Reading with just "one" deck

I have always read tarot cards using different decks each time.
I am planning on starting to read with just one deck over a period of time,
hard to choose which one though.

My question:
Have you made this decision for yourself ? What did it bring you?

Bramina

I have a lot of Decks, and I didn't know which one either when I just recently made that decision. Then I got the Golden by Kat Black ( I first thought I wouldn't like it...) then I started using it, it just happened, without thinking about it. I do think it just happens by itself, you get chosen by the Deck.

I've pretty much only ever read with one deck (the RWS) for the past 15 years. I own other decks that I've tried, but I just don't feel as comfortable with them. It could be that I didn't stick with the others long enough to become comfortable, but other decks just don't speak to me the way my old friend does.

I think when you stick with one deck, you form a spectacular bond and develop a special language with the deck based on its specific images and the symbols that goes way beyond the textbook meanings.

Do it.

It will change how you read and your skills as a reader, radically and irrevocably. It's one of the best things you can do for yourself with Tarot: learn a worthwhile deck stem to stern over a period of years. You will develop skills you wouldn't have imagined.

The Liber T is my reading deck. Before it found me, I read with the Thoth & Waite-Smith over a period of decades, and sort of stumbled onto the Liber T backwards. And the deck snuck up on my imagination. I've been reading almost exclusively with it for a couple years and it has kicked my ass in every possible way. Not only did I totally uncover root-level lessons about divination and its history, I've started to develop a sense of the esoteric bones supporting the Golden Dawn system specifically, and Tarot in general. What did it bring me?: focus, knowledge, rigor, balance, discipline, skill, economy, precision, accuracy, patience, commitment, insight, inspiration... and no small measure of magick.

I still buy decks because I love to absorb them and study them and compare them; I'm a born librarian that way. But I read with the Liber T. Having said that, after a couple years of being "monogamous," I can practically read with matchbooks or anything else people hand me. My muscles have been developed by devotion. The Liber T has landscaped my divinatory imagination and intuition, populating it with symbols and connections that are constantly proliferating.

One caveat: Pick a deck with some real traction that will challenge you. Pick wisely, because if it's a "thin" deck it won't bear much scrutiny. If you're going to burn slow and long, you need a hardwood log on the andirons. Lots of people will tell you to "pick what feels right" but that doesn't mean what you're necessarily comfortable with. You want something that will demolish your comfort zones. Pick something that makes you want to be better reader... hell, a better person! It's a little bit like choosing a friend in whom you confide over a long roadtrip; there are some people you gossip with, and THEN there are a very few that you trust to hold your wallet, clean up your vomit, and watch your kids in an emergency room. You're in it for the long haul, so take a long-haul deck.

Do it. Don't look back. You won't regret it.

Scion

Lovely post Scion. Very inspiring. I think I really needed to read that

I know all of this, but other decks always draw me with their artwork and I feel myself dissipate. I also have a habit wherein, if Im reading for myself I grab one of half a dozen faves, but when it is for other people, as I want to give them a "good" reading, a "good" service (I don´t charge; Im talking about friends) I always reach for the VR. It is a deck which really made me connect with the minors and I know that I won´t be thrown. It is that whole comfort zone thing. I really feel I should venture out of my comfort zone. What you say about choosing a deck with substance is very true. I feel this. I came across the Ancestral Path the other week and had a real sense of a deck with substance, which would stand up to exclusive, intense study. Likewise with Liber T. Or the Jacques Vieville.

O but my other decks distract me...

I completely agree with Scion…again.

Even though I’m surrounded by huge amounts of decks, at the end of the day – I only read with a few. Those few I dedicate huge amounts of time to reading with exclusively (6 month minimums).

And yeah, if you want to reap the rewards – you have to buckle down and be exclusive.

Ages ago, before the ‘Primary reading deck’ and the other one, there was the ODW (One Deck Wonder) experiment (ODW was done away with because ‘too many rules were mandated’ and morphed into the IDS Intensive Deck Study). I personally recommend that a person choose the Crowley-Harris Thoth, International Icon, or a Marteau Tarot de Marseille. Then read with it for at least 6 months – exclusively. You can choose to go another 6 months at the end of that stretch.

The result is that somewhere along the line something will shift within, and you move from being a reader – to become a Reader.

Scion said:

One caveat: Pick a deck with some real traction that will challenge you. Pick wisely, because if it's a "thin" deck it won't bear much scrutiny. If you're going to burn slow and long, you need a hardwood log on the andirons. Lots of people will tell you to "pick what feels right" but that doesn't mean what you're necessarily comfortable with. You want something that will demolish your comfort zones. Pick something that makes you want to be better reader... hell, a better person! It's a little bit like choosing a friend in whom you confide over a long roadtrip; there are some people you gossip with, and THEN there are a very few that you trust to hold your wallet, clean up your vomit, and watch your kids in an emergency room. You're in it for the long haul, so take a long-haul deck.

Click to expand...

I so agree with this. Some time ago I decided to devote myself to a deck. The one I picked was a bit different - a bit of an artsy deck. As I started to do daily draws, I soon came to the conclusion that I didn't have much to say about each card. They were pieces of nice artwork, but not much else.

I read with one deck for 13 years. I learned it, lived it, loved it. It never even occurred to look around, or try others.

It feels as natural as looking in the mirror.

Now, I'm branching out, and have a few that I like, but sometimes I feel like they're novelties.

I agree with what Scion says.

I've done this. I can only say: It's great! Do it!
You'll learn so much, and it will make the deck you choose Your Deck in a way that it wasn't before.

Choose a deck that you think you will learn a lot from. I picked the RWS which may not look like a very dramatic choice, but I wanted to really get into reading on a regular basis. I wanted to learn the basics of reading, and so many books go back to the RWS and use it for examples. I've always shunned the RWS because I think it is so ugly. (I still think it is, by the way - apologies to everyone who has it as their favorite. Tastes vary. But at least I don't hate it anymore. We are sort of friends now, this deck and me. )

It was sort of like a challenge, the way I saw it. It took a bit to get used to. And in hindsight I'm very glad that I picked that deck, because it was just what I needed back then!
Now I use a copy of the RWS as my main reading deck when I'm not home where my real favorites are (happens quite a lot) and it's so practical. I would not dare carry my Best Decks around with me where I go... but this one is just perfect! And if something should happen to it it can be easily replaced... which I hope I won't have to do, because it has a very comfortable feel now after being shuffled so much.

So. Think about what you need, and why you want to use just one deck, what goals and purpose you have for doing this. Then I think it will be clear to you which deck will be the best to use. But you are going to use it a lot, so pick one that you will still be able to get new ideas from after the first month.

Good luck!

I put all my decks (fifty-odd at the time) away to study and read with the Wheel of Change deck exclusively last year. That was the start of the Intensive Deck Study, now into its third incarnation. I did it for three months originally, but then extended it for another three months. I'm only just now easing my eyes back into other decks. I was reading with WoC eyes for ages afterwards!

But seriously, it was the best thing I ever did. I didn't even look at other decks, aside from the ones I bought in that time and had to check for completeness. I was totally immersed in that deck, and learnt to speak the same language. Dare I say it, I think in a way it learnt to speak mine, too; not to anthropomorphise a deck, but there is definitely a sense of meeting half-way.

What Scion said about a meaty deck, though, is really very necessary. Unless you have endless lines of sitters to read for (and I certainly do NOT), a light deck leaves you wanting more, and dissatisfied very early, as testified by the sheer number of IDS'ers who change decks early in their study.

It takes discipline, particularly since you're part of a community which by definition celebrates the diversity of the world of Tarot decks[/i[. It's not easy. But it's more than worth it.

\m/ Kat