Do you still use non-TdM decks?

Hello, everyone!
I've just recently began reading with the TdM, and it was love at 1st spread!
In fact, I was shocked to discover that the TdM is THE ONE -- that perfect deck I've been searching (years) for!

The 1st time I read with a TdM deck, my Tarot-consciousness shifted and slid into place -- everything "clicked" -- as the cards in the spread suddenly began to emerge from their one-dimensional reality to form a new, 3-dimensional world!
They seemed to be communicating among each other, and with me as well...and the patterns, ah the dizzying array of shapes and numbers, forming a whole, seamless story!

Please forgive my gushing, I'm a Tarot reader in love!
But there is a dark shadow in my newfound joy:
What about my other decks?

I have a modest, but high-quality collection of scenic-pip decks, which I learned to read with.
These decks now seem a bit...cheesy...compared to the TdM's simple, streamlined perfection.
I feel that reading with them at this point would tie me to a specific style, era, outlook, or mode of artistic expression (whereas the TdM offers me unlimited freedom from other people's interpretation, or portrayal, of a specific card).

One of the reasons I can see for hanging on to my "regular" decks, is that they are probably more easy to understand for Querents unfamiliar with the Tarot.
However, I'm so smitten that I no longer want to read for MYSELF with a non-TdM deck!
And I can also imagine selling some of my more collectible "regular" decks, to buy nicer TdM's.

But before making a rash decision regarding my non-TdM decks, I'd like to know whether any of you TdM-lovers still read regularly with RWS or Thoth-based decks?
If so, why?
(Are there any benefits to reading with a non-TdM?)

Hi Princess Paulina!

I'm a TdM fan as well! I started with TdM and it's still my most used deck but I'm not a purist... Lately I've started learning the Thoth and that gave me a totally different perspective on tarot... I also use from time to time the Balbi, the Wirth, the Papus...

I feel that using different decks could be an enriching experience--I've come to consider each deck for its own charateristics and mood and not by TdM parameters

so if I were you I'd sell the decks I don't like/don't find useful or "deep" enough, but keep some non-TdM decks which I might use in the future. Just my 2 cents!

I'm a two-deck person.
Albano-Waite - For self-analysis only, using its Golden Dawn astrological, elemental, and Qabalistic attributions.
CBD TdM - For everything else.

Before going back to the TdM (I used it a few years ago for 6 months or so), the only deck I'd read with in the last year was the Hoi Polloi.
Since rediscovering how wonderful reading is with the Tarot de Marseille though I haven't even looked at my Hoi Polloi and will be just using TdMs for the foreseeable future.

PrincessPaulina said:

The 1st time I read with a TdM deck, my Tarot-consciousness shifted and slid into place -- everything "clicked" -- as the cards in the spread suddenly began to emerge from their one-dimensional reality to form a new, 3-dimensional world!
They seemed to be communicating among each other, and with me as well...and the patterns, ah the dizzying array of shapes and numbers, forming a whole, seamless story!

Click to expand...

Nicely put, PrincessPaulina! That's how I feel about the TdM, too, but never would have found the words to put it so well.

I started with the TdM, but I still do have a deck or two I like that are not historic or TdM based, but they are rather "unconventional" decks, the PoMo by Brian Williams or Melissa Townsend's Tarot. I agree you should keep the decks you like and value, just in case you want to go back, or go parallel later on.

le_charior said:

Nicely put, PrincessPaulina! That's how I feel about the TdM, too, but never would have found the words to put it so well.

I started with the TdM, but I still do have a deck or two I like that are not historic or TdM based, but they are rather "unconventional" decks, the PoMo by Brian Williams or Melissa Townsend's Tarot.

Click to expand...

Thanks, le_charior!

The non-TdM decks mentioned on this thread are all lovely ~ and most are strikingly different from the TdM (especially the PoMo Tarot!)
Guess I still have the "collector's bug" where modern Tarot decks are concerned -- there's just so much art within them, and art (to me) is a mystical phenomenon in its own right.

I still like a couple of Rider-Waite type decks.


TDM -

Fournier

Grimaud


Rider-Waite

Hudes

Albano-Waite

Freddie

I've hardly ever read with or seriously studied much about modern decks, as non-scenic decks (TdM & soprafino) were my first and thus far only love. However, I do have a beautiful RWS deck that I occasionally dust off, because sometimes I love to see the wonderful colors and people in those cards... I am also contemplating a couple of RWS-style decks, for different uses such as storytelling and meditation, that do not come to me as naturally with my TdM or soprafino. But I think non-scenic will always remain my main reading choice; I get flustered with too many pretty pictures

This is where I am now, too. Loving the TdM's more and more, and feeling less and less attracted to the scenic RWS decks. I have gone so far as to sort my decks into those I want to keep regardless and those I know I won't use any more. There is a freedom with the TdM's that just doesn't happen for me with any other system. In the past when people said exactly that I just didn't see what they were talking about. Now I do

Don't mean to follow wendywu around - it's just "New Posts" time and UK clock timing that have coincided! *waves at Wu*

I feel the cards of my TdMs (all two!) speak and relate to each other in a way the non-TdMs don't. For this reason I get a shot of adrenalin(e) (sp?) each time I use them. But the people and scenes on the other decks that I own (not exactly a huge collection, and it won't become one) have a useful role to play in my readings. So I'm happy with both but in a completely different way. I can't imagine getting to the stage where I check multiple TdMs to see whose hemline is drawn differently.

Interesting thread!