Deck of the Week : Sign-up Thread: Week 302 : May 13 - May 19

[VGimlet]

Welcome Trogon, and it's never too late to join in RavenOfSummer.

Because, hey, no rules. Plus sometimes it takes awhile to decide. Or you may be using your deck Wednesday to Tuesday. Or waiting for a certain deck to come in the mail. Or...there are a million reasons why and they are all good ones.

(although sometimes I don't check the thread toward the end of the week...)

And yes, we love new people - and pretty much anyone that wants to swim along, or ride the Night Bus (I like that AJ!).

 

[Trogon]

I perused my Fantastic Menagerie deck for a bit tonight. I like to get physical feel with a new deck and I love the feel of these cards; they have a silky feeling, matte finish on them that is different from many of my other decks. The cards are a nice size; at 3 1/8" wide and 5" tall, they're a bit larger than my RWS deck. The card stock feels a bit thinner than some of my other decks, but doesn't seem particularly flimsy.

The imagery of the Fantastic Menagerie deck is uses artwork "based on" images by J. J. Grandville. I had held a misconception for some time that he had done illustrations for "Alice in Wonderland", but upon checking their web site, I see that he influenced that author. I'm unsure if this means that they used actual art created by Grandville, or if they created their own in his particular style.

Most of the cards feature characters which are anthropomorphic animals. You can see some good representative cards here; http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/fantastic-menagerie/ ... a particular favorite of mine is The Chariot - I love the mental image of a snail race!

The images on the card tend to be pretty busy, visually, which I thought might make it more difficult to read with, but my reading this afternoon seemed to flow pretty well. Even though the images on many cards don't exactly correspond to RWS imagery, they are based on the same ideas and with a little bit of use, I think they'll prove to be pretty intuitive to use. And, I'll be posting my daily reading on the appropriate thread shortly ...

 

[CharlotteK]

I honestly do get a calmed reaction to the Fountain's Temperance. I love how hazy it looks, it brings memories of cool autumn days to my skin. (The perfect temperature, not hot like most days here but not bitterly cold yet!)

I find this card, like most in The Fountain Tarot, very soothing. I get why people found the deck cool, and there is something a bit sombre about some of the cards. In this card I really like how he looks as though he is sitting in a shift of light. Makes me think of inspiration and quiet illumination - a realisation that there is always a way. It's just a matter of finding the right balance or mix.

The Albano Waite is a good solid deck. I have a 1990s facsimile printing and I'd love to see an original for the colours. That said, I'm really liking this. Not used a RWS for a while so good to reconnect and there's something very enjoyable and attractive about the bright colours. I love the lime greens on the Pentacles.

 

[Trogon]

The Albano Waite is a good solid deck. I have a 1990s facsimile printing and I'd love to see an original for the colours. That said, I'm really liking this. Not used a RWS for a while so good to reconnect and there's something very enjoyable and attractive about the bright colours. I love the lime greens on the Pentacles.

I have my mother's 1968 edition of the Albano Waite. It's a beautiful deck, but I don't use it for readings. The first time I tried shuffling it, 2 cards hit edge to edge and one of them started to split (like two sheets of paper coming apart). I used some flexible glue to gently fix it, but I'd have to be super careful when shuffling. So, for the most part its just part of my collection. My mom was okay with that, I think she was glad that someone had it who appreciated Tarot.

 

[CharlotteK]

I have my mother's 1968 edition of the Albano Waite. It's a beautiful deck, but I don't use it for readings. The first time I tried shuffling it, 2 cards hit edge to edge and one of them started to split (like two sheets of paper coming apart). I used some flexible glue to gently fix it, but I'd have to be super careful when shuffling. So, for the most part its just part of my collection. My mom was okay with that, I think she was glad that someone had it who appreciated Tarot.

Hi Trogon, what a lovely story and so cool you have your mother's deck. It sounds like something important to keep in tact and enjoy looking at it from time to time. I am hoping my son will come to appreciate my collection when he's older. I have a couple of very early RWS 70s decks and I spotted in one of them the Magician card is significantly more worn at the corners than the others. I'd love to know the story of that but I got them on ebay so will never know who previous owners were and how they used them. How fabulous you have something so lovely that is directly connected to your Mom

 

[Scarlet Woodland]

Sorry you were having one of those days yesterday Scarlet, hope today's been better!

I loved your comment about Temperance lowering your heart rate though! It kind of drove home my issue with the fountain tarot for me. I pulled out Temperance, and yes the art work is amazing, but I wasn't moved. I should have been physically moved by it, right?!

I Googled Mary El's Temperance and what a difference! Then I decided to grab a few other Temperance cards and compare them to the fountain tarot - every single one of then gave me more of a feeling of Temperance, even the everyday witch tarot!!

So I think, although I love the fountain tarot for its style, packaging, card stock, silver gilding, minimalism and beautiful art, it's just a bit too cool for me. I'm still glad I have it, it's a gorgeous thing!

I'll keep going with it though, maybe I'm just having a day!!

What do you all think?

https://ibb.co/hSDRfk

RavenofSummer, can't wait to see your Moon Phase Oracle readings- I love it!

The Fountain's Temperance is beautiful but I have to admit it doesn't really do it for me either... mostly because his position looks like such a strain. I like my Temperance figures to look like they've just had a good massage


Alas I've totally given up on the Rosetta arriving this week. Tracking has finally updated and Parcelforce is sending me a customs bill by snail mail that I need to wait for before I can pay them. Sigh. Why can't they just give me the total and let me pay it via the tracking number?! Grrr. So that'll be a day or two and then another couple days beyond that for them to post the actual package.

All of which is to say, I'm switching from the Rosetta to the Didactic Tarot. As VG said (rather more elegantly ) above... s#%t happens.

 

[Trogon]

Another thing about the Fantastic Menagerie Tarot; the Majors don't have numbers on them. This kind of avoids some of the "discussion" over Strength and ... uh ... Justice? Yeah, pretty sure that's right. No mucking about with numbers! Just look at the characters and what they're doing.

Did another daily 3-card just a bit ago. I'm finding this deck to be quite easy to work with for self-readings so far. I'll be posting that in the daily readings thread and including a photo again. I believe that I'll be doing a reading for a friend tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

 

[Trogon]

Hi Trogon, what a lovely story and so cool you have your mother's deck. It sounds like something important to keep in tact and enjoy looking at it from time to time. I am hoping my son will come to appreciate my collection when he's older. I have a couple of very early RWS 70s decks and I spotted in one of them the Magician card is significantly more worn at the corners than the others. I'd love to know the story of that but I got them on ebay so will never know who previous owners were and how they used them. How fabulous you have something so lovely that is directly connected to your Mom

It does. I've only got a few things of hers now. So her Tarot deck became even more significant when she passed on a few years ago. I'm glad to have it, that's for sure.

 

[DaughterOfDanu]

I perused my Fantastic Menagerie deck for a bit tonight. I like to get physical feel with a new deck and I love the feel of these cards; they have a silky feeling, matte finish on them that is different from many of my other decks. The cards are a nice size; at 3 1/8" wide and 5" tall, they're a bit larger than my RWS deck. The card stock feels a bit thinner than some of my other decks, but doesn't seem particularly flimsy.

I love the Fantastic Menagerie. I almost bought it second hand and wished I had. It's such a beautiful and whimsical deck.

I'm glad I chose the decks I did this week, the Starchild and the Spirit de la Lune. I never thought they'd become comfort decks but they have. It's like returning home after a long journey. Familiarity and ease when reading.

 

[Luxa]

Trogon, that's lovely that you have your mother's deck! I hope to pass a deck into my son in the future too. He's only 10 months though, so it'll be a while, for now I'm trying to keep his sticky hands off them

I love the Chariot in the Fantastic Menagerie too - so much fun!!

Thanks for your thoughts on the fountain tarot folks - I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds it cool. Though soothing is another good way to describe it.

I got on with it better last night when I did a reading about health, it'll put it in the spreads thread in a bit. So maybe it just prefers more down to earth subjects.