Most Difficult Deck for You?

Emily said:

I also struggle with the Thoth. There are times when I think I'm getting it but I have to work so hard, it's like two steps forward, one step back. I like the artwork but I still get a mental block with it.

It is frustrating, my main deck is the Liber T which is Thoth-like, I have no problems with it, its never frustrated me so why can't I read the Thoth? But the upside is I'm very happy with the Liber T.

Click to expand...

We should get together sometime. Everything you say about struggling with the Thoth and not with the Liber T, I feel about the Liber T and not the Thoth.

The Cachet Tarot. It's sad, such a beautiful deck that I would love to have as my main one. But there are a handful of cards that the artwork just doesn't speak to me. The worst of all is the Chariot. It looks cartoonish. It bothers me as I soooo love the coloring and really wanted this as numero uno... alas, not to be.

Oh and by the way, the printing I have has a misprint, the Wheel of Fortune is 'Wheel of Fourtune'.

Le Fanu said:

We should get together sometime. Everything you say about struggling with the Thoth and not with the Liber T, I feel about the Liber T and not the Thoth.

Click to expand...

I think I took to the Liber T because it is very visual, especially the Minors. I don't feel the same way about the Thoth, I like the deck but not enough to keep going at it. Also you would think that all the Thoth books I read, for my Liber T, would help me with the Thoth but they don't. I wouldn't move off the Liber T now but I wouldn't mind being able to use the Thoth.

The Sacred Sites Tarot. I loved the Internet images, but not so much the deck itself. When I tried to read with these cards, they weren't telling me a thing.

Otherwise, for me a deck is 'easy to read with' if I can recognize a card without having to look at the title. If a card feels like a puzzle to solve to realize which card could it be it distracts me from concentrating on the reading (as I am concentrating on figuring out which card is which) (unless I 'cheat' and look at the title).

Also, non-illustrated minors don't inspire me.

I also find TdMs difficult but I've been researching them and bought a couple and am trying to work my way into it

Sweet Twilight

gregory said:

Wow ! That is one of my go to decks, and has never failed to hit a nerve...

Click to expand...

Totally agree greggors! Decks I find difficult are ones I cannot connect with. Been away from my decks for a while so I am trying to think of some I have rejected in the past as unworkable. I gave away the Hexen 2 without trying too hard, life seemed too short somehow... Divine Legacy, wont read for me yet. There are others I am sure...

Decks that don't breathe for me...

Terrapin said:

The deck that has given to the most trouble w/ reading and understanding what it's trying to tell me is this:

http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/t-new/index.shtml

I wanted to be able to understand the meanings as its author intended, but the book that comes with it is the most extreme gobbly goop you could ever imagine. New Age extreme. It's a shame because I think they were seriously onto something really cool, but I couldn't make it work for me. Made me feel really dumb.

So then I tried just applying more or less RWS meanings & that was worse. Lately I've been more open to using the intuitive approach of just "reading" the image, but I've since sold the deck and to get it again & try the intuitive approach requires more than I'd like to spend on this OOP deck.

Click to expand...

In a word... YUK! Thanks for the warning.

Decks like this I wouldn't even be attracted to buying. Interesting to read the RWS comes up a lot. I would have said this once too, is it because it holds nothing new do you think? Nothing more to discover?

Cards change for me with the reading and the sitter, so they are kind of alive. But some decks have NO life at all, they have never breathed for me. These tend to be decks like Legacy of the Divine, I have tried and tried, but it is almost as if it is so shiny and varnished I cannot get past it. Too perfect?

Some decks give me a feeling of butterfly's pinned out by a lepidopterist. to be admired, when the beauty of a deck is in it's ability to move and change and fly and sometimes fall and get raggy at the edges, but it is alive all the same.

Hear hear, Winterchild! (Love your name!) I feel the same.

But I WISH I could read with the Fey. Gregory has gone on about it so often over the years, so I got & liked it a lot. But she has also insisted how good the book is (I only had the deck) - so I have just ordered it, at long last, from America. Hopefully all will become clear at last.

Now I have to wait 4 weeks for it ... oh, the impatience!

Shadowscapes...?

Starshower said:

Hear hear, Winterchild! (Love your name!) I feel the same.

But I WISH I could read with the Fey. Gregory has gone on about it so often over the years, so I got & liked it a lot. But she has also insisted how good the book is (I only had the deck) - so I have just ordered it, at long last, from America. Hopefully all will become clear at last.

Now I have to wait 4 weeks for it ... oh, the impatience!

Click to expand...

I just read your profile to see where you were in the world and noted you were selling your Shadowscapes. This is another much revered deck that I cannot connect with. Did you have problems with this one too Starshower? I received the Fey kit last year as a gift but have not had a chance to really look into it yet.

Le Fanu said:

No I don't have it.

Please, picture me - if you can - visibly backing at away at the mention of "New Age gobbly goop."

It isn't even gobbledegook.

Click to expand...

Actually, I would give to you if it weren't for the infernal paperwork required by the USPS for international mail, not to mention that Homeland Security would probably put me on its shit list as a potential terrorist sending a coded message to a European accomplice.