So here's a weird question...

I'm a dabbler in Tarot and my deck of choice has been the Celtic Dragon Tarot. Now I've done a few dozen or so readings with this deck. I wasn't really serious about learning it until recently (though I was always intrigued).

Here's the weird question bit, last night I felt almost as if my deck was trying to communicate with me, like it had a personality of its own. I don't know why I felt this but I did. I'm an open-minded guy but I also take everything I experience with a grain of salt, but with this, one moment I was shuffling my deck like normal and the next I thought "I think my deck has a personality," like it was alive or sentient in some way. Now obviously the physical deck can't be alive. It's just cardboard and ink, but what the deck represents (or I guess even the spiritual aspect of the deck?) could have something to it?

Here's where it gets a bit weirder, and this may be because I got to thinking on spiritual guides and if I had one: I had a dream last night. Now me remembering my dreams at all is something to be noted as I rarely do (maybe once every month or two,) though most of them are of the psychological, brain-working-through-thoughts variety.

This time I dreamed about a girl: straight ravenesque black hair (as in black and feathered at the ends,) pale white skin, skinny, strong demeanor, black tank top, denim jeans. She told me that she was part of me and that she always had been. She was there to help me and then I got the visual of her almost possessing my body but not in a negative take over my body kind of way, more like she was part of my person and just one of the different faces I put forward (if that makes ANY sense). I don't remember anything else she told me, but then my dream slipped into a more standard dream and I was fighting off evil dogs or something and I was part of an episode of Supernatural, though she was there too on the sidelines.

Here's the weirder bit, I've dreamed about her before, just the once. Then it was a bit more romantic/sexual and I don't remember anything that was said but I do remember feeling very close to her, as if I had always known her. Of course, then she had slightly shorter hair and pale blue eyes. I couldn't remember the color in the latest dream but I think dark brown, or maybe the pale blue? Not sure.

Could she be a spirit guide? I always thought they took the form of an animal or mythical creature, not a human.

TL;DR: Felt like my Tarot deck was communicating with me. Had a dream of psychic significance about a girl I had a psychic dream about before. Seemed very close. Spirit guide, or something else?

For the tarot deck personality bit. I believe decks have a personality. They are not 'sentient' in the way that they have on-going emotions or hold grudges if you don't use them or neglect them (lol). Just that as you work with them, they do tend to talk to you a specific way. My cards do a lot anyway. A lot of my information I get is psychic and I use the cards to reference it.

As for spirit guide stuff, I always lean on the side of caution when introducing the idea of even confirming stuff like that. I think that is something for you only to figure out. You'll tend to 'know' things that are important, you won't have to guess at it... if you don't who your spirit guide is really, then it probably doesn't matter. At least not now.

I've dreamed and had recurring 'characters' in my dreams. I've also had spirits come and visit that have always been present in one way or another in some portion of my life. Not any sort of intimate connection, just people who seem to come around and share information with me regarding events that share a certain synchronicity.

I agree with you about taking everything with a grain of salt. You kinda sorta have to. Don't feel like you have to sorta make anything up, but don't discount how you feel either. I've had tons of experiences that at the time didn't make much sense, but I knew down the round they would show their significance when it was necessary. It wasn't that I needed to know as much as it was kinda a hint towards something and it was enough to sometimes confirm what I was feeling or just giving me a heads up to keep my eyes open... if the dream doesn't feel significant, it probably isn't. If it does, then it probably means something, but don't feel like you have to make it up. Just meditate on it, have faith and then see what comes of it in the future. Those would be my suggestions anyway

To elaborate on the personality bit, I believe that my cards genuinely do care about my well-being and stick by me... but it's not like it is a person. It's like any sorta attachment you would have with a object you feel a connection with. You know as you hold it and deal with it what that interaction/connection is like... that's all.

.....

I've had dreams like what you've described and found out through an intermediary this was one of my spiritual guides. He's been with me as long as I can remember and he's always come to me in my dreams. I looked up the anima/animus concept Nevada mentioned and it was very interesting, you learn new things everyday...

Spirit guide?....Mmmm not sure about that, a bit outside my experience I'm afraid. as for decks having a personallity...I regard my favourate deck as being part of me, its as if I've developed such a close relationship with the deck that I have a perminent "open doorway" to parts of my personallity hidden from me ...a doorway to parts of my subconcious which could appear on the surface to be a separate personallity.
Being rather old I still rely on my very unfasionable, none digital personal organiser (filofax) I've allocated it the responsiblity of organising my life...I guess I'm very closely connected to it and would find functioning in the world of work difficult without it.
John

this reminds me very much of my initial experiences with the Thoth....btw, this is almost 30 years ago! - I dreamt-had a series of dreams with characters in them that I later 'identified' as Thoth tarot figures...I am open-minded as to the cause/explanation for the dreams & synchronicities, but it is easier to say that the Princess of Cups, then several other Thoth-ish characters played a key role in my Tarot/magick/psychic/spiritual development in 1984 -5.

keep a diary of the conversations you have & the symbols in the dreams. I do not profess to be offering explanations or confirmations but I did learn much in that time.

I also find decks seeming to develop distinct personalities. My take is that tarot provides a channel to parts of the unconscious mind, enabling us to know things we wouldn't otherwise be able to admit to knowing. The deck's personality is a projection onto the deck of that part of ourself, mixed with some sense of the mind of the deck's creator. Though sometimes the messages communicated are so startling that it feels like being in communication with some unknown entity.

The question of whether these insights come from our own unconscious or from an external source such as a spirit guide brings to mind a book published about 30 years ago, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind by Julian Jaynes. Jaynes argued that accounts of the ancients talking to gods reflect the fact that up until a few millennia ago humans didn't have consciousness as we know it. They were unaware of their own though processes and so attributed their own ideas to an external voice. I think something similar may be happening when I find my Thoth tugging on my sleeve or a white wolf delivering a message in a dream.

The debate over projection versus spirit communication can be quite divisive. I suspect it may ultimately be irrelevant, and that where we draw the line separating self from universe is arbitrary. I have had a couple of dreams in which I merged with recurring dream characters, including my wolf guide who had visited at odd intervals since early childhood. For myself, I don't feel I know enough about consciousness to declare its boundaries with any authority.

And I agree with Nevada, the girl sounds like a classic appearance of the Jungian anima.