Yira - It looks like everyone has already given you lots to think about. As usual, this thread brings some excellent questions.
I agree with YODA that, if you are asking, you are already deeply into the answers.
I also agree with Mi-Shell - Tarot is a TOOL. How you use it is entirely up to you. The more you innovate, the more the IDS experience can be for everyone that follows you... IDS for me has been about reading exclusively with, but, not looking exclusively at one deck. That deck is just at the center - the one that brings others in and out like a single important thread in a woven blanket.
Forgive me for my response being so much about 'my experience' but that is all I can speak for and maybe you might pull something of use to you and your question from it.
All I know is what my IDS was intended to do and what it has evolved into over the last 3+ months is surprising and wonderful. All of you have had as much influence as the cards themselves. So an IDS has become this unexpected and unplanned road I am following. I've met other decks (it's inevitable that you will meet the Thoth or RWS if you are using a modern deck) and books and ideas and myself! along the way. I have learned a little bit about what I want and don't want and I am less afraid of making a 'mistake'. So to make it into whatever you want, Yira, is key. If you don't you'll find you will lose steam. Isn't that alone, creative?
The Greenwood may have failed for me as a Tarot, but, by no means was the experience a failure, nor was it a waste - I learned a lot! And I still enjoy new information as it comes up. In terms of reading - it is an Oracle to me, but I can read with it now. I never could before. My connection to the cards has evolved and I learned something about myself. So it was intellectual, spiritual and emotional...
My interest in occult decks has waned and because the Blake is woven in with post RWS structure, there is an aspect of it that is fun to excavate, but, like the Greenwood, it is the exploration of myth and religion that has kept me going, not the occult. I love the Blake in spite of its complexity - maybe because of it, but, I prefer to see the deck in light of Blake's own times, his own views and not in terms of the Tarot structure it has inherited. Have I lost Tarot again? No. I don't think so, but, until I am done, I cannot say for sure. The TdM has emerged more and more in my study of Blake, but, that can only be in the Majors. I know it will be interesting one way or another!
I don't know if that helps you or not, Yira, but either way, allow yourself to explore and don't worry about what is RIGHT. In the end, nobody can tell you what Tarot is for you.
