IRONWING Study Group - Index

Wendywu

I started out by going to the Reading Exchange and offering readings for feedback. I figured that it would make me learn the deck. At the same time I read the handbook very thoroughly several times but after I'd done the first ten readings or so I put the book away, except for the lists of flora, fauna and crystals.

Each week I join the Reading Exchange Circles, as many as I think I'm going to have time for, and also I try and complete a card study. I do the studies by spending a couple of hours staring at the card - often fairly blankly and hoping like hell for inspiration :D. Then, I meditate on the card, and wait to see what feelings it produces in me, what ideas bubble up and where they take me. After all that lot, I start writing. Sometimes I write the study in one go, other times I don't have enough clear time and it has to be one paragraph at a time.

When I started working with the deck I knew that I wanted to have a relationship with it where I understood what the cards mean to me. I decided that I wanted to work directly with the cards rather than with text books. What I definitely didn't want was to develop an understanding of Lorena's intentions for each card, because although she authored the deck it is me that is reading it, and so I need my own relationship with it or I won't be able to read it clearly. If I used the book I think I'd have a sort of "book-veil" between me and the cards.

With the animals and plants etc I am aware that their characteristics are important and so I do research them. It's taking me ages and so sometimes I end up reading cards and just knowing that there's a bird of prey on it or whatever. Other cards I actually know that the bird is a shrike, or a poor-will and that the tree is a bur oak. Also I look up about the crystals. But these are matters of fact and not of subjective opinion. Once I have the facts about the creatures etc it is up to me how I fit them into my personal view of the card.

I am finding that the more time I spend with the deck, the more of a shamanic worldview I develop. My spiritual life has deepened, widened and grown far richer. My eating habits have changed! My personal discipline is changing and I am changing as a person. I have tried so many things I wouldn't have dreamed of, spurred on by what Ironwing is dragging out of me.

This is a far harder card study than I found with the Templar - with that deck, I love it to bits, but my responses were almost entirely emotional and/or intellectual. With Ironwing my responses to the cards come from a much deeper place. I already know that I will be studying this deck for years, not months and I look forward to it :)

Thanks for the heads up about my mail box - my email isn't open at the moment and so I didn't get the notification - I wouldn't have known without you saying so - thank you :)

Totally forgot - I try and do a daily draw with the deck as well.
 

Wendywu

Oh yes - I read with it in person too whnever I get the chance. I aim at about five readings a week if possible because I find reading for others shows me the possibilities in the cards - there are soooo many for interpretations for each card and reading helps me see them and understand them.

I do buy other decks - quite a lot of them, but having checked that the cards are all there, and that they are what I thought I was buying, I put them on the shelf and don't use them.

I read books on numerology because it fascinates me. I read about crystals etc. At the moment I've been researching ochre paints ready to paint my wall - the history of ochre is interesting. I am part of the Singing the Soul thread, and I read other shamanic books, and practice what I can of what I read. All of these things help with my study. I tend to grab whatever book interests me and read it, but I avoid Lorena's handbook like crazy :D
 

fairybugg

Wendywu said:
When I started working with the deck I knew that I wanted to have a relationship with it where I understood what the cards mean to me. I decided that I wanted to work directly with the cards rather than with text books. What I definitely didn't want was to develop an understanding of Lorena's intentions for each card, because although she authored the deck it is me that is reading it, and so I need my own relationship with it or I won't be able to read it clearly. If I used the book I think I'd have a sort of "book-veil" between me and the cards.

With the animals and plants etc I am aware that their characteristics are important and so I do research them. It's taking me ages and so sometimes I end up reading cards and just knowing that there's a bird of prey on it or whatever. Other cards I actually know that the bird is a shrike, or a poor-will and that the tree is a bur oak. Also I look up about the crystals. But these are matters of fact and not of subjective opinion. Once I have the facts about the creatures etc it is up to me how I fit them into my personal view of the card.

I am finding that the more time I spend with the deck, the more of a shamanic worldview I develop. My spiritual life has deepened, widened and grown far richer. My eating habits have changed! My personal discipline is changing and I am changing as a person. I have tried so many things I wouldn't have dreamed of, spurred on by what Ironwing is dragging out of me.

I think that is what I "know" is going to happen with this deck. My first deck was the Hanson Roberts. I love that little deck and I can read easily with it but it is a lot in my head. I "know" this deck is going to take me far out from where I am now and I don't want to stand in it's way. I agree about the "book-veil". I think that is what is happening and I want to rip it down and start over... I think I will hunt down the readings exchange area and check that out. Sometimes (expecially with a new deck) I loose all self confidence I once had about my tarot. Perhaps that is the point... :)
I will start reading my shaman books again. I had put them down for awhile because life got busy but I think that they will inform what I am trying to learn...
Thanks for sharing with me what you do to study. You are truely dedicated to this deck... Hopefully I can tread quitely behind you. :)
Fairybugg