My Tarot journey thus far...

Well where do I start? I am not sure if this is the right place for it... but I suppose it's as good as any...

I'd like to make this thread for members to talk about how they came about tarot and what sorts of 'adventures' they've had with their cards so far. I'll start with mine.

I was 11 when I went looking for a place to buy a deck. Being young I wasn't sure where I might find such a thing, so I spent a few days calling different stores to see if they carried them. I eventually found a metaphysics store and a week later I had dragged my mom in there to buy me a deck. After a lot of debating and looking at various decks I settled on Cosmic and I loved them very much.

I eventually went on to buy more decks. I can't quite remember the order, but I remember I debated long and hard before I purchased Shapeshifter.

I bought Haindl, but after looking at them, realized I didn't like them so much, I gave them to a friend of mine a day or 2 later and she loves the cards.

I picked up Egyptian tarot but put them away after giving 2 readings or so... they don't like the celtic cross spread... I got a raging headache and maybe they were upset that I didn't get to know them before trying to read them.

Then I picked up Gendron tarot, I ordered it and was disappointed that not every card was as pretty as the 'Transformation' card. This deck I also gave to a friend.

A friend of mine basically told me that I should only have 1 deck and I figured at that point that if I bought a deck, it was for someone else. I give away a lot of magikal tools that I intended for myself when I bought them... like an athame. Maybe my gods figured I had a lot of disposable income lol

But nevertheless, I bought yet another deck, Rider-Waite... I figured I should because it's considered the 'traditional' deck and I love tradition and thought I should honor it... but I gave that away too.

My Shapeshifter and Egyptian decks... well I figured I might give them away some day and I hadn't met the persons they were meant for yet. Well... a short while ago, an unfortunate accident befell my Cosmic Tarot deck. The got sopping wet in Vanilla scented oil and had been like that for a day... I was very upset, crying and such.

I called up a friend, he said that if the ink is running and all that I should retire them... buy them a nice box, I don't have to burn them or anything because I've read with them for so long (9 years) they have much power in them. So I'm looking for a box for them... the most faded card is a the King of Pentacles... and some parts of the cards are stuck to others... I've read with them since though I do plan to put them down at least for a little while.

Then Shapeshifter started screaming at me to learn more about them, I came here and learned of so many others who read with multiple decks and how a lot of you also started 'monogamous' I've since bought Faeries Oracle and put an order on Deviant Moon tarot. Egyptian is still in my drawer, I have someone in mind to make a gift of them.

I tried to do a couple spreads with Shapeshifter, but didn't understand them well enough... lol relationships take time to build and I need to get to know Shapeshifter better.

That is my journey thus far. What about yours?

I had no urges for any type of divination until I moved out & got married. I needed answers after my parents divorced. My religious upbringing made Tarot itself "off-limits" so I got into Runes first. (Bash away at Ralph Blum all you want, but I would never have started any of my journey without his explanations that oracles were simply another way of connecting to the Divine. Of course, I moved on to traditional authors & uses.) When I learned how to string pearls & beads, I started looking into gemstone lore. That got me looking into gemstone oracle decks. Most had only 44. I picked up the Tarot of Gemstones & Crystals telling myself that since it was "just" the stone pics & titles, I wasn't really doing tarot.

Next step was the playing card deck, but not the usual gypsy/fortune-telling. It was the "Science of the Cards" or Destiny Cards. Eagerly, I devoured books by every author who has derived a system from Olney Richmond's Mystic Test Book. After a few years, I began to wonder what was up with the symbolism in Tarot. All I heard was how you can not/should not mix the two systems. Various arguments and debates about associations & assignments made me wonder what someone who had been taught the "other" forms of card-reading might think about "our" system????

So, here I am. Reading, gathering, etc. In just 9 months I've gotten to the point where I think I need to put a lid on my deck collecting and start working with my cards. It was ideally supposed to stop at 13 Tarot decks and 28 Oracles. HA! Then I thought I'd go for 22 Tarot and 56 Oracle.
Still can't let go of that structure!

Well, I think it is good to have more than one deck, because some decks are good at certain kinds of readings, and bad at others. Each deck has it's own personality.

As for my story, its really -really- short. D:
I bought my first deck about 8-9 months ago. And left it on my desk for ages, until very recently I started studying it again. The deck is the Rider-Waite deck, and to me it feels like an old man who speaks in riddles, hehe. When I think of this deck, the card that comes immediately to mind is the Hermit, despite the Magician being on the box.

I also really wanted a deck that was more personal, and more like me, so I got the Medieval Cat Tarot deck. I'm not sure yet as it is still fairly new in my collection, what the deck's personality is. I can't wait to get to know it better though.

As for adventures, I'm afraid I really haven't had any so far. >_< But there is plenty of time I think!

I'm kind of the same way when I buy anything for myself, and end up giving stuff away to my friends. If you're able to give someone a deck that turns out to inspire them or just tickle their fancy, that's great! I love when friends and family "gift" me with previously owned things that I wouldn't get for myself. ( Books, for example.) However, I can't really gift any of my decks to someone without freaking them or their families out.

Anyway, Tarot has been an interest for me since I was a kid. I wondered why people were so afraid of a card deck. When I was sixteen, someone gave me a gift card for Border's. I decided to pick out a deck to see what the big fuss was about. I think I bought Tarot for Idiots or something to help me with the meanings. (It was the RWS deck.) It was really fun, and a good way to meditate without getting restless. My sister made me get rid of all my cards a couple of months later.

I bought a couple of decks about 2 years ago, but I'm really liking the Manga Tarot, more than I thought I would. It's my primary deck now. I may fall out of practice every couple of months, but I can't imagine never picking up a deck again.

edited to add: I did have a weird adventure with the Tarot, kinda. I was frustrated last summer because I couldn't find my debit card. That would have made it it the third debit card in the span of two months I've lost. To calm myself down, I decided to use the Pictorial Key Tarot to find it somehow. The first card was to represent the object with the second and third to be clues as to where it was.

The first card was the 9 of Pentacles. Second card was the 10 of Swords, reversed. Third card was the 8 of Swords. I thought that I was being told that I would eventually find it or get over losing it, and I'm holding up my life until I send away for another one. I decided to not cry over spilled milk and went to my bank to have them fed ex me one. Two days later at work, I found the missing card.

Guess where it was...
In the top of my backpack (which was giving me back pain) and trapped between the LWB of my Pictorial Key Tarot. Arggggggh. Then I had a hearty laugh.

I've been "dabbling" in divination for as long as I can remember! My best friend and I used to "fortune tell" with a snow globe when we were in elementary school, though it's been so long I don't if we were any good at divination. In junior high a friend and I tried to do readings with Clow Cards (anyone remember this? I think someone is doing an IDS with the deck) and I remember getting really accurate readings back then.

Then I didn't touch anything divination related until I was in college and my manager bought me a Mythic Tarot deck for Christmas. I never clicked with it and left it wrapped in a wooden box (where it still is, incidentally enough). Fortunately I didn't lose my interest and after about 2 years I finally found Tarot of the Magical Forest at a local bookstore back in June and have been happily learning since then. It just called to me from the shelf! I must say though, graduate school really puts a cramp in my study time. Irony!

I just acquired 3 new decks, so once my intensive deck study is over I plan to make friends with them as well.

No adventures yet, but if my friends keep offering to be guinea pigs for my reading practice I may just have some!

It's weird, because I can't pinpoint when I first learned about tarot. I'm afraid it was watching Miss Cleo commercials.

But when my mother brought home the Mythic Tarot for me (out of nowhere!), I was somewhat aware of what they were...but it had never really occurred to me that I would ever have a deck. I think I might have thought of them in the same way I thought of unicorns, or books that never end. Now, at the time, I was 13, and had been Wiccan four years. How I didn't know about tarot...I still don't know. But once I DID learn...I couldn't stop! I fell in love instantly. I always thought it was funny that I ended up hitting three of the tarot myths by accident - my first deck was a gift, which I kept wrapped in black cloth - the spreadcloth that came with it - and I kept it inside of a wooden box. That's because I happened to have a wooden box from Hobby Lobby that fit it, and I didn't have to worry about the cards falling everywhere...but still.

The only book I had was the (rather nice, really) book that came with the deck. I didn't know the different ways to read cards, or even about the different decks. The card meanings were easy to remember, thanks to the myths I was already familiar with, but...I'd found when I was reading, those meanings didn't always apply. I didn't have any other resources on tarot - I suppose I could have Googled it or something, but I never thought of it...(I just realized how young I am, that if I'd wanted to, I could have googled card meanings when I was just starting out!) So I'd be reading for my friends, or myself (never my mother, who, despite buying me the deck, was afraid of it and always got mad when I used it...now I've given her two of my decks and I'm having to buy another copy of the Paulina Tarot just so she won't take mine!), and I'd think, "...what?"

If I hadn't already learned dream interpretation, I think I would have given up on tarot right then. But I learned from helping my friends with their dream meanings that symbolism is personal and a book can only tell you so much, but really it's up to you. So I took the chance on the same thing applying to tarot, and started finding my own meanings. Good thing, too!


I got more decks...next was the Goddess tarot...I needed something smaller, because I have such short fingers...unfortunately, that deck was too wide and I just kind of hated it. I ended up giving it away to my mother's best friend. Still, as much as I loathe it, I did learn a lot using that deck...

But really, everything changed for me when I got the Housewives Tarot. I feel like that's when I went from being someone who had tarot cards and knew how to read them, to someone who was a tarot reader. I keep this deck with me all of the time...which will probably be the death of them, but so far I don't regret it.


Like you, I tend to give a lot of my decks away. Most memorable is the Halloween tarot I gave to a girl I met in a homeless shelter. I'm not sure where she is right now, but I hope she still has the cards. She was only eight, but she had a way with them!

Still, I plan on buying more decks. I have a collector's spirit. I'm planning on adding at least ten new decks to my collection before the year ends...more if I can manage it. (The number would be higher if two of those decks weren't the Alchemical art edition and the special edition of the Legacy of the Divine Tarot. Think how many twenty dollar decks I could buy with that money!) Does it still count as collecting if you like to use them, though? Hmm...

Having The Craft in my family for generations it was only natural I was to read Tarot. Different people in my family read in some form or another and my method is usually through hand to hand contact (not palmistry) or holding something personal. This always produces good results, but I wanted something more and so I turned to Tarot.

Through my many years of study I have come to learn Tarot not as a deck of cards but as a spiritual following much like the Eastern Tao (playing cards did after all originate from China). I enjoy Tarot as a means to remain grounded spiritually and it brings me much personal inner peace. I have several decks which are all Marseilles types and of course Thoth which means volumes to me.

My journey began more than 12 years ago when i picked up Ann Moura's book "Green Witchcraft"... suddenly my life made sense....

Went to local Pagan store and brought RWS......started to work with it,.... my readings were accurate but i felt They weren't deep enough......

Then I got Celtic Tarot but with the pip cards non-pictural....... i found i was referring to the book all the time...

eventually i finally picked up a deck i found could speak volumes to me....

Native American Tarot... picked it up shuffled and did a Medicine Wheel Spread...... for a friend..... without even looking at the book I did an accurate reading....I suddenly realized I was opening myself to listen to my intuition........trusting in my knowing....

I slowly devloped to have the confidence to do The healthy Living Expo 35 readings in 2 days..... (Spiraluna......) and with the positive feedbacks, i started to get busier......

6 years later I now have 4 Tarot decks and 26 Oracle decks.........
I have my own space....that i can use for readings and healings......

i have tried other decks butr always go back to NAT......

Vesta

So many of you were so young when you were "led" to tarot - I was too It is as if one was in need of a tool to express this gift or talent or ability or drive, whatever you want to call it, take your pick.
I find it fascinating

My Tarot Journey

I got my first deck in 2002 after a psychic's suggestion that I do so to have a means to channel my dreams and intuition. I was immediately enchanted by them.

I have studied many books on Tarot; Pollack, Greer, Bunning, Amberstone to name a few. I have taken classes by Pollack and Amaral and have read for friends, family, co-workers and strangers, many of them repeat clients. I began to feel accepted by readers when a respected reader in my community asked me to read for her daughter.

My first deck was a Rider-Waite deck, of which I now have 2 of them. I also own a Shapeshifter deck that I don't fully understand either. I chose that deck because I can assume energy from whomever I'm socially interacting with at that moment, I'd assume their accents, intonations, stutters and mannerisms. It was a struggle for me growing up because people tend to think you are mocking them.

I would love to explore the Shapeshifter deck if anyone is interested in forming a discussion group.

I have gone on to purchase quite a few more decks. I began by purchasing a sampling of the traditional decks then moved on to decks that I felt strongly attracted to.

I must confess I don't take the time to thoroughly familiarize myself with all my decks as I should.

I find that the decks validates my intuition and sense of knowing.

SS