Teehee, exactly the answer of a princess of disks (student) and prince of disks (long term endurance) combined  

I wish you much success. Many find it a difficult deck, because they adhere to Waite and see most other tarot decks as derivations of it. Crowley disagreed with Waite and even made him ridiculous on occasions. Even though they had to have a mutual background (kabbalah and esoteric - pagan - priesthood) to base their own ideas on, the resulting products differ significantly enough to make each of them unique. Personally I see them as being two brothers of the same parents (background), and for an outsider they might even appear to have similar features... they are recognizably coming from the same family. But the brothers don't get along, and only see their differences. For me, they have commonalities, but differences as well. And the present situation on the two decks is comparable to one brother - Waite - being popular and having a great many pupils. Everybody recognizes him on the street. His features became the standard. But the younger Crowley who is a genius too, always gets compared to Waite as a result of it.

The danger in that is that readers start to transfer Waite's meanings onto Crowley's, even when the cards are clearly different in tone. They do recognize some differences, but as they don't have a background knowledge to it, and have learned to fall back on Waite's imagery and symbology in the back of their head, it makes it hard to interprete what's different to it.

So, if you want to learn to work with Crowley it is actually better to learn to work with it somehow from the beginning. But the whole background to it and the lack of good books to it (and you cited the few good ones around) makes it a daunting task.

The Crowley deck has so much varioius symbology in it, that I advize you not to just rely on "Crowley dictionaries", but to acquire your own experience with it by picking 1 card a week at least, let it rest there, and note synchronicities with the images on the cards, the meanings you find in the books.

I think you have tried to start to do this, with your example of the 3 of the Empress. However, you made a mistake in seeing the 3 a bit too literally. Numbers have symbology too, especially in the major arcana. I advize Rachel Pollack's 78 degrees of wisdom to understand why I'm saying what I just said. And if you want some guidance in learning to use a tarot without falling back on Waite's school, then Mary Greer's Tarot for your self can be a great help as well.

Especially Crowley's deck asks you to let go of literal translations of imagery on the cards. Crowley's cards use the language of symbols like dreams do. Waite does too for that matter. Waite uses scenery and colour... Crowley uses loads of images for attributes.

So, it's great that you look at the card, note what's on it and try to give meaning to it. But it doesn't work that literally

Anyway, I hope that the interpretation for the cards of the reading you pulled were helpful in my first post to you. You don't sound sure of the meaning of position, that is why I tackled the cards on their personal/event/major theme level, rather than past/present/advice, etc... (You gave no feedback on my attempt to interprete them for you as you originally asked )

I chose the Crowley deck because i wanted to learn more about this particular reading, so i thouhgt i would make sense to get the same deck. Being new at this I didn't realize it was going to be so complex, and that I was choosing a deck that will make it harder for me to learn to read. I also had purchased the deck before I found this forum, so I was already committed.

Sweetsunray: When I replied earlier I actually hadn't seen your interpretation yet, so I apologize for not commenting on it sooner. Now that I've had a chance to read it, I have a better unnderstading on how to get some clarity in the cards. I still have to do some thinking to figure out what it's all about though, whether it be family, money, or emotions....I have no idea. I don't really have any huge things going on in my life right now. I just had a beautiful baby girl, I work from home, so it's not very stressful. Adjusting to being a Mom of 2 instead of 1 is quite the challenge, but I know it will get easier as I get more sleep Maybe that's exactly it...adjusting to motherhood with 2 instead of 1. I do beleive I confused you a bit about the 3rd child though....before my 2nd daughter was even born we had discussed not having any more, but in the back of my head I wasn't sure if I would change my mind down the road. When I had complications after she was born, It completely sealed the deal for me because I don't beleive my body can handle the aftermath of giving birth....i get too many health issues. Both times i had to be induced into labor due to serious blood pressure issues. From then until giving birth everything goes great, but after that i've had issues both times. This last time I almost died 10 days after she was born because of a procedure that had to be done to remove tissue in my uterus. It wasn't the actual procedure that almost caused me to die, it was an underlying issue with my blood which they didn't know about (and still don't know for sure) that caused me to almost bleed to death. That is why i am so afraid of having a 3rd....I am sure you can now understand why i took the Empress card so literally. The #3, the symbol for a female, etc., all made me feel like that's what it was trying to tell me.

I think i now understand what this whole reading is about.....motherhood....and as you said, me being content with my two daughters. Even though you misunderstood that we originally planned on having 3, it has brought some light to what it is i may be struggling with internally, and not even realizing it. The fear of being a good mother to BOTH my children without making one or the other feel left out. It's also hard losing time formyself, which I don't have much of at the moment. Lack of sleep, and being able to get out as much as I could is harder with 2 than with 1. I have always been a very optimistic person so i am sure that the outcome of my girls will be great, and that I WILL be a great mother to my children. I also know that this sigle part of not having as much time and being neede by my newborn 24/7 will only be for a few more months...so i am looking forward to a nice break.

Thanks to everyone for investing so much time into my reading. It really has helped a lot! I do plan on draeing one card each day (if I can allot the time) and learning that card. I agree with you all that it's the best way for me to learn what the meanings are, and to draw my own meanings from them.

Hey crafalk, I'm starting to post analisations of symbols on this deck in my blog. I'm now writing a blog article on the Fool. If you are interested.

cool! I will check it out.

I just wanted to say hi. i just got done reading the whole thread and always a lot of good and helpful words to think about.  don't worry about taking years to learn all the combination of the cards because it really is going to take you a life time to do it.    like everything we do it takes a lifetime just to say i haven't learn it all yet!     but that is okay because it is going to be fun trip and every day you will have pleasure to say,  "i didn't know that".    the real advice is that don't let that stop you or hinder you because it seems like too much to learn.  when you get your cards just start working with them and studying them. as said, look at them, get to know them, and try to hook into your in intuition by seeing what they are saying to you.  read for friends and that are forgiving of all the downfalls of learning a new skill like tarot reading.  sounds like you have a place to do so don't be afraid to start. it really just best to start reading and learning from that.  
good luck