Motherpeace---do you use it?

[Grizabella]

I've taken an interest in getting to know the Motherpeace deck. I've intended to ever since I found Tarot but I just never seemed to be able to concentrate on it enough to understand it.

I've started posting input on all the cards in the Motherpeace study group if anyone is interested in following or participating. Aside from that, I thought I'd start a discussion thread here to see if anyone else has taken the time to learn the deck and use it on a regular basis.

Motherpeace will have its own link in the main list once we've posted enough of the cards but for now you it's easier if I post a link. If anyone is interested, here's a link to the study group: Motherpeace Study Group

 

[Aeric]

While I don't own the deck, I own the book, Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess Through Myth, Art, and Tarot.

I own a different round deck, and I've found round decks in general difficult to use and have had to make up my own reading methods. Motherpeace and Daughters of the Moon regard traditional rectangular cards as embodying a patriarchal absolutist viewpoint of stark black and white. While I heavily disagree with this philosophy, I do see the risk of a simplistic reading with that positive-negative mindset.

But the books only give vague suggestions about how to read cards that are tilted in various degrees. The Motherpeace cards are hand-drawn and the backs aren't perfectly symmetrical, so it's easy to see when a card is tilted. But if it's tilted left or right, what do you do? Little information is given.

I find that treating round cards like the face of a clock helps, especially since these decks emphasize round cards to discuss phases of cycles, like the Moon. 6 o'clock, that is 180d reversed, is the New or Black Moon when a process is starting, and 12 Noon upright is the Full Moon when it's at its apex. Each card then has a degree of process within the spread, so just because a card may be in the "final outcome" position doesn't mean the event is definite or finished.

 

[Sophia77]

MoPeace

I really really wanted to love the MoPeace- I practice Dianic Witchcraft and wanted to connect with the Goddess Spirituality in the MoPeace. But I didn't. I've tried many times, and it's just not my thing. I appreciate what it is, and the role the creators played in Goddess Spirituality- but that is where my love ends.

 

[foolMoon]

I got this deck with the book, and found them quite good. I use it maybe once a week. It's my very first round deck, which made me feel interesting towards the deck, and also I feel the book is very clearly written with soft but deeply spiritual messages. Will pop into to the Study Group sometime.

 

[Grizabella]

While I don't own the deck, I own the book, Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess Through Myth, Art, and Tarot.

I own a different round deck, and I've found round decks in general difficult to use and have had to make up my own reading methods. Motherpeace and Daughters of the Moon regard traditional rectangular cards as embodying a patriarchal absolutist viewpoint of stark black and white. While I heavily disagree with this philosophy, I do see the risk of a simplistic reading with that positive-negative mindset.

But the books only give vague suggestions about how to read cards that are tilted in various degrees. The Motherpeace cards are hand-drawn and the backs aren't perfectly symmetrical, so it's easy to see when a card is tilted. But if it's tilted left or right, what do you do? Little information is given.

I find that treating round cards like the face of a clock helps, especially since these decks emphasize round cards to discuss phases of cycles, like the Moon. 6 o'clock, that is 180d reversed, is the New or Black Moon when a process is starting, and 12 Noon upright is the Full Moon when it's at its apex. Each card then has a degree of process within the spread, so just because a card may be in the "final outcome" position doesn't mean the event is definite or finished.

The method I'm using is pretty much my own. I divide the circle into four parts, like with a medicine wheel and then just go with it that way. The first "15 minutes" of the circle is the message of the card starting to diminish in intensity, but then as it moves around to the "half past" position, it's waning until finally at its lowest point. Once it starts on the upward journey again, it gradually grows in intensity till it reaches the most intense point when the card is fully upright again.

I really really wanted to love the MoPeace- I practice Dianic Witchcraft and wanted to connect with the Goddess Spirituality in the MoPeace. But I didn't. I've tried many times, and it's just not my thing. I appreciate what it is, and the role the creators played in Goddess Spirituality- but that is where my love ends.

This is interesting. I've had the deck and traded or gave it away multiple times over the years, but just couldn't quite totally let it leave my life altogether. I never connected with it in spite of trying many times, but now it seems the time has come for me to hang in there with it till I understand and can use it fluently.

I got this deck with the book, and found them quite good. I use it maybe once a week. It's my very first round deck, which made me feel interesting towards the deck, and also I feel the book is very clearly written with soft but deeply spiritual messages. Will pop into to the Study Group sometime.

Yes, please do drop by the study group! Since you actually regularly use the deck each week, I know you'll be a great asset to the study.

 

[3Jane]

I really really wanted to love the MoPeace- I practice Dianic Witchcraft and wanted to connect with the Goddess Spirituality in the MoPeace. But I didn't. I've tried many times, and it's just not my thing. I appreciate what it is, and the role the creators played in Goddess Spirituality- but that is where my love ends.

Actually I have this problem with Daughters of the Moon Tarot. I love the images and the idea of substituting Page-Knight-Queen-King with Maiden-Mother-Crone but I'm having problems reading it because I want all fours, fives, etc to express the same idea, whereas in DotM I think they were assigned rather randomly (the author says that she didn't like the idea of bad cards concentrated in Swords so she spread them around into other suits).

Motherpeace I disliked for the scan/print quality because the lines look blurry. However, later on I got used to it and it's actually one of the decks I prefer to use for readings. It does have minors which are structured by number. Reading both books ("Motherpeace Tarot Guidebook" by Karen Vogel and "Motherpeace: A Way to the Goddess through Myth, Art, and Tarot" by Vicki Noble) helped me a lot with understanding what was meant. I still get stuck on court cards though.

 

[tarotbear]

Sorry, Ladies - I always found the Motherpeace one of the biggest instant turn-offs of my life.

Is it the fact (aging memory aiding me, here) that the book opens with the statement "MEN make WAR; WOMEN make PEACE" ? IMHO the Motherpeace is guilty of the most heinous 'sin of omission' - that being that it turns around and does exactly what it criticizes other decks for doing/being - it is a deck created by male-haters.

What's up with the boobs on the Hierophant? - Probably the most glaring if not ridiculous image - it has always stuck in my mind. Since the Motherpeace Hierophant is about male dominance and the deck is for male-haters - why put boobs on him?

Just my opinion - and my two cents. When I created my male-centric deck I did not remove the female cards such as the Empress, Justice, HP, etc ... because I don't hate women. Being male-centric did not mean being female exclusive. For me - the Motherpeace fails on all counts.

 

[nisaba]

TB is very lucid and intelligent about his objections. Mine are more nebulous. I've never owned the book, so any man-hating passed me by. My objections are that the artwork is a little *too* naïve, and that the deck is a bit *too* tribal, in a way that real tribal folks wouldn't really recognise.

My liking for the deck is based on the fact that in 1984 an absolutely awesome reader, now a long-term friend, did a brilliant reading with the deck with me which still resonates today.

I own a copy, but sadly I do not pull it out much unless I'm reminiscing about that friend.

 

[3Jane]

My objections are that the artwork is a little *too* naïve

I think I read that the author drew it with her non-dominant hand, so that it would be more intuitive.

 

[Aeric]

I find Motherpeace a lot harder to understand than Daughters of the Moon. It's especially evident with the Court cards, but much of Motherpeace's art consists of figures standing around with abstract, disembodied symbols floating in the air behind or around them, not just the suit pips. Not only can it be visually dizzying, but unless you recognize the context for each symbol, it's difficult to understand what they mean or how they contribute to the overall message of the card. Almost all of the DoM cards are complete scenes with few or no disembodied visuals, so the meaning is more obvious. You need the book for Mother much more than Daughters, and regrettably the book is quite vitriolic when explaining many of the images. So much venom spitting. I get now why people who only ever used the deck have a much different attitude than those who used deck and book. Times have changed since the 70s when this deck was created.

And yes the art is much cruder than Daughters. Some of the colouring jobs look like children did them. It's by far the least pretty of the feminist decks.

On the whole, for a women-focused deck I'd suggest the Tarot of the Sacred Feminine first, an utter delight, followed by the Medicine Woman Tarot, and then Daughters of the Moon. For a politically feminist/womyn-only deck, I'd definitely put Daughters of the Moon before Motherpeace and Barbara Walker.