Settling into the Quantum

nisaba

So, many of us have owned our copies for a while, now, and for mostf of us it's not a first deck, so we have some Tarot knowledge to build on.

How are we finding our deck is settling into our lives, our readings, even our collections?

Does it like or dislike being near certain other decks, or being used on the same days? Those of us who have face to face clients, what do people think of it, and has it attracted people you really wouldn't have thought would like it? does it work better or worse for different kinds of readings?

Mine, I love dearly: I made a lot of noise when I first bought it to people will be aware I thought very highly of it. It is often the case a deck will start off really well with me, then subside a little even though I still like it; but this one, whilst it isn't my "top one", is certainly in my top three, possibly two, of all time. I find I don't use it every day or every week, but every time I pull it out, it's out for longer than other decks will be, and I come back to it with relief and joy. I find it's happy to be a "workhorse" deck and to throw readings about everyday stuff - then it'll switch and go into Mystical Overdrive in an instant.

The oddest two people it attracted were a gay artist, a local here, who can't sell his work and is fascinated with fairies (the Beatrice Potter kind, with the wings and glitter and nose jobs). He offered to buy me a fairy deck to use with him at one stage - then he saw the Quantum, and hasn't even mentioned sparkles or translucent dresses or lipgloss since. The other was an elderly Peruvian woman (I don't know how old she is, but her younger daughter is 71), very superstitious, very old-fashioned. Expected her to go for the RW, if not the actual Visconti - both were on offer that day. Instead, she went straight to the Quantum, and it did what she needed in the reading perfectly well. Just goes to show - I shouldn't be so judgemental.

And a last question, this one aimed at Kay and Chris next time they show up: now that time has passed, how do you personally feel about your creation? In the light of hindsight would you have done anything differently? It must be a dilemma to have created more than one deck: is the Quantum among your reading-decks, or your only reading deck, or just past history for you?
 

Hedera

Great post Nisaba!
What a good idea, to re-visit one's experiences with a deck from time to time.

I've had the Quantum for about a week now and I've only used it for two-card dailies so far, but it does occupy a unique spot in my collection.

I like how calm the cards feel; not dull by any means, but they feel a bit more 'still' than many other RWS-type decks, in spite of the people's faces in them.
I quite like the faces actually. They make for a nice balance between all the big (or tiny) concepts, the space clouds and star clusters, and a more personal, literally down-to-earth aspect.

There is a stillness in a lot of the cards which I really appreciate. They're detailed, but on the whole not overly busy, in spite of all the things that sometimes suddenly pop up when you look at a card closely.

It's interesting that some of them (4 of pentacles for instance, 10 of cups) are almost more in the 'moody minors' category, like the Thoth minors (although the meanings are more RWS generally, I think).

I've been studying the book, but I find I don't need that at all to read the cards - although, of course, the scientific ideas add terrific extra meaning.
I would love to read more on the subject, but I haven't been able to find anything yet that looks both useful and understandable (any tips on books are greatly appreciated!).

I think this is a deck that would be absolutely terrific for a one-deck-study sort of thing, if one wanted to do something like that.
I'm planning to visit the study group a lot in the next couple of weeks, to see what people here have said about the cards, and perhaps add my own observations/impressions here and there.

Most of all, I really like the gentle, calm, almost serene feeling I get from it.

(and the silver is lovely too! :D)
 

nisaba

I know what you mean about that serenity - and yet so many of the images include detail of various kinds of enormous and tiny explosions and implosions! Things being sucked into black holes, spewed out of galactic clusters, fizzing around hte insides of electron orbits ...

And yet yes, it is a peaceful deck.

I think we have the faces to thank for that, myself. This Tarot deck is *highly* populated, paradoxical for one set so far away from human habitation, and yet with the exception of the Chariot who is having fun, or the possible exception of the Queen Wands who is concentrating hard on something, all the faces are utterly calm, even faces in cards that you'd expect to be more dynamic, more vivacious or lively.

So humans, who are not usually very calm for long, have imposed calmness on a roiling universe. A pleasing paradox.