Hello....(Echo).....

Three days no posts around here!
Let me open some windows! It smells moldy. I'm gonna sweep and dust some and get some fresh air in! Maybe light some incense, play some tunes....

Well, I was reading this old thread between Herzog and Le Fanu about "Eye Rhythms', and what a shame I wasn't around on those days. I would have LOOVED to follow closely and pitch in now and then. Such a fascinating exercise! (By the way, what does IDS stand for?)

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=147553

Well, I don't know if anyone would like to start something like this again, but I would totally be into it!

Cheers,
B.

I bet IDS means In Depth Study.

I am glad you posted! I have a Flornoy Dodal that I would like to get to know. Most of what I've read about the Tarot de Marseille decks (TdM) have to do only with the majors, and them without reversals. I don't even know if it is appropriate to use reversals with a TdM, except maybe to let face cards look the other way. Many of my pip cards look just about the same right side up as upside down.

I've seen two ways of interpreting pips: Lee's Reading pips: the Pips-as-Trumps method (which contains an interesting suggestion by teomat for using trumps 11-20 to stand for reversed meanings), and Queen of Pentacles How to easily use non illustrated pips ( from the Knapp Hall method). I wish it gave more details, like Lee does for each of the minors.

IDS = Intensive Deck Study
That's what the acronym originally stood for (as used in AT), but as Cheiromancer suggested, it amounts to an in depth study of one particular deck, although I personally don't see anything very deep in Enrique's visual gimmicks.

Cheiromancer said:

I wish it gave more details, like Lee does for each of the minors.

Click to expand...

The system is from Papus' Tarot of the Bohemians. As you'll have seen on QoP's thread, I'm fond of the system. You can find Waite's translation of the original here.

I tend to be less specific than Papus: Coins=resources; Batons=projects; Swords=problems or perhaps analytical thought; Cups=emotions or spirituality. I like his ideas on age, friendliness and complexion for the court cards. But the courts may mean lots more, of course. His note at the end, on intuition, is important. The system is best treated as a guide to patterns to the numbers, rather than as prescriptive meanings for the individual cards.

There is a tradition of marking the cards to show reversals, if they aren't obvious in the cards themselves, maybe with an ink dot in the border. That's not always necessary to be able to see an upright/reversed distinction. The Dodal offers advantages in its lack of uniformity, as opposed to say, the Grimaud. But you have to assign a top and bottom to some of the cards. The orientation isn't intrinsic to the artwork. Look at your Seven of Batons, at the tips of the bundles of three batons. On one side the tips closest to the center don't spread out nearly as much as the other tips. But those skinny tips, one at one end and the other at the opposite end, are clearly distinguishable from one another. You can pick one, and say that's the top. And thereafter you'll be able to spot the upright and reversed position of the Seven of Batons. Looking through the deck, I've spotted distinguishing characteristics on all the pips that can be used like that.

But you may not want to bother. A lot of folks don't want to use reversals at all. Papus says that one of the advantages of his system is that it doesn't use them.

LRichard said:

IDS = Intensive Deck Study
That's what the acronym originally stood for (as used in AT), but as Cheiromancer suggested, it amounts to an in depth study of one particular deck, although I personally don't see anything very deep in Enrique's visual gimmicks.

Click to expand...

I think that you don't see anything deep in Enrique's technique because it's not supposed to be deep. Or even to be taken ultra seriously. The way I see it, it's just a poetry game. A way to discover some melody in a group of images. And this approach can definetly be a great condiment to whatever other recipe one follows in using the tarot.

My suggestion for an IDS wouldn't necessarily be locked to this or any other particular methods for reading TdM'‪s. What really interests me is the exercise of building a small story based on three cards.
B.

I'd love to do that, even with my limited choice of one TdM deck. Whenever you're ready, let me know.