How did you start reading tarot?

It has been so long ago that I barely remember (it has been over 20 years). I don't remember buying the deck but I do remember doing my first reading and it was a Universal Waite deck. It was my roommate. He didn't even ask a question (at the time, I didn't know he was supposed to). I just spread out the cards and told him that there was someone in his past that was trying to get through to him from the spirit world and the candles flickered like a breeze blew buy them. Then he spilled his guts and told me that he had shot a guy who he thought had a gun and was pulling it on him. It killed the guy. The cards read that there would be something important ahead regarding this (I remember the Tower showing up and I read it literally to mean disaster ahead). A few weeks later he had a car accident and went to jail because of this and the shooting (he was wanted and I didn't even know it) and I lost a roommate and had to get another one. Maybe the tower was speaking to me about the trouble ahead for him.

(I am reserving his name due to his privacy)

I would honestly like to know how everybody started out in tarot and what it was like at first? The tarot has intrigued me since the minute I picked it up and held it. I could feel the energy of the cards and they looked so interesting.

Blessed be,

Von

Hi, Von.

Not sure how or why I got started. I've always been interested in metaphysical things, since childhood- though I didn't know they were called metaphysical then. Once I was at Border's bookstore and saw a Tarot set on the clearance table- buy one book get something else for 50% off (or something like that) At the time I had never seen a Tarot deck and I never knew anyone that read cards. So I figured, it's a good price I'll see what it's about. The deck had non scenic pips and the book had info from other decks but none about the one that came with the deck, so I lost interest and put them on a shelf. A few years later I saw another deck at Borders and got that one- there was not a huge selection like they recently had- this was several years ago. One thing led to another and I started finding metaphysical shops, online sites, etc to help me learn. It was slow learning for me- and I'm still learning, of course. But something about the Tarot would not let me stop- it's held my interest for years and I guess it's because, well- I don't think we can ever know EVERYTHING there is to know about it-and that's what's intriguing to me.


PS...(I'm in Atlanta, let me know if you're ever up this way-we've got great metaphysical shops up here )

Hi, Disa! We have absolutely no metaphysical shops here in Augusta. None. There are no groups here. I feel SO ISOLATED!!! I would love to come to Atlanta but my funds are and stay so low that I don't ever travel. The most intriguing store here is BooksAMillion which carry tarot decks but I usually use Amazon or Ebay to purchase my tarot decks (even though some people say don't use other people's decks...I rub them with sage first or cleanse them in another way by the light of the Full Moon). It is so nice to meet someone in the Biblebelt like I am. It really is hard to read the tarot to anyone here in Georgia because people just seem to be so narrowminded about it. I even thought about starting a metaphysical shop and even had an investor but I thought the store would be a flop because there just isn't that many people who are involved in the metaphysical path here in Augusta. We have zillions of Churchs but only one professional tarot reader here besides me and I don't have the money or location like she does to advertise and get good clientele. If I ever come to Atlanta, I will definitely check into the metaphysical shops there. Funny how Augusta is the second largest city in this State and we don't have anything like Atlanta does. Ya'll have groups and meetings and everything...I am so jealous!!! It is a two hour drive for me to even get to City limits of Atlanta then I get so confused when I drive I end up going in circles...lol. You probably know where all the cool places are and can get there.
What decks do you use? I use the traditional Rider-Waite and the Tarot of the Angels.
You are very right about never knowing all there is to know about the tarot. I learn more about it every day. I have read now for over 20 years and I am just now learning about the elemental dignities. The beauty of the tarot is everybody reads differently. That is why I love coming to the forums here to see how everybody reads the cards and see what their interpretations of them are.
Keep in touch by PM'ing me whenever you want a reading or just want to chat!!! I am only a stone's throw away and maybe we can get together and have coffee and exchange readings in person some day. I am so isolated here in Augusta that any tarot friends are my friends

Brightest blessings,

Von

I'm quite new at tarot but I have been using runes for some time, about 8 years now I think. I was never that curious about tarot, I had my runes and I loved them. But then a friend of mine got me the Osho Zen Tarot deck for my birthday and I started looking at the pictures and they really intrigued me. I found my self wanting to know how to use them. So I started working whit them and the feeling is so different from when I work whit the runes, not better or worse just different.

Then a couple of weeks ago my friend, the same one that gave me my deck, asked me for a reading. I had never given anyone a reading before whit the tarot but it was a nice symmetry that the one who got me the deck would be the first one I read for. So we sat down and I got the same feeling I get when I read my runes. Although the basic energy is very different the flow feels the same. It's hard to explain. But I guess most of us know the feeling when you put the cards down and you look at the spread and you just get what they are telling you. It's like a flow or a smoothness. Anyway, that was what I felt and I got really excited because I have only felt that way whit my runes before.

So now I have put my runes away for a while so I can focus on the tarot. Sometimes I get the flow and sometimes I struggle a bit. But I'm a beginner and it took me a while to get the flow whit the runes too, so I'm hanging in there. Also I think it's partly because of the deck. The Osho Zen isn't the easiest deck to read and interpret. But I love it so I'm a bit conflicted if I should get another deck to use or not.

I haven't tried the Osho Zen or even seen the pictures, although, I do believe in Zen and believe that Buddha had some really great ideas about life force or the explaination of it. With my two decks, I know that reading them is different (I usually prefer to read with my Rider-Waite because that is what I have read more with). I want to get my original that i started with the Universal Waite because I like the pictures on it and the colors are more. I read by colors alot. My first deck got coffee spilled on it so it was thrown away. I also want to get the Sacred Circle because it looks interesting. I have found that the Rider-Waite has the most meanings to choose from, though. I like being flexible about the interpretations and what the tarot is saying to my sitter. I would suggest the Rider-Waite or the Universal Waite to anyone....especially the Unversal Waite because it looks so pretty and has about as many meanings as the Rider-Waite. Of course, there is always the variable that you make your own meanings up but that is for more experienced readers who have read the cards long enough to get feedback as to what their cards mean. If you are a newbie to the tarot and have only been reading for other people just a few weeks...you are in for quite a journey with the tarot. It will open your eyes to a world that is unseen and untouchable but is there. People will open up to you in ways that are unheard of and you will learn deep secrets that are sacred about people. I can't even remember why I started reading tarot, either. I didn't even know that it was a tool of divination at first or even what divination was at that time...I just know it felt like something that was so different that I knew there was something more than met the eye.

Blessed be,

Von

When I was eighteen, a high school friend introduced me to a girl who ended up becoming my best friend for a few years, until she moved out of the state. She had a deck of Tarot cards, the Aquarian Tarot, and did a reading for me. I was so intrigued with the cards that I had her go with me to by my own deck, also the Aquarian, since it was the one I was familiar with.

Since then I've become a bit disenchanted with the Aquarian Tarot- one of the pages has a mustache, and I prefer my pages sexually ambiguous. But I stayed interested in the Tarot for years, until I converted to Catholicism, threw out all of my decks and books, and spent the next decade having a hard time walking past the Tarot cards in the bookstore...

I'm back reading Tarot now, and I'm and Episcopalian now, and I really think that I was missing out on a big part of my spirituality, as well as a tool for self-knowledge all those years I was Tarot-less.

I wasn't even looking for tarot at all when I bought my first deck. I was at a turning point in my life and had heard some good things about I Ching. So one evening when hubby and I were on a date night, we walked into Barnes and Noble, and I saw Parkers' Prediction Pack on the center table in front of the main door. We live in a very conservative religious community, and I was afraid someone would see me looking at it. So I sideways-glanced at the box, noted that it included some I Ching coins and a book, and decided to order it from Amazon when I got home.

It was only later that I explored the other contents of the box: a Tarot de Marseille and a set of <<drumroll>> cardboard runes! It's actually a pretty good starter set. I still have it.

Asbestos Mango said:

But I stayed interested in the Tarot for years, until I converted to Catholicism, threw out all of my decks and books, and spent the next decade having a hard time walking past the Tarot cards in the bookstore...

I'm back reading Tarot now, and I'm and Episcopalian now, and I really think that I was missing out on a big part of my spirituality, as well as a tool for self-knowledge all those years I was Tarot-less.

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This is wonderful Asbestos Mango, I'm glad you were able to find a happy medium!

I dabble in Catholicism myself (bf is seriously Catholic, and I go with him to mass sometimes and also enjoy the rosary prayers) but I guess I am technically an outsider and so feel no guilt about my tarot habit

BUT I did actually come to tarot, in a way, because of Christian judgment. My ex and I were both raised fundamentalist and when he left I realized I had suddenly fallen into the unfortunate category of "divorced woman," someone who was categorically pitied and at the same time eyed with suspicion throughout the evangelical world. Then it dawned on me--why not embrace the dark side? This was an opportunity to explore . . . And tarot was my first step into the darkness I bought Russian Tarot of St. Petersberg at the local shop and did a kick a** reading for myself at the kitchen table, and basically never looked back.

Wow, Vonnie deak! pretty grim start to your tarot reading gig.

I didn't read the other posts yet, because after I read yours I just had to post "WOW"!

I don't recall when I first really began with tarot cards, as I had originally started about oh, 15 + years ago, I guess with playing cards.

before that, my hubby and I had a mahjong set, and it came with directions to use it for fortune reading as well. Now, I had grown up in a psychic household and my mother read cards and was a psychic medium, so I was quite comfortable with all this from the get-go. I can remember bringing the mahjong set over to moms house one night when there was a get together there, and hubby and I took turns reading for each other and the others there. I had almost forgotten about it and don't recall what we saw for each other now, but we had a good time then.

I don't even recall my first card reading to anyone or even for myself, its been so long. But, I can recall doing one not too long ago for a friend who had never had one before. So, she shuffled the deck, and asked for a general, and I dealt the cards out and I saw that her husband was going to surprise her with a new car. "no way!" she exclaimed. "he'd NEVER buy a car or anything major like that w/o talking to me about it first!"

so then, she went home and my phone rings..........

guess who greeted her in their driveway beside a brand new sparkling bright car?

well, honestly, i bought a deck on a whim, did a few silly spreads ona whim, and then a friend of mine asked for "the longest and most complicated spread i knew," which turned out to be a tree of life spread. Did three of those, felt quite a bit of power, and now im hooked