I never thought i'd like this deck!

I was wondering...

Have you ever seen or owned a deck that didn't appeal to you at first but then, after giving it a second chance, you find yourself suddenly connected to it?

It has happened to me so many times. With the Mythic tarot, which was my second deck... first time i looked at it i didn't like it. A few months later, it was my favorite!

And it was the same with the Marseilles. And now with the Grail Tarot - i loved the art at the first moment, but found the deck too complex. The name changes, the different order of the court card and the way the minors connect... then i decided to use it this week for my daily draws and TA-DA! I'm absolutely loving it!


I'm curious about other people's experience. Which decks you thought you'd never like or never actually use, and then suddenly... it becomes one of your favorites! Share your experiences

It has happened less than I'd like to be able to say, to be honest.

The most memorable case is The Hudes. Bought it (Printed in Belgium) after seeing it on sale (checked out scans here then went back & bought it the next day). Dowdy, dull and po-faced glumness. Put me to sleep. Traded it, then saw another (Printed in Belgium) copy at the tobacconists and some twinge made me buy it again.

Suddenly found it delicate, autumnal & introspective and fast-tracked it to a favourite bag. Funny...

Most definitely!

Although it was an inverted situation to yours...

I just bought this deck called Deviant Moon Tarot and I felt very confident about them. I loved them when I saw them. Loooooved them. And I got home, opened up the deck, shuffled them a bit, and became unsure. I then did readings for my family with them and they were really very vague. I still love the artwork and everything, but something about those cards just doesn't swim correctly with me.

Le Fanu said:

The most memorable case is The Hudes. Bought it (Printed in Belgium) after seeing it on sale (checked out scans here then went back & bought it the next day). Dowdy, dull and po-faced glumness. Put me to sleep. Traded it, then saw another (Printed in Belgium) copy at the tobacconists and some twinge made me buy it again.

Suddenly found it delicate, autumnal & introspective and fast-tracked it to a favourite bag. Funny...

Click to expand...

Le Fanu, i just love the way you describe decks! You certainly have your way with words!

From "dowdy, dull and po-faced glumness" to "delicate, autumnal & introspective" was certainly a big leap, wasn't it?

HollyFac said:

Although it was an inverted situation to yours...

Click to expand...

Oh, that happens to everyone, i guess. I had my BIG share of decks i was sure i'd love love love, and then when i got them home, we simply didn't connect. I'd love the artwork ,the idea, but i could not read with the deck. Frustrating!

When i began collecting tarot I was sure that the Tarot of Prague, which was the most beloved deck of the year back then, was the deck i'd call #1. Alas, i never managed to buy it, because of the price and the shipping. And one day, a long time after, i got it in a trade...

I love the art, adore the book, love the feel of the deck... but can't read with it. I can only admire it and sigh. Somehow, when it comes to reading, we don't connect at all.

Back and forth--Legends King Arthur Tarot by Anne Marie Ferguson

...it's always been respected in my eyes, but I didn't know why the colors and the cards just seemed so plum-glum with its delicate line work and soft lilac-to-lavendar shades. People have told me the blue-on-blues of the Celestial gave them the blahs and I've returned the saying with I think the Legends is beautifully done, but just came out to purple-peopled for me.

It has to be the right delicate, almost cool light of a Spring day where there's mist and so I think...well, lately the Legends is suiting my mood. Not trying to go overboard on the heather on the hill and Brigadoon, but dreamy mist kind of Springtime...because I picked up an Arthurian Dover reprint of so many gorgeous illustrations of Camelot and fell into reverie for...the early work of all people, "Russell Flint", aka Sir William Russell Flint of the Royal Art Society and pin-up-painter fame! The colors are not as misty as the Legend and Anne Marie Ferguson didn't do the medieval-to-melancholy heroines of the Pre-Raphaelites. But there's a dreamy air to the Legends heroes and heroines and reading reprints...I get an otherworldly Celtic Twilight and Revival air of the early 1900s...if all goes well, a period and lower-cost two-volume reprint of the 'Medici' edition of Russell Flint's illustrated Morte d'Arthur (ye olde Thomas Malory translation) with all 48 color pictures might be in my future. Otherwise I'll be buying a reprinted reprint for the next four months!

In the meantime, my used Legends book and deck copy is being enjoyed with less costly paperback retellings of the tales. It'll keep me busy until my Spring-to-Summer pick...the Shadowscapes...arrives!

Cerulean

Marina said:

And now with the Grail Tarot - i loved the art at the first moment, but found the deck too complex. The name changes, the different order of the court card and the way the minors connect... then i decided to use it this week for my daily draws and TA-DA! I'm absolutely loving it!

Click to expand...

It's a much underrated deck, I think.for me, because of the many great changes to the Majors (which are important) it's a borderline deck between a Tarot and an oracle of a different kind. The minors save it from my being instantly prepared to call it an oracle.

For a few reasons (and hostility is not among them), I am frequently a little uncomfortable with overly Christian symbolism, and here it has been plastered on with a trowel. Or possibly a high-pressure hose. The quality of the artwork saves it, as does my ability to transport my thinking into other times and other systems. I will never be any stripe of Christian, but I can and do use this deck, with tenderness, care and respect.

And it definitely appeals to clients who might be worried by other forms of Tarot!

Actually, one of my favorite decks of all, the Haindl, was just like that. It was one of the first decks I bought and, though I had my reservations, thought that the scans looked interesting enough; deep, introspective, things like that. It arrived and I couldn't stand the sight of it. Took it as a pompous "we are the world" kind of deck (like the Ancestral...<cough>, well, nevermind), and even worse, it was filled with all sorts of imagery I generally can't handle; things like flowers, and feathers, and stones, and so on.

Fast forward two months. Happened to be bored with the deck I had been playing with at the time, saw the Haindl stuck in a corner, took it out to affirm that I hated it, and then didn't put it down for nearly 5 months. Now I consider it, in its way (and despite some issues I'm having overall) one of my very favorite decks

Couldn't really say what changed. These things just grow on you at different times I suppose...

nisaba said:

It's a much underrated deck, I think.for me, because of the many great changes to the Majors (which are important) it's a borderline deck between a Tarot and an oracle of a different kind. The minors save it from my being instantly prepared to call it an oracle.

Click to expand...

Yes, you are right, this deck is very borderline. But it still kinda maintains the spirit of "tarot", i can't explain why... maybe it's the way it's focused on the "quest". It has a storyline, like the tarot has the "Fool's Journey", which is a thing oracles usually don't have.

nisaba said:

For a few reasons (and hostility is not among them), I am frequently a little uncomfortable with overly Christian symbolism, and here it has been plastered on with a trowel. Or possibly a high-pressure hose. The quality of the artwork saves it, as does my ability to transport my thinking into other times and other systems. I will never be any stripe of Christian, but I can and do use this deck, with tenderness, care and respect.

Click to expand...

I think that people have more difficulty associating tarot with a Christian imagery than with a Pagan one, for instance - even thought the oldest decks have a lot of Christian references. The Devil, the Pope, etc. But i think it comes from the fact that many Catholics repel tarot as the picture book of the devil and all, whereas the Pagans and other alternative religions are more open to divination and to tarot.

As a Gnostic Christian searcher myself, i appreciate that the few Christian-oriented decks that exist out there, such as the Grail Tarot and the Saints Tarot, don't focus on the orthodox Christianity. On the contrary, they seem more gnostic-oriented, which makes it more palatable to different publics. The Gnostic Jesus is much more interesting than the one portrayed in the Bible, and I love that he's the Magician of the Grail Tarot!

zan_chan said:

Couldn't really say what changed. These things just grow on you at different times I suppose...

Click to expand...

These decks have mysterious ways of enchanting us...

I have quite a few that this happened to me. Most of them were decks that I just didn't "get" at first so when I flipped through the cards I decided I didn't like them. Then after learning more about tarot with other decks all the sudden it was like "OH! now I understand!" And I loved the decks I once thought I didn't like. LOL

For me, it was Baroque Bohemian Cats and the Diamond.