i brought these out a week early so this is actually a two-weeks-in report.
margarete petersen... it's like a cross between the ritual tarot and the thoth? it has the elemental energy of the ritual tarot with the magical feeling of the thoth. it's like thoth but pure subconscious. the art is sparse enough for one card to not really be enough per spread position, but also so abstract that i can't visually read the conversation of neighboring cards in an open reading. so it's a little vague and frustrating to work with, but undeniably deep. i find i need to sort of feel into each card separately and then try to discern the meaning from the conversation of the "energies" between the cards?? it's also a little distracting how different the majors are from the minors (i prefer the minors).
i've had this one for years and it's one of those that i can't really give up on. you can tell the artist put decades of work into it, but during my ownership i found i just keep trying to "make it work". the original cards were huge and a little thin so after a while i trimmed them, hoping to make them more usable. it completely changed their character. i had the older edition with the light grey borders which lent the art an airy feel, it matched the not-pinned-down abstract art. after the borders were gone the deck turned to pure earth and fire. just as inscrutable as before but also intense somehow. i kind of miss the borders, but re-purchasing it now would mean getting the newer purple borders edition and i feel that would just make it worse. at this point i think it will be relegated to the Honorary shelf, along with the bohemian gothic and the voyager and such. decks that aren't even in this year's running but still hold some attachment or promise, or even some secrets. maybe a future me can tap into them.
othrysian tarot - a relatively new deck, i got it last year and didn't get to spend much time with it, so this is me giving it an honest shot. the titan theme seems a bit gimmicky, they're not very well utilized in the little guidebook, might as well disregard the whole thing. the meanings of the minors also aren't as cohesive as they're made out to be, but overall that's not much of a problem, i use my own meanings. the real downer is the flimsy cardstock, it feels like it's about to fold up like a wet tissue, and it's developed a bow all by itself (i think this is something to do with moisture?) my hands don't like touching it.
i do like the color palette and the images in general, they're "robust" pips, very readable. and the change in the suits - making wands curvy and swords straight as opposed to traditional marseille decks. it's nice, seeing the wands as living plants and swords as unyielding manmade objects. i hope i end up reaching for it more, but with the flimsy stock i'm afraid i can fairly certainly predict that i won't...
still, maybe inspiration will strike? the two decks do look great together, if pairing decks was something i did. a very complementary, summery energy.
there are two additions to this month!! one: i spent some time working on my numero berlin deck
wrote about it in my "current crafts" post
it's almost finished, i'm 9 pip cards away. i put it away for now, but the last week had me interacting and reading with that incomplete deck for some motivation to finish it. i am not enjoying how random it is. i thought the heavy black and red feel of the magazine would translate into the art, but all the photoshoots and graphics don't really follow any convention. i just got very lucky with my first magazine deck and now i'm spoiled.
two: i actually bought a deck for my birthday last month - the tarot marseille-waite, it only just arrived. played with it one day so far but it's Really Good. i'm most satisfied with how it wasn't a big overthink-y deal, neither impulsive nor agonizing in the decision process. i needed to get some other stuff, just threw it in the basket since it had been on the wishlist anyway and here it is. no guilt or justifications. i feel that's some real progress when it comes to my deck purchasing. i don't even want to congratulate myself on this being the "first" deck this year, i don't want to number them! either to assume there will be more or to categorically reject any more newcomers. it's not an issue.
the only problem is i haven't made room for it in my ranking experiment! i guess it's now an august deck??
