A new poster's question

How did you first come to realise that Tarot had meaning for you (and those you read for)? How did Tarot first become relevant and meaningful in your life... rather than just a pack of cards with pictures on? Thankyou.

Hi wilson...welcome!

I was always peripherally interested in cards, crystal balls, and all things "occult" and esoteric. But it really hit home for me when I got the most spot on reading at a psychic fair a few years back. That's when I knew I had to pick up the cards in earnest and discover what they had to say to me.

Hi, wilson! And welcome from me as well.

Much the same story as starrystarrynight, from a very tender age, I was always interested in the occult and esoteric. And, too, it was a peripheral interest.

I was using the I Ching for divination by the time I was eighteen, so have used that for more than thirty years now.

I came very much later to the tarot, I suppose just interested in another divination system, one I am only learning and adapting myself to at a glacial pace.

To answer your question, I guess since childhood there hardly ever was not a time when I wouldn't have thought the tarot could have relevance and meaning for me. It's just that I only discovered it relatively recently. Say ten, fifteen years.

When I was a junior in college, a friend and I were hanging out at Borders during spring break and my friend decided to buy Tarot for Dummies and a deck for fun. He performed a reading for me where I asked about my experience in graduate school. He used the Celtic Cross... and I can't recall many of the cards except one... the five of pentacles.

Months later, I decided to buy a deck of my own and have been reading cards since then. They have much meaning for me... and now that I am in graduate school, I fully understand the message of the five of pentacles.

You know, it's a continual unfolding for me. First I just thought if I learned card meanings well enough to read the cards, it would be a novel way to earn a little extra money. Then I found AT and the real learning began. The longer I read, the more fascinated and impressed I become. In addition, although I've always "known" things, and although that ability became stronger once I passed menopause, the longer I use the cards the more keen that "knowing" becomes. Tarot is now a permanent part of my life, not just a way to earn a few extra bucks. In fact, I don't earn anything with it.

Well, I'm not an occultist or a tarot reader but you know, that doesn't mean that tarot is just a pack of cards with pictures on for me. While I admit a deep love of the games for their own sake, what tarot is to me is a little deeper than that, it has played a part in friendships and in the many happy memories of them. Perhaps that sounds trivial but I can be a rather solitary sort and have tended to have few friends at any time, so these little moments, where friends simply relax and enjoy each other's company simply because they are friends, are important ones.

I am one of those people who hoardes memories and the things that they attach themselves to, I have kept almost all the packs with which I've played games with friends and can recall so many of the games played with them, be they at tiny train stations in Manchester or by an open fire in a cosy pub at Nantwich, or with Bindi's two girls after watching old Sherlock Holmes movies, or in a tiny student living room late on a Tuesday night with hot chocolate.

Thankyou so much for sharing your experiences. Your words Philebus, evoked vivid images. My own path I think is similar to what Grizabella describes.... I have always felt things, seen stuff. I started channelling quite a few years ago. Thought maybe if I could learn Tarot card meanings it would prove a reliable way of giving readings..... less stressful. So I learned the book meanings, then read on AT, then unlearned them, then read more, then re learned the damn meanings, then got a lot more fuzzy and intuitive with the cards. More and more I find myself drawn to study Tarot even tho to be honest a lot of the time my head is saying....'Why bother they're just a card game people got too serious about... random and meaningless.' I don't listen to it very often.
Thankyou again

Hello Wilson, welcome!

I've always been interseted in subjects that are a little off the beaten path, as a kid I wasn't interested in fashion or makeup as much as I was aliens, lol. I took up Tarot in my early college years, and I think it is one of those things that "finds" you. Aside from the fact that I love symbolism and stories and find Tarot fascinating for this alone, Tarot has also been an outlet for me to flex my intuition and creativity, this is how it brings meaning into my life, in the way painting would for an artist.
Also, what I love the most about it is that it pushes me to not only confront things inside myself, but it also provides me with insight I definitely wouldn't come to on my own. It's like a neverending, shifting, self help book!