Never before have I been so indifferent about a deck, and turned completely around to be an absolute fan as I did with this one.
In my learning journey, I come to realize that utilizing tarot essentially involved several layers of learning all happening at the same time.
TAROT STRUCTURE AND LANGUAGE
First, you have the tarot structure itself. Its language, its relationship to each other, its underlying philosophies, and various other under currents you will have to understand before you engage with it. That's just the first part.
Then, there are the language of the artist, his or her world views, his or her personal symbols.
AESTHETICS
On top of that, you have the art style, which you may or may not choose to engage with the get to the other two.
Some think that this is by the by, and not at all important, a mere tool to enter the real deal behind the colours. The Order of Golden Dawn, which many English language "modern tarot" are based on, instructed their members to draw their own tarot cards after all. That instruction is certainly not based on artistic grounds. But more on spiritual ones. If I understand the history correctly. This is very apparent when you look through a lot of Golden Dawn tarot cards.
Others on the other hand, need to engage through the aesthetics of the images, without which, the mental portal through which they have to go through, to arrive on the other side, is shut close.
LEARNING STYLE
Styles of learning varies. This much we know. We do not all gather data, process information, and retain knowledge in the same way.
I need my decks to be visually stimulating. Otherwise, that deck just wont work for me. So when I saw this deck for the first time, although I love the art, I knew they were pre-existing very well known paintings, and that whole idea seemed very blah to me. Yet another deck using pre-existing work. What is new. Very unoriginal I thought.
But I was wrong.
MY OWN EXPERIENCE
I had to go beyond the aesthetic of the deck to realize this very quickly. Something I only do admittedly usually only after I allow myself to be intrigued by the visuals of a deck. Which in this case, I was not.
This deck was pointed out to me again and again, and I finally was curious enough to take a peek.
The first card that I saw was the "Two of Wands" (Two of Batons, Two of Staves, Two of Fire). And just like that, I suddenly realized what was before me. So I scrolled through the images that was available online.
I was hooked.
I suddenly know what they mean by "reading intuitively".
"READING INTUITIVELY"
The thing about reading intuitively is that you still have to read! To me, creating a story around pictures isn't really reading. It is called making stuff up. Everyone works differently of course. To me, with what I have between my ears, I have to have enough structure to provide a spring board for my intuition. Otherwise, why bother with tarot? I can just look up into the sky and start telling stories about the clouds as my imagination ("intuition"?) takes me. Would that be a "reading"? I don't know. I can only say that it would not be for me. I do not believe in unstructured intuition. Intuition without solid philosophical foundation is too close to the realm of imagination for my comfort. Imaginations, and dreams particularly, can be powerful, and can really help you connect to the other side. But they are not "reading". Not to me.
So maybe, I should say, reading *utilizing* my intuition.
Anyway.
For the first time, I can read the cards with my intellect and intuition in unison, instead of each of them fighting for attention.
Usually, I would catch myself reading the title of each cards, while quickly going back to the Raider Waite Smith's (RWS) scene for each of them in my mind, or mentally rehearsing each of its meaning, thereby completely ignoring whatever pictures I see before me. I might as well throw every decks I have and just use the RWS deck exclusively. Or, write the titles of cards on blank pieces of paper and simply use those. Right? Well, I will never find myself using the RWS deck exclusively as I can not really connect with the images on the RWS, so there is that. Then there is my collecting bug, so there is that too.
So I tried to switch analytical brain off. Only to find that although I am no stranger to "intuition", mine is so used to working within the context of the world around me, that it doesn't know what to do when looking at cards with pictures on them. Especially when these pictures are often foreign to me (That's is a whole other topic right there...)
My intuition is used to working in a world I know all my life: the world of human interactions that I know very well. In trying to apply this intuition to a system I am just beginning to grasp, it is suffocated by the analytical need of my brain to process new information.
SEVERAL LAYERS OF PROCESSING
Essentially, I feel, tarot learning involved several layers of processing: the world of the tarot (Golden Dawn? Crowley's? Marseilles? European style?), the world of a particular deck (Myths? Fairy Tales? Cultural? Buddhist based? Circus based? New Age? Sacred Feminine? and so on), and the visual language of a deck (Realism? Photo journalism? Computer graphic? Sketch? Line art? Paintings? Collage? Etc).
This can result in a highly complex information intake process involving several parallel layers of concurrent cognitive engagements. Having an inclination for a certain type of learning style, my brain would immediately engage in a knee jerk analytical learning, because there are just so many information to go through.
The intuitive side of the brain simply did not get a chance.
FAMILIAR IMAGES
Through the use of well known paintings that were created especially for artistic purposes, and by the use of stories in mythologies to convey the essence of each card in the Tarot of Delphi, the deck's world view overlaps with mine from the get go.
Although I do not know all the art work and mythology equally well, they are all embedded in a world that is very familiar to me.
Suddenly my brain is free to make quick associations between images, stories, tarot structures, and situations I am reading for, in a way that I had not managed to do before.
WORLDVIEW
The larger world within which these stories are told, joined hand with the larger world that I occupy. Once the links are made, they then receded into the background, providing the cognitive space that I desperately need to be able to read properly, while at the same time also providing me with both contextual foundation and infrastructural support.
REPRESENTATION
Almost all the decks I have, as much as I love them (visually and tactilely), hardly ever truly represent the world as I experience it. The kind of familiarity which allows me to feel at home with a deck has been a rarity until now. I had always felt as if I am a guest, trying to juggle a variety of unfamiliar and challenging tasks, while at the same time having to smile politely and watch my manners too.
The Tarot of Delphi provides me with a deck that I am finally at home with.
Where all I need to do is read, instead of interpreting, translating, analyzing, BEFORE I can even start reading, or even DURING!
I've been a minority all my life, and even in tarot, it seems, I could not escape this.
Until I found this deck!
Next, I would like to share with you my thoughts on the Tarot of Delphi's Face Cards. They are the equivalent of the "Court" cards in more conventional decks.
PS:
Other decks which take me feel as if I am welcomed as a friend and not a stranger are "Tarot Everywhere" by Kirsten of Over The Moon Oracles, and "The Urban Tarot" a New York City themed deck by Robin Scott.
PPS:
I am not of European ancestry, and have been a minority all of my life. Although I identify strongly with being a New Zealander and a Javanese Peranakan Indonesian Chinese. I am not PHYSICALLY represented in these images, but my WORLDVIEW is. I do NOT believe that the content of my brain should match the colour of my skin. (I think that is called "racism"...?)
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