Dame Fortune's Wheel as a guide to read TdM?

I've been kicking around the notion of getting a TdM deck, but frankly, I feel intimidated. I've had one in the past and generally just used the RWS meanings for the pips. I have the Celtic Tarot and I've gotten comfortable with the unillustrated pips, but the Celtic is based on the RWS tradition, and the actual designs of the cards also give some indication of the meanings as well. I believe the TdM is traditionally interpreted using the Ettiella system. I don't recall Paul Huson's Mystical Origins of the Tarot, which functions as a companion book to Dame Fortune's wheel, or the LWB saying what system is used, but the resemblence of the artwork to the TdM gives me a feeling that Dame Fortune's Wheel is based on the Etiella system as well.

Would doing a side-by-side with Dame Fortune be a good way to learn to use TdM? I imagine it would be useful to learn numerology, but that's a lot for my brain to absorb.

Um, I seem to be malfunctioning. I meant to start that as a separate thread. Moderator?

IMHO, if you want to learn TdM, you need to get TdM. Dame Fortune's Wheel might or might not be based on Etteilla, but it still has illustrated Minors, which, in my eyes, makes it no different from any other deck with illustrated Minors. So, learning it is just as much help as learning the RWS and superimposing the meanings over the TdM pips.

If you're still intimidated, you could have a look at the Old English deck. It has a little more embellishments than the TdM, but most of the scenes are neutral enough not to suggest only one interpretation.

Actually, the TdM pips aren't that plain and unillustrated. There are flowers, there are vines, and there are suit symbols - each of these could suggest a lot to your intuition, it's just a question of practice. You'll soon see that the vaguer the image, the more associations it has.

Dancing moon, I have the old English Tarot on the bed beside me. I should spend some time with it.

Only the Majors are Marseilles-ish. The Minors are very much Etteilla-based so it might be a bit confusing shoe-horning it into TdM...