Have you ever offended/annoyed your deck?

Yeah, I know that sounds really goofy, and the actual phrase that came to mind was "p****d off" but I didn't want to use that in the title.

I was doing a spread this morning and a card came up for me (Two of Vessels) in the outcome position that is probably the only card in my much-beloved Wildwood Tarot deck that I truly dislike. The card just creeps me out. I should probably explain how I pick cards after shuffling; I chose my cards by kind of holding the deck loosely in my left hand with my right hand supporting the deck from underneath, relaxing my fingers a bit as I raise my left hand slightly and the deck will split apart (sometimes it feels like it's being forced apart, like two opposing magnets). The card on top of the half that drops into my right hand is 'the card'. Except in this case, I quickly pretended I hadn't seen it and re-cut.

The card I got instead (Four of Vessels) felt like a rebuke for my rejecting the first card, in the book it even says something to the effect that if you ask the universe a question it has to answer and it's up to you to recognize the opportunity. If I look at the RWS version of that same card, the message is even more obvious, you have that guy sitting there with his arms folded refusing to look at the cup that is being offered to him.

So I decided I'd add that other card back in to my spread. I cut for it a few times to see if it would come up on it's own, but nothing. I then started shuffling and fanning the cards, to find and pull the card. After a few minutes I started to get annoyed - it's like it wasn't even there. I even looked around me to see if I had dropped it. I did keep getting the Hooded Man (Hermit) over and over when I was cutting so I pulled him out and set him above my spread, and then I finally managed to hunt down that stupid card by going through the cards one by one.

It's almost as if the card was saying, "no, forget it, you had your chance and blew me off so go away" when I was searching for it. Now my seven card spread has nine cards and I am not sure which of the three outcome cards I should be looking at. It kind of distracted me from the spread and sent me off on a tangent, which is ironic because the spread dealt with my lack of focus to begin with.

I guess I need to make friends with that Two of Vessels card. Maybe the Hooded Man is telling me to look within and figure out what it is about that card that stirs up such revulsion in me?

Has anyone else had something like this happen?

Yes, most definitely. Sometimes, for extended periods, the tarot has seemed exasperated by me. My interpretation of such a reading was: "I've already told you, but you took no notice. Don't bother me unless you're prepared to listen." As a result, I've had long periods during which I didn't consult the tarot at all.

Maybe if you hold the 2 of vessels and meditate? Thats what ive done when ive needed to understand a card a bit better. It may help you with this card if it creeps you out a bit

The only times (and they were few) when I felt I was seriously annoying my deck was back when I was first learning to read the cards. A couple of times I was emotionally NOT with it at all and wouldn't be happy with the cards I was getting because, of course, I was desperately hoping for a specific outcome. So I would re-deal and re-deal, over and over, until all I was getting, of course, was pure gibberish.

...which was the Tarot's way of giving me the bird and telling me to f%^& off.

Lesson learned.

I've never felt like a card was giving me the bird, though. Certainly there are a handful of cards here and there that don't "speak" to me, for a wide variety of reasons, but I never felt like they were annoyed or cheesed off at me.

Wolfspider said:

Yeah, I know that sounds really goofy, and the actual phrase that came to mind was "p****d off" but I didn't want to use that in the title.

I was doing a spread this morning and a card came up for me (Two of Vessels) in the outcome position that is probably the only card in my much-beloved Wildwood Tarot deck that I truly dislike. The card just creeps me out. I should probably explain how I pick cards after shuffling; I chose my cards by kind of holding the deck loosely in my left hand with my right hand supporting the deck from underneath, relaxing my fingers a bit as I raise my left hand slightly and the deck will split apart (sometimes it feels like it's being forced apart, like two opposing magnets). The card on top of the half that drops into my right hand is 'the card'. Except in this case, I quickly pretended I hadn't seen it and re-cut.

The card I got instead (Four of Vessels) felt like a rebuke for my rejecting the first card, in the book it even says something to the effect that if you ask the universe a question it has to answer and it's up to you to recognize the opportunity. If I look at the RWS version of that same card, the message is even more obvious, you have that guy sitting there with his arms folded refusing to look at the cup that is being offered to him.

So I decided I'd add that other card back in to my spread. I cut for it a few times to see if it would come up on it's own, but nothing. I then started shuffling and fanning the cards, to find and pull the card. After a few minutes I started to get annoyed - it's like it wasn't even there. I even looked around me to see if I had dropped it. I did keep getting the Hooded Man (Hermit) over and over when I was cutting so I pulled him out and set him above my spread, and then I finally managed to hunt down that stupid card by going through the cards one by one.

It's almost as if the card was saying, "no, forget it, you had your chance and blew me off so go away" when I was searching for it. Now my seven card spread has nine cards and I am not sure which of the three outcome cards I should be looking at. It kind of distracted me from the spread and sent me off on a tangent, which is ironic because the spread dealt with my lack of focus to begin with.

I guess I need to make friends with that Two of Vessels card. Maybe the Hooded Man is telling me to look within and figure out what it is about that card that stirs up such revulsion in me?

Has anyone else had something like this happen?

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First I want to say that I love your method of choosing the cards, and am totally fascinated by it. Also this post fascinated me as a copy of the very deck you mentioned is coming my way soon.

Ok, back to your question. It is not part of my belief system that it is possible to offend a deck or that it has any feelings at all. Opinions may differ on that. To me the deck is just a tool to communicate with an intellegence force. The deck is like a telephone, if you will, that lets you hear what that source is saying. So the telephone cannot get annoyed at you, and if anything the intellegence on the other end that is communicating with your via this tool that is the cards (the telephone) could get annoyed. If anything could get annoyed it would come from that source.

Does that source get annoyed at us? Again, that is subject to opinon, but my answer is no. It could depend on who are what you feel you are contacting when doing readings. And that is a huge topic. But for me it is the Divine, which is infinitely loving and patient. So it is not my view that that source would get annoyed at me for what I ask or how, and certainly not offended. In my eyes, the source that answers me would understand where my impatience comes from and have empathy for it.

I would not have seen it as a rebuke personallay, but as gentle guidance. The "cards" to me were teaching you how they will work with you. If you do this, this will happen. If you do that, that will happen. And once that is clearly communicated to you then it will hold true for all time.

Yes, if the books said that if you ask the universe a question it has to answer and it is up to you to take the opportunity, I would not personally see that as a rebuke. It is just the universe imparting useful information to you to help you. It is advising you not to ignore important information that is given to you. Because these imporant things that come up are golden, They contain the change to truly improve our lives and if we ignore them we lose the chance for a better life that they bring.To me it is just the card telling you that. To please not ignore what si send to you via that cards as it contails vital information.

The image with the guy with his arms folded, the main character in the card always represents the querent for me. SO to me, excuse me if I do not phrase this as well as I could, but that is showing you what you did by ignoring that card. The universe was trying to get vital information to you and you folded your arms and got stubborn and closed yourself off to it. And so it could not get to you.

To me, this is all a kind gentle message telling you that by ignoring that card you were only hurting yourself and to please not do that in the future, as you block yourself from receiving the messages that could truly benefit you and change your life for the better in that way.

To me that is what it was, the card were having a conversation with you and telling you why it was not in your best interest to do what you did that time. They need you to know because they want to help you in the future and for you to be open to that help in all ways. And just to please not do that again so that they can help you more fully in the future.

Also, you cannot expect a card to come up just because you want it to. Imho, we are dealing with a higher power who sends us the answers via the cards. We are not in control, that source of information is. And it does not like to be tested. When we try it never works. Tarot runs a lot on faith. We have to have that faith in that source that it will send us wisdom and that it knows what wisdom we need even more than we do. We are talkign about a source that has the power and is wise enough to know the future and to help us rearange it. We are just there to listen not to direct things. When we try to direct what comes it never works. And it never works to try to make a card come up by willing it to do so. We can't tell this source what to do. We can only let go and listen.

I might possibly mean more that you need to make friends with what you are communicating with when using the cards, more than with individual cards themselves. That is my opinion here. Whatever you believe that is, and opinons vary on that, your turst level on that, in thinking it is against you, is not as much as it could become.



Babs

Lokasenna said:

The only times (and they were few) when I felt I was seriously annoying my deck was back when I was first learning to read the cards. A couple of times I was emotionally NOT with it at all and wouldn't be happy with the cards I was getting because, of course, I was desperately hoping for a specific outcome. So I would re-deal and re-deal, over and over, until all I was getting, of course, was pure gibberish.

...which was the Tarot's way of giving me the bird and telling me to f%^& off.

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LOL I have had this distinct feeling before. It tends to happen when I was just doing a reading for the sake of doing one and as you said, wasn't really emotionally connected.

Pet Jeffery said:

Yes, most definitely. Sometimes, for extended periods, the tarot has seemed exasperated by me. My interpretation of such a reading was: "I've already told you, but you took no notice. Don't bother me unless you're prepared to listen." As a result, I've had long periods during which I didn't consult the tarot at all.

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I've gotten this feeling as well. Especially if I ask a question, don't really pay any attention to the advice of the reading, (usually because I didn't like the answer) and then ask the same question again later.

stargazerkate said:

Maybe if you hold the 2 of vessels and meditate? Thats what ive done when ive needed to understand a card a bit better. It may help you with this card if it creeps you out a bit

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I plan to spend some serious time doing that. It's just a card, why does it affect me in such a visceral, negative way? It's a rather bizarre card, but there are other cards in the deck with similar elements that are actually favorite cards of mine so I don't think it's just the art...

Thanks, Babs, for that really thought provoking response. I didn't want to clutter up the thread by requoting your entire response but the part of it I have left below I think probably cuts to the heart of the ongoing conflict I have with myself over what I actually believe. And in the hour or two I have spent working with the spread that set this topic off, I realized that was also the core issue of the question I asked.

I don't really think the deck itself has a lifeforce or personality to it. But what I am communicating with through the deck, I'm still not sure. I used to think it was my own subconscious but often I get the feeling it's something entirely outside me and that scares me, so I guess I make light of it by calling it 'the deck'. It gives me a comfortable distance, from the big "who am I actually talking to?" question. And while I felt it was definitely rebuking me, it didn't feel meanspirited at all, in fact I laughed out loud when I looked at my RWS Four of Cups. I think whatever talks through the deck maybe gets exasperated with my endless wavering back and forth between 'this is totally real' and 'I am nuts for even doing this'.

As for my cutting method, I am a bit OCD and have a very specific pattern for how I shuffle and cut cards. When I am fully connected, it has a definite feel to me as to when to stop shuffling, and whether a cut is 'right'. Of course, because I am OCD, there's also a lot of "was it really right or did I just think it was". Turning off my quirky left brain is a big problem for me with reading. But if you've ever played with a set of magnets and tried to force the opposing sides together, that's the feel I get when the deck splits, and it feels different if it's just randomnly falling apart. I can also feel something very similar between my hands when I do Qigong, if I'm actually taking the time to do it right.

I wasn't trying to force that card to reappear so much as give it a chance to do so if it wanted to. I've learned over time that if I pull that "give me a sign by appearing" crap I get gibberish, but I have also experienced cards coming up in a very non-random matter when I needed them most. Also the same card coming up over and over in a very insistent manner, for reasons that I still am not sure.

I am considering posting my reading notes from today on the appropriate board to see what sort of insight others might have. I've never done that in the past, it's a little bit intimidating because I have only ever read for myself and am not even sure I'm very good at it, but it might be helpful to my learning, especially since I really struggled to interpret this reading. And I am guessing I am not the only person struggling with this issue...

SunChariot said:

I might possibly mean more that you need to make friends with what you are communicating with when using the cards, more than with individual cards themselves. That is my opinion here. Whatever you believe that is, and opinons vary on that, your turst level on that, in thinking it is against you, is not as much as it could become.



Babs

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Wolfspider said:

Have you ever offended/annoyed your deck?

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I knocked a deck into the toilet one time, and it was utterly useless to me after that. But probably not because I p*ssed it off; rather that it (an inanimate stack of picture cards) dried all warped and bent, and I couldn't really shuffle it anymore.

Wolfspider said:

...The card I got instead (Four of Vessels) felt like a rebuke for my rejecting the first card, in the book it even says something to the effect that if you ask the universe a question it has to answer and it's up to you to recognize the opportunity...

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(Bolding is mine.)

Think about this statement for a moment to understand how tarot (probably) works. It isn't the cards that "do" the reading. It is you, the reader. So, the only element of the reading process that you could p*ss off is really yourself or your own intuitive process. The cards are simply slips of paper designed to help you get in touch with your own psyche.