Symbolon Deck

It doesn't take much...a rainy day, one question from someone on Aeclectic...and I grabbed this out again.
I've been using this deck mainly as a card pull for the gorgeous illustrations. Below you'll see that I've only glanced at the substantial pamphlet, although I've had this deck for at least nine months. I'm still learning more about astrology topics, but I initially choose this deck because it was beautifully illustrated.
The initial question was why I found it more useful than the psycards. I posted that I prefer the art. Scenes such as the woman riding the firebird or phoenix in detailed line drawings are a treat---after some art experiments, I reward myself with a card pull. I'm not certain why, but there is a universal quality about the illustrations to me that show subtleness, depth and sometimes painful topics--but not horribly distortion.
Samples from www.learntarot.com and www.wicce.com give good descriptions. Astroamerica does give some pointed feedback in its review. Some of the negative aspects of the astrology symbols picked and and the use of reaching 'past memories' with controversial subject titles is also discussed. There's two reviews on Amazon.com, but they are fairly positive.
My slight misfortune with this deck is I ordered it from a used bookstore that no longer trades on Amazon.com. No one looked at this pamphlet closely, so I thought I was only missing two pages of descriptions---which a kind forum member provided. On closer inspection, the misprinting is such that I have duplicate descriptions of some cards... so I am missing descriptions on four other cards. I ordered a new set, as it takes months for my local vendors to get U.S. Games/AGM Mueller titles.
Two lovely links that reviewed this 1996 deck also vanished in the past year.
If you have the deck, what's your ideas? If you want the deck, do you have any questions?

P.S. Am I the only lucky one in North America who also got misprints in the booklet?

Symbolon/Booklet

Hi, Mari! I always mean to work with this deck, which I've had for about three months, but the system seems so time-intensive that I kind of groan inwardly when I think about embarking -- which is a shame, because Symbolon is such a beautiful deck and its illustrations are so evocative.

I was initially put off the deck by David Roell's review (http://www.astroamerica.com/t-symbol.html), but others were glowing, so I ordered the deck from him and was very pleased with it. A lot of sensitive work has clearly gone into its creation, and the philosophical/astrological system behind it seems well-informed.

The booklet that came with the deck was in good order.

i have this deck as well, but i never got around to really working with it. and i dont know much about astrology.
the deck itself is lovely, and it comes with a german book that explains loads. dunno if you guys have it but i can scan a sample if you would like.
i'll get it out of its box
tnx mari for bringing it up !

~kaz

Rolling Along with the Tumbling Symbolon

Astraea said:

I was initially put off the deck by David Roell's review (http://www.astroamerica.com/t-symbol.html), but others were glowing,

Click to expand...

Oooh we have to have happy people in a deck or it's just no good! I believe another review was disappointed that abortion was referred to. Not to mention infanticide and chastity belts.

David feels a shiver at bringing up such memories, I'm assuming he means from his own past lives, which is a major projection I didn't need to hear about in a review.

The one thing that put me off was the past lives remembrance stuff. Simply because it interferes with the images as art in my mind.

David states:
"though I doubt anyone has a memory of a winged Mercury come to deliver a consoling message (Cancer/Gemini card)."

See, right away he let the past lives thing interfere with an image. Hey, winged Mercury came to me in a dream last week and told me to go to the florist. Apparently I was an FTD delivery guy in my last life and needed to work through some issues by purchasing a $92 bouquet of daisies and freesias from The Wee Village Flower Shop to console my cat.

It is SO limiting to shovel a deck of cards like this into a small, narrow box. I want to hear the story, does it have to be the story someone subjectively says is dredged up from a previous incarnation?

What about just working through things going on today with the cards and treating them as archetypes that tap into your current emotions and intellect?

Thoughts?

Edited to say in some frustration: "AAAAAAAGH, look at the art and details on these cards. Why do we have to limit them, constrain them, narrow the vision, pummel them into submission to a fantasy of a remembered life? Was I a woman held on public display in the stocks? Lirerally? Narrow, narrow, narrow. Maybe instead I was an ox with a wooden yolk around my neck and plowed many fields so people could grow food to stay alive. But it's not literal to the image so we can't make up that story. Too bad, I kind of had an interesting theory on historical crop rotation I could have worked into the ox angle.

I have had this deck several months. The booklet seems okay. I found the astrology system baffling and hence have never worked with the deck. I welcome the study group. Though this means that I now have three decks by my computer, (others are the Fey, and the Marseille) for various study threads.
I too love the art. The astrology part seems to suggest that you only use the cards which show aspects appearing in your chart. I find that puzzling. And I also, since past lives don't seem to have imprinted themselves on me, they do not add anything to a reading for me.
Thanks for starting this Mari!

Roell/Astrology

By his own admission, David Roell is something of a curmudgeon and very opinionated. But I like him and it's a pleasure to do business with him via www.astroamerica.com (the website associated with his Astrology Center of America). His on-line scans are nice, and he posts six cards from every deck -- the same ones, so that people can compare particular cards. His reviews are terse, tart, and often right on the money (IMO); at times, I have disagreed strongly with him, but always with respect for his long years of study.

From what I've seen of the Symbolon so far, it appears to me that it could be used in any number of creative ways -- but I believe that a significant commitment of time and study probably ought to be devoted to it, in order to do justice to the beauty and depth of the cards/system. I think that a working knowledge of astrology would be helpful in working with the deck, but not necessary (in fact, the book says as much).

I must confess that I've had this deck for a couple of years, and done nothing with it, except to look at the pictures.
They're like fairy tale illustrations, except that I don't know many of the stories. They fascinate me and speak to some very deep place in me.
I find the Astrology confusing to a large degree, because I am just now--like this week--beginning to actually study Astrology, finailly.
The LWB that came with my deck--we are all talking about a LWB printed on extremely thin paper in very small type, right? --
has not been helpfull to me, so far. I find it hard to work with, for both hands and eyes.

Maybe it's because of that That I have been blissfully unaware that this is supposed to be past-life connected....I would have voted for semi-mythic-archtypal-teaching-stories=Astrology.

I see that I need to go read those reviews, etc, to get some idea of what i have here.

Thanks, all

Delighted and creative

responses. I think all the people who want to access their own ideas of their past soul path or memories have pinpointed what I wanted to do. I value the story ideas that come from the pictures.
The suggestion of the ox in the yoke was interesting to me---there's some modern Buddhist paintings about a boy and an ox and they are metaphors for steps to enlightenment and learning, I think?
Most of the gorgeous AGM Mueller decks that I have seem to come with a substantial pamphlet that is initially interesting for background. But this can become a bit constricting if somehow the art that engages me or ideas seem to spill beyond the framework of the deck. Still, I value the ideas that the authors have. I am frustrated when I pull cards that are missing descriptions--four in the misprinted pamphlet, so far.
By the way, while historical Western astrology might be a soul sister/brother to antique tarot developments, it was easier for me to work with tarot first. So when I picked up the Symbolon deck, I worked with it as a tarot art deck.
There's a few books and at least one oracle deck, Oracle of the Radiant Sun, that explains aspects such as Moon in Libra and personality characteristics. I'm hoping my new set comes soon with a complete booklet so I can have the missing titles/explanations for four cards. In the meantime, I'll check this thread for further ideas.

i did some reading in the german book that came with the deck. apparantly you can use astrology or you dont. it doesnt matter, says the author.
u tried to understand what they say about the astrology thing, and i can read german no problem, but i just dont understand a thing of it. then i go to the descrioptions of the cards and look at those astrological notes about them, i am lost, raelly lost.
who here is a experienced astrologer? i can translate that german piece into english and give some examples of the cards astrological notes. i would like some help in unfderstnding what this is about.

~kaz