How did you choose?

::I am a newbie::
I have the Rider deck and the maya deck but i want to get rid of them and start over with a new deck. I get good and accurate readings from my rider deck but i dont feel connected to them, i dont like the style or the pictures on them. I dont use my mayan deck at all. How did you choose your deck? I want a deck different from the traditional Rider deck (different symbolism all together). How did you decide? What do you do with your decks when you dont have use for them anymore?

I went through every single deck here in the review section ! It took me hours. I also checked out decks that people had mentioned in the forums. You could try searching for a particular theme of deck. Some I have traded with people on here, some I have sold on ebay & some I have just put away in a box to see if in the future I feel drawn to them again.

The only problem with looking through over 700 decks like they have on here, is that you will be left with a wishlist a mile long ! xx

hello dragenfly ^_^

when i decided to get a new deck, i went to this metaphysical book store just down the street from me called Quest books. i sat down by the tarot section and scanned all the decks. i found 3 or 4 that really called to me, so i asked to see thier sample decks, and sifted through those. i sparked a conversation with the lady that works there, and she helped me make my choise. sadly, the deck i wanted was sold out...and i found out that my friend had bought the last copy of it the day before!...in the end, she ended up giving it to me, and now its my best and most used deck. ^_^

so as far as looking for a new deck, i say just go to a book store (surprisingly Borders has a wonderful selection ^_^) and just look. find the one that calls to you. in reality, thats about all you can do ^_^ just sit and listen

i wish you the best of luck with this

Peace,
Pirate

Wow P_P, I wish the shops here had sample decks to look through ! Everything is sealed in plastic, I have never come across anywhere you can look through the deck like that. It would have saved me an awful lot of money on decks which I got home then realised they weren't any good.

I don't have enough decks to really have to worry about not having a use for them anymore, so I can't answer the last part of your question. The first part, though?

I chose my first deck by going to Half-Price Books and looking around to see which one I thought was prettiest -- I was such a complete Tarot newbie then that I thought the art was the only thing that varied among different decks. (*blush*) I'm drawn to bright colours, so that was the first way I narrowed it down.

Then, I was torn for a while between the Shining Tribe and the World Spirit, but the World Spirit featured all kinds of different people in it, and that was the decision-maker for me -- I figured that with all the different sizes, cultures, and colours of people depicted in the deck, I could find myself in it, too. I think that's how my logic went, anyway.

Looking back, knowing everything I do now, I think this is quite possibly the silliest way I could have chosen an introductory deck, and yet that first deck, picked in such an uninformed way, sang for me in ways that made me far more interested in Tarot than I might otherwise have been. I've gotten decks since with which I work well, but nothing like the rapport I have with my World Spirit deck.

What's funny is that I just had a haircut, and the night I got it, my husband looked at me for a long moment and said, "You know, you look kind of like the Two of Pentacles now." So I guess I did find myself in the World Spirit!

I bought the cheapest on eBay, which turned out to the Lo Scarabeo Avalon tarot and just perfect for the political predictions I wanted to make.

Tarot chooses you. You don't choose it!

As others have said here, going over the list of cards here at Aeclectic is a good way to see just what is out there and what you have to choose from. as to getting rid of the ones that you have, why? the Rider is a good general purpose deck, a classic, and it is good to hang on to it. You may return to it, or be able to see in it the origins of the new decks that you aquire.

I never even saw my favorite deck in deck form when I knew it was the right one for me...it was used as illustrations in a book.
And the minute I opened the book I was captivated by the pictures that they had used to illustrate it.
And knew that if there was a real deck made of those illustration I had to have it.
Luckly there was, the book was Tarot Plain and Simple by Anthony Louis and the deck was Robin Wood.

So sometimes it's just love at first sight and you instantly know.

My first deck beyond my starter deck, which was the Universal Waite, which I still regularly use -- it's like an old, dear friend I can always count on -- was almost a lovely art deck, Tarot Art Nouveau. I love that style of art and assumed the deck would really speak to me. However, after opening the cards I took one look through them and all I could think was, "I can't read with these!" So I exchanged them. Another deck I purchased and thought I would love was Tarot of the Secret Forest -- a hauntingly gorgeous deck -- but found that as much as I relished in the art, it just did not "speak" to me for reading. Which is to say that the art is important but not all there is to it, so I would definitely suggest looking at decks online, preferably sites where the full deck is shown, all the cards. In the Decks forum here there are threads with links to full decks. Take your time and look and *feel* your way to your next deck.

I was in the bookstore looking at astrology books and was drawn to the tarot section for some reason. Didn't make a purchase that day but did some internet searching on tarot decks. Rider Waite came up a lot, so decided on this deck for my first. I enjoy it, still connecting with it. Have also recently ordered the Thoth deck, am looking forward to exploring that deck, am really drawn to the art work.