Frustrated

I haven't really posted much since joining this forum so you guys don't really know me. I am throwing this out there anyway.

When I was in high school I LOVED my Tarot cards. I gave readings every day, felt like I had good intuition and a good connection with my deck (a standard Rider Waite deck), which I had purchased at about 13 from a weird little new age hippie store that was around the corner from the library I went to as a kid.

Now I am 30, trying to get back into Tarot. I got a new Rider Waite deck but my first one was ruined in a basement flood in my late teens, so my associations with it aren't great. I have purchased a few other decks in the hope I would find something that I could connect with but no dice. Hunting down decks online and waiting for them in the mail is fun but it does take something out of that element of finding something that calls to you in a brick and mortar store and even here in Minneapolis I haven't found many good places to shop for new decks in person.

I don't know. I know you guys cannot really help me with this, it isn't really a question. I'm just irritated and sad and I guess I just want some reassurance that I am not crazy for feeling this way about Tarot cards. Ha ha ha.

No you are definietely not crazy for feeling that way. Also we are all entitled to our feelings and in Tarot more than anything else feelings vary so greatly.

That being asid adn I don't know if this will help but I hope so,. I have never bought one deck for myself in a store and I have aobut 110 decks now. Almost all were decks I ordered online (a few were gifts). And I love all of my decks dearly would not part with one of them. So just in case that helps, yes you can adore decks that you order online just as much as any other.

Babs

I've been reading since I was 13 too. Depending on what was going on in my life, the time and energy that I spend on Tarot would vary. It goes in cycles like everything else in life. I'm a lot older than you so I was accustomed to buying decks in bricks and mortar store most of my life. With the Borders bookstore chain gone, there are only a handful of local stores that sell tarot decks and the selection is pretty limited. Although I do buy off Ebay and order from websites, I find a lot of my decks at used bookstores. We have a number of Half Price Books here-don't know if you have that chain where you live. They don't mind if you handle the decks (always do to make sure it is complete) so you might have a better opportunity to see if you connect with the cards before you buy them. I have gotten OOP decks even at dirt cheap prices.

Other than that, I'd encourage you to participate more on the forum. I know "talking" to people via posting who really love Tarot and know far more than I do really gets me excited about learning and working more with the cards. The study groups for decks and the deck of the week group have been great in giving me some structure in using and learning about the decks I already have rather than just collecting them. Like our friends, it's hard to get to know decks and really appreciate them if you don't spend some time with them getting to know them. I hope at some point things click for you and flow again.

Surely you have a Barnes & Noble in Minneapolis. Sure they have those...virtue person's decks galore but they usually also stock a fair selection of normal tarot decks. Llewellyn publishers is in Minnesota somewhere so you might find a store that carries their decks and Lo Scarabeo.

I haven't been in a Barnes and Noble in a while, but the last time I checked at the one closest to me they only had a couple of Rider Waite decks and I already have one of those.

I will check Half Price Books as well, that is a great suggestion. I go there all the time but I never thought to look for secondhand Tarot decks there. :O

Thanks for the responses folks. I cruised around Tarotgarden for a while after I posted this, if I cannot find a good place to shop for a new deck in person I have resigned myself to the fact that I may end up spending some money on decks I never use, or don't use for a long time. Ha ha. At worst I will end up with a few to trade.

Also, thanks for the protip that Llewellyn is a Minnesota company, I had no idea. Neat.

Well, I can see what you mean, but I'm not a collector. I have a few (very few!) decks which I use, and even from those, I primarily use the Thoth, and right now I'm hardly touching any of the other ones. The problems you've stated with stores is something I recognize. Most stores don't have them, and as Tarot cards aren't the biggest sellers in any case, most stores that do have them have the same decks over and over.

I can only state from my own experience, that it is not how many you have, unless you are passionate about collecting them, but what you do with them that counts. If you are at the beginning of your Tarot career, why not just find one you like, mature with it and then branch out?

I think some stores keep the decks behind the checkout counter. The local Barnes & Noble here used to do that before they got the glass display case (which is kept locked).

ETA. I've used quite a few different decks, but I always come back to the Big Three: Marseille, Rider-Waite (and recolorings, such as Albano-Waite and Universal Waite), and Thoth. Maybe I'm just set in my ways, but all other decks seem to lack something (or else add details that seem out of place).

Have you looked at the cards posted here in AT? (to get an idea of what you're looking for)

Also have you looked at Amazon? Something I discovered as a Borders shopper is that they offered alot more stuff online than they did in the stores. The same was true for Barnes and Noble. And then Amazon offered stuff (read books and cards) that neither Borders or Barnes and Noble offered.

Consider becoming a forum subscriber here so that you can get into the Tarot Trading forum. If you don't see anything you like there you can always put your unwanted decks up for trade and see what you can swap them for. You can sell them there too.

It's $20 for 6 months and $32 for a year.
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