troubling)

What IS known about the case : Lo Scarabeo made a public disclaimer that they did not find anything wrong with DD's work, and that they did not consider it morally or juridically problematic.

For some reason that did not deter some people who continued to publicly discredit Dame Darcy, even after Lo Scarabeo public statement.

As far as I know, none of the people who yelled at plagiarism are jurists specialised in copyright, and there is no way to know if the look-alike images from the two decks constitute a case of legal plagiarism or not.

From where I stand, we just don't know what happened, and should be content with the fact that Lo Scarabeo see nothing wrong in it. And, when we think about it, there could be several possibilities :

- Hypothesis number 1 : there is not plagiarism because the art that was traced from an artist by another, has been sufficiently remade in another style to prevent a case of plagiarism (there are precise laws regarding that, I am no jurist and I do not know about the laws so I could not tell if this hypothesis is valable or not)

- Hypothesis number 2 : Dame Darcy did illegally trace her images from the Lo Scarabeo artist (but then why would Lo Scarabeo publicly announce that they did not have a case ? Unless they had an agreement to not pursue if she changed some images.... that is farfectched, but possible.... in anycase nothing proves it)

- Hypothesis number 3 : the Lo Scarabeo artist illegally traced his images from DD (publication dates do not prove anything, art can be made long before it is published, and it is a fact that Dame Darcy has drawn mermaids for decades for her zine Meatcake, amongst others - I am certainly not trying to shift the blame here, this is just pure empty speculation to illustrate my point, which is to show that when we dont know, we dont know !)

- Hypothesis number 4 : both artist traced their images from public images (either free images in the public domain, or images that they paid to access in a bank of images). In that case it is legal, but it is possible that none of them would wish to advertize that fact, though none of them would have anything to be ashamed of in reality (tracing from public images is legal as far as I know)

So these are the four hypothesis that I can make about the situation, and I bet there are several others that I never though of.
My point is : nothing proves any of these hypothesis, WE DO NOT KNOW. So we should refrain from publicly accusing someone.
I am the first one to yell when copyright are abused ; and I am the first one to fight plagiarism, believe me. I have seen it happen close to me live in the past, so I know.
But, I also know that publicly degrading someone's reputation is serious, and it can happen very easily if we believe everything we hear without questionning the truth. That's the dark power of gossip, and of not questionning the appearances.

Here, AS FAR AS WE KNOW, Dame Darcy did not do anything wrong. It looks like plagiarism MIGHT have happened, but that is not sure and there is not public proof that anybody did anything illegal or even immoral, so my point is : let's refrain from judging when we do not know for sure.
Accusing someone of breach in copyright, when we are not sure, is just plain public bashing. And public bashing IS wrong and immoral, certainly.

Ok, enough of that, I wanted to chat about my decks but I let the subject take me further... I am sorry for babbling, but I am actually glad that I eventually make my feelings clear and out of my system !
I'll come back a little later to actually chat about my decks.
Sorry folks for the long post.
Much love to all !
:)

PS : I do NOT intend to reopen a can of worm and I do NOT wish to revive the debate... I just wanted to express my feelings, having read a lot about it, and Dame Darcy's Mermaid deck being one of my favourite decks and my deck for the week. Thanks !
 

Carojulie

So, now chatting about my decks :

- Mermaid tarot :

This is a very RWS deck. Most cards are instantably recognizable for a RWS reader. The only card I saw that derived from traditional RWS imagery (but not from traditional RWS meaning) is the six of pents, showing a merchant ship to illustrate trade, giving, receiving, making goods change hands, making riches flow and travel and move. I like that card very much bu the way.
The court are very good. All court cards are very expressive and give the card the vibe it deserves. The Queen of Wands, expecially, is a true success. It might be my all times favourite queen of Wands.
The Knight of Swords of the third edition is brilliant too.
Only the King of wand in this deck leaves me sceptic. I do not see the energy of the king of wands in this card. But, it is the only court that I am not sold to, for this deck.

I have two editions, the second and the third.

Unfortunately I did a bad edging work on the second edition... and kind of damaged the deck :(
The back are deep blue and the front borders are sepia. I chose a blue marker matching the backs... and it looks great when the deck is put facedown on a table : the edges are vivid deep sea blue, matching the backs exactly.... very chic !
Except that on the front of the cards, the blue ink bled a little under the lamination... unevely of course..... so when you turn the deck face up and you fan it, you see a nice deck with dirty blue borders that make strikes and dots of blue ink on the margins.
Trimming the deck to correct the mistake, is not an option, as the borders are extremely uneven on that deck, and especially on that edition (some cards have no borders at all, some other have 1mm borders, some 3 mm borders, some cards have no left borders, but a 3 mm right border etc)

So, I like my deck but I butchered it a little bit :)() with my unhappy edging. I have edged dozens of decks, I am a big fan of egded decks, I think edging gives them a very classy, special look.... but this is one of my two disasters (so far.. but I am learning from errors, so maybe I wont ruin anymore decks). I am happy that I also have the third edition, otherwise I would feel even worse.

The third edition has 22 changed cards, and more even borders (the borders are not, by far, even in the 3d edition. They are just less completely uneven. But that's OK with me, it has never botherd me even in the 2d edition.... it kind of goes with the spirit of the deck)

Of the 22 changed cards, I often like the two version, and, in some cases I like more the version from the 2d edition, and in other cases I like more the version from the 3d edition.
For example : I love the Moon card of the second edition, with its creature that is half mermaid, half lobster, half woman. I find it better and more telling than the Moon card from the third edition.
But, the knight of swords from the third edition is riding a shark, as opposed to a dolphin in the second edition. I much prefer the shark one, so much more fitting for the knight of swords !
Too bad I butchered the edges of my second edition deck, otherwise I could have made a personal mix of the cards I prefer, and ended up with a totally personnaly deck made of all my favourite cards ! But my unhappy edging job prevented that, unfortunately.

The third édition I edged (safely) in "Antique Linen" ink. It goes well with the light sepia borders of the deck.
I took no risk, and ended up with a result that is chic and neat, though it is not special in any way. But at least it is neat and did not bleed all over the deck.

I love this deck for when I am in need of "water" vibe.. and fun vibe too. It is a cartoonish deck, very feminine and fun, with a quirk sense of humour. It shows young, thin pretty women, so it cannot be placed into the "inclusive" decks, eventhough it shows different skin colors. But, it is a fun deck and goes well for readings that need some water energy mixed to light, fun, easy atmosphere.

I have found that it works well for reading for people that are not completely sold to esoterism and tarot. The "cartoon" side of the deck, the fun and light vibe, make for a deck that, visually, does not seem to take itself too seriously. So, it does not deter people who are new to tarot, or sceptic of tarot reading. But, do not get fooled ! Under its sweet funny images, this deck is a serious tarot deck, a true reader, and it will deliver readings that are spot on.

I like Dame Darcy's work apart from her tarot deck, I like her dark sense of humour, her sometimes trashy feminist takes, and her style of art. If you like this deck, I encourage you to have a look at her zine "Meatcake" and at the illustrations she did for several boooks (Jane Eyre for example)

Ok, I'll come back later to chat about my second deck of the week !
Sorry for this longish post, but if you read the entire way I hope you enjoyed it !
Much love !
 

Luxa

Haha, I'm sure we'll all read through your posts Carojulie! I certainly did and very much enjoyed them!

I read through the threads about copyright and plagiarism too before buying this deck. I'm completely happy with it. I won't go into it further cos its a big issue and we could turn this lovely group into something else if we both go there! I'm glad you mentioned it though.

I'm gutted for you about you 2nd ed and the edging job! :'( What a shame!! I haven't been brave enough to edge any of my decks yet.

I watched a walk through of the two editions side by side on YouTube and i think i loved all of them. I'm especially happy with the new knight of swords too though - riding a shark is just perfect for him.

I've been reading a book about the court cards recently by Kate Warwick-Smith, so i pulled all the courts out and had a look at them. It's something I like to do with decks that I love. I think they're incredibly expressive - l love them! I'll edit this post with the photo I took (its on my phone) if you're interested in seeing them. The King of Wands is my least favourite too. I see him as the mystic in this card, so i think it fits, but he's def not as expressive as the others.

Scarlet Woodland, do you have the book for Chrysalis? It came out after the deck. Just wondering, I just got it this year after having the deck for 3 years and its really helpful for me.

http://imgur.com/a/FOrCw
 

Scarlet Woodland

Scarlet Woodland, do you have the book for Chrysalis? It came out after the deck. Just wondering, I just got it this year after having the deck for 3 years and its really helpful for me.

http://imgur.com/a/FOrCw

I'm STILL dithering over it. Half of me really wants the book and it has hopped in and out of my cart innumerable times, but the other half likes flying by the seat of my pants and going by intuition. There are some good prices on Amazon marketplace at the mo, so you have me extra tempted :D
 

DaughterOfDanu

I haven't touched my Starchild Tarot all week! Then again I've found myself preoccupied with reading the books I got recently and working with the Oracle of the Unicorns. I really am enjoying it. I don't usually like decks with multiple artists but the style of the art chosen for this deck is so similar card to card that I don't really notice. They all flow together wonderfully.

I'll pull out my Starchild Tarot today sometime. It's the only deck I can think of in my collection that I feel matches the dreamy vibe that I associate with unicorns.
 

Carojulie

I haven't touched my Starchild Tarot all week! Then again I've found myself preoccupied with reading the books I got recently and working with the Oracle of the Unicorns. I really am enjoying it. I don't usually like decks with multiple artists but the style of the art chosen for this deck is so similar card to card that I don't really notice. They all flow together wonderfully.

I'll pull out my Starchild Tarot today sometime. It's the only deck I can think of in my collection that I feel matches the dreamy vibe that I associate with unicorns.
Hey DaughterOfDanu, you are right about the unicorn vibe for the Starchild tarot !
I have this deck and, while I find it compellingly beautiful, I have never really read with it, I find it difficult to interpret most of the times.... But you just gave me a good reason to try it again :) Thanks !
 

Trogon

I've done several readings with my Tarot Illuminati this week. Both for myself and for other folks. It is a great reading deck! The Court cards are great and really portray the ideas needed, making them quite easy to work with. (Well, except for the Prince of Wands - the positioning of his head compared to his cape makes him almost look headless! :eek:)

I did want to show off the red velvet bag I bought to go along with it though ... so I've attached an image. This is one of the most beautiful RWS decks I have, so I thought I should get it a pretty bag. :D
 

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