"If I knew then, what I know now"

I don't always contribute to the New Members threads, but I do take a look at the posts to see who is joining and enjoy reading about others experiences and what brings them to the site and tarot, in general.

Sometimes, I read the new posts with a slight feeling of envy. When someone is very new to tarot, there is such excitement in their posts - it really shows through. They are hungry to learn and seek knowledge and advice from others here at AT.

I am still very excited about tarot but along the way, there has been many things that have either hindered my learning or things I may have done differently, if I had known.

For example -

If I started now (somehow knowing what I do today, eight or so years later), I would probably have researched a little more about decks. I had no idea about the various traditions or that there was a big difference between them.

I would never have continued to buy so many decks. So many have become redundant and in many cases, I have wasted time learning about one, and then confusing myself my picking up another in haste and trying to work with that. If I started now, I would learn with just one deck and put off buying others for a good few years.

If I knew then, what I know now, I would have journaled EVERYTHING - every spread, every reading, every daily draw, every thought I had about the cards. I have very flimsy memories of those early days. I cannot remember what I first thought when I looked at the cards; what my first impressions were of The Tower, The Two of Cups or any of the other 76. As things stand, I have nothing to remind me of my journey up until this day, which makes me a little sad.

I would not have rushed things. I would not have tried to do such complex readings to start with because they only helped to confuse me. I would have taken things nice and slowly and tried to absorb them properly.

What would you do differently if you started the tarot again today? Of course, it has been a fantastic journey regardless. I was just wondering.

LB

I probably would have done the same things differently that you mentioned about writing down every spread and journalling.

I'd also not have bought so many decks and would have followed the advice I see so many times here-------to just start with Rider Waite or Universal Waite or one of those. Instead, I bought a ton of other decks and none of them worked for me. When I finally just made myself get RW in spite of the fact that I really dislike the art work, then it finally started to come together for me. Now it's an old friend and I'm branching out and reading intuitively with other decks just fine.

I think another thing I'd have done is get some books on reading intuitively instead of memorizing standard meanings so much. I think that would have made it much easier for me. I just received a book in a trade with lunalefey today that's called A Magical Course in Tarot that's a good example of that. So is another book I recently got in a trade with zorya called Tarot for Self Discovery.

very interesting question, LB...

if i was starting all over now, i would have researched decks more to find directly strongly pagan-themed decks instead of going just with the artwork and the colours etc.

i would also have journaled more and would not have bought so many books i never/hardly ever read. i would have gone my way.

one thing i don't regret is buying many decks for the pleasure of discovering artists. i have also traded around the world and plan to trade more because it means much more to me than just getting a new deck in exchange for one i don't want anymore.

and of course, it means that if i was just starting to learn tarot today, i would join Aeclectic Tarot Forum just as i did some years ago. a very smart move, if you ask for my opinion

kissa

I would have bought just as many decks, only I would have paid better attention to my choices... no regrets there, though - my list of 19 "no longer with me" decks is a good trip down memory lane.

I would also have kept better records of my readings, too. It would have been fun to look back and see how accurate any of them were.

Illy

I would have journalled everything as well. A shame I haven't. *looks at her journal down by the floor* Do I do it now? Not as often as I should.

Would I have stopped buying all the decks I did/have/continue to? I don't think so. That's just the type of personality I have. I can't stick with one thing for a very long time, I get bored easily. And that sucks.

I would have saved myself the time and aggravation
of learning the "standard" attributions for the Majors.

The Golden Dawn screwed everything up, everything...
beginning with Aleph=Zero. The whole system is wrong
and it's the one everybody reads in all the books. Why?

Aleph=One: the first letter and the first card. So easy!

I'd have started to journal the things since the beginning, as well...i've started to journal them this year, and that has been so great for me. Has been helping me a lot.

But the decks...i have five decks right now, and i love all of them. I'm about to receive more four...and than i'll stop buying deck for a long time. But i cannot help it, i'm a deck-addicted. All my decks work for me, in a way or another...in fact, i only buy decks i'm almost sure i'll have a nice relationship with. I have, of course, lost the cnnection with some of my decks sometimes, but it's a phase....some months later, i pick my deck again, look at it...and *poof*. Want to use it again.
I love decks, i cannot help it. I don't regret getting any of the ones i got.

If i knew what i know now, i'd NEVER, EVER tried to mix tarot with astrology, numerology, kabbalah and whatever when learning. It made me confused and, nowadays, i's completely useless to me. I read tarot, only, i never understood kabbalah (nothing against people who like it/study it - it simply doesn't work to me) and never missed it.

Yuko

I am very new to Tarot (less than 2 years), this thread has made me realize how important the journal is, I have to gather all the scattered prints, copies, notes, pics and files accumulated so far and give them and put them in order!

Thank you everyone for sharing your experience!

Some really interesting responses here ... thanks.

I think that I would have gone with intuition a lot earlier, if I had known that I was 'allowed' to.

When I began to study, I knew nothing. I had a book by Jonathan Dee and I believed (why not? I knew no better) that it was gospel. I thought that all tarot cards (I knew nothing of their history) were the same and that the meanings found in that book were standard for all decks. I never gave myself the chance to look at the images and see what they meant to me because I didn't know that you could deviate from the standard meanings. In that sense, I feel I missed out on a lot because by the time I did start doing that, my mind was already cluttered up with keywords and portions of sentences that I had read either in that book or another. A good half a year into it and I was transferring Waite meanings to Thoth-clone cards, not even knowing the difference between the two different traditions. I think that is why I was very confused for a long time. When things didn't make sense, I thought it might be the deck and I would buy another, adding a whole new load of keywords to my tarot vocablary that contrasted with the existing ones and confused and frustrated me even more.

If I could start again, which I think I have done to some extent, I would put all of the books away and just take the cards of to the bottom of the garden with an exercise book. I would, in turn, sit with each and write down what they meant to me; eventually adding more thoughts as I began, in time, to do readings. I would look at some books in the future for help with symbols so that I could add deeper meaning to my learning but I think, in my opinion, that I did it all round the wong way, and realise now, how hard it is to shirk those very dominant keywords that are in my head from the beginning - that really make no sense to a lot of the readings I do now.

Living with the cards is the most important thing, I think now - seeing how they shape life and life shapes them.

LB

I think if I could wipe the slate clean and start again on my tarot journey I would have learned with a Marseille deck. Numbers and patterns fascinate me but I'm very much in the RWS mold now and I've been seduced by the countless styles of RWS clone decks.

I find them easy to read but I learned on the Original Rider Waite so even when I get stuck with the meaning of a certain card, usually the image of the RWS version comes into mind and I need the focus of a fully illustrated Minor card.

Also I would journal everything, dated and time - I come across pieces of paper now and again that has a spread on it and nothing else, no date, no question - and no idea when I actually did it.

I don't regret buying all the decks that I have - some have introduced me to styles of artwork I didn't even realise I liked.