Rebuilding your collection

This is inspired by the evacuation thread. It's another take on prioritizing.

Let's say that you wake up one morning and your entire Tarot collection has vanished. Every single deck is gone, even the ones that you had squirreled away somewhere. Even the deck that was under your pillow when you slept. You are now the owner of exactly zero Tarot decks.

A moment of silence for all of the truly irreplaceable decks...

Now then. How would this change your collection and your take on your collection? Which decks would you buy back first? Which might not get bought back at all?

I personally have a relatively small collection, and the only one that would be seriously hard to replace would be the Ironwing. Once I got done crying over that spilt milk, the one deck that I would want back as soon as possible would be the Thoth. I could live happily with just that one deck for a long time (that's what the One Deck Wonder is, after all). Eventually, though, I would want minimally a Marseilles, a Cosmic Tribe, and a RWS. Everything else is icing on the cake.

The decks that I probably wouldn't buy back at all would be the Sacred Rose, the Kazanlar, and the Rock Art. The first two were gifts and the last was a cheap used impulse purchase; I haven't bonded with any of them. I can imagine myself using the fact that I didn't buy those back to justify buying some current wishlist decks.

So, what about you? What does Tarot Collection Mark II say about you?

In order, and assuming each is available, I'd get:

the Noblet (Marseille-type) by J-C Flornoy, the Dodal (Marseille-type) photo-reproduction, the Vieville and Paris photo-reproductions, some Il Meneghello decks, a couple of Schaffhouse and Besançon decks, the Cary-Yale and Visconti-Sforza, the Conver (Héron) photo-reproduction, and then whatever else takes my fancy.

This might not be exactly on-topic, since I didn't lose all of my decks, but...here's my story:

After a break of nearly a year from tarot, I was moving house. From my mother's house to another country across the Atlantic. I hadn't done tarot in a long time. I remember even having a conversation with my friend about how I wasn't sure I could still do it! Should I even bring my decks? I had 9.

I almost didn't, but at the last minute I thought, well, they're small enough - I'll take 2. So I did - The Hanson Roberts and The Archeon. I figured, if I get back into tarot, I can always have the others shipped to me. I left behind the Druidcraft, the Fey, The 78 doors, the Aquarian, The Thoth, The Radiant Rider-Waite, the Revelations, and a pack of Soul Cards. Along with a few books.

In the next month and a half, sure enough, I somehow returned to me avid interest in the cards and began to miss my old decks. Then, a week ago, I get some news: My old house has had a fire. Half of it has burned down. Gone. They might be able to retrieve some things from the other half, but don't count on it.

I had an expensive computer in there, a lot of clothes that I wanted shipped to me, and an extensive book collection. And I thought - what about my tarot cards?

When my mom was allowed into part of the house, she got back my books and she says she "thought she saw" some tarot cards in the boxes her and her friend arranged before demolition....but I'm thinking, well, maybe, maybe they are gone, maybe they will always smell of fire. I know one of my favorite decks - The Revelations - had been left outside my room and is surely gone.

So I think - which ones would I have wanted saved the most? Which ones should I rebuy?

None of them yet. I'm glad to have the Hanson-Roberts, although if I had known my house would burn down I may have chosen to take another in the Archeon's place - The Revelations, perhaps, or the 78 doors (one that has strangely always clicked with me). But at the moment, I have two packs I like, and I recently let my old tarot addiction get the best of me and bought a third pack - The Secret tarot - which I hadn't had.

Although I did love my old decks - some of them for their artwork more than their reading power - I thought, maybe I should take this as a message from The Tower. I have radically changed from who I was a year ago, in spirit. That person is gone. And now...now, my past is gone physically as well. Perhaps it's for the best. Those decks spoke to me a year ago, but who's to say they would now? Right now, I've got my three decks and they work and if I feel a calling for a new deck, I'll buy it....but I'm not going to run around trying to reclaim my past just because it's gone. One day, I might feel the need to. But not today. Today, I'm happy with what I've got.

Anyway, sorry if that was disorganized and rambling or off topic...I've got a class to run to!

*gives a moment of silence for Niti's lost decks*

...I'd have to find another copy of the Lunatic- even if I cant read well with it, it turns so many people I run across onto tarot, and I just enjoy it.

Ls Art Nouvou- I swear I'm the only person that reads with this silly thing, but it has such a good voice for me.

Getting oddly attached to my LS Tarot, as well. That one will hopefully be around for a few years, should I need a backup.

After stunned silence over the loss of so many OOP decks (perhaps I need some special insurance for them??), I would start with MAAT and Golden. An old copy of the Original RWS - or another old RWS, pre-USG. Tarot of the Master.

Greenwood, if I could find one. Ironwing, same thing.

That's about it. Which begs the question - what am I doing with so many decks that don't delight me?

Oh! and a Ferret Tarot, because I'd *really* be needing the laugh.

I would start with decks I use the most and love the most. Things like all of the Magic Realist Press decks, plus everything on my favourites list and then some. And that includes favourite oracles. Whether the decks are in print or OOP, that would be my ultimate goal. I am sure I could survive with only 50-60 decks at my fingertips and be very happy. From there I might cut it down even more...eek! But I suppose the first thing I would do would be to come online and print out my deck list and then mark the ones I want the most and cross off the ones I need and use the least!

Then I would party at Amazon, Tarot Garden and the like! After that I would need to sell of some books to pay off the bill! I would try to get my decks back as quick as possible, before any go out of print.

My general answer would be whatever deck(s) I was using/studying at the time everything disappeared. So that answer will change with time. Today it would be Robin Wood, Navigators Tarot of the Mystic SEA and Gothic Tarot (Vargo). And I'd have to add a RWS-clone in there too.

Rodney

edited to add the RWS clone.

I did lose them all. Almost all. About 500 of them. Miraculously, the Rock n Roll and an old RWS didn't get lost. Couldn't afford to buy anything for some years after that, and will never be able to replace the collection.

I have a few decks now. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the decks, the books, the artwork that was lost, but so it goes. If I lost what I had now? Probably an RWS (or if I could afford it, an Illuminated) and a Fantastic Menagerie - I won't find another Rock n Roll and the Vacchetta is pretty scarce too, and while I keep a Marseille and a Thoth around for reference, I don't read with them, and I'm wondering if I need them at all or if it's just more clutter. I expect they'll get left behind. I'm moving countries again, and I think what I don't sell is small enough to pack in suitcase corners, cos now I have to do it all over again - albeit this time with a little advance warning.

Wow. Gavriela and Niti, I'm so sorry for your losses. It's an entirely different thing when you talk to someone who's experienced it, isn't it? Good to have the reminder that this isn't just a thought experiment.

In any case, I think sravana hit on it:

sravana said:

Which begs the question - what am I doing with so many decks that don't delight me?

Click to expand...

We have decks for a lot of reasons, and not all of them are all that meaningful. I don't even think of myself as a collector, but I have decks that I wouldn't rebuy even if I could. And yet you can be a perfectly good reader with only one deck--maybe not even that.

Formicida said:

Wow. Gavriela and Niti, I'm so sorry for your losses. It's an entirely different thing when you talk to someone who's experienced it, isn't it? Good to have the reminder that this isn't just a thought experiment.

In any case, I think sravana hit on it:



We have decks for a lot of reasons, and not all of them are all that meaningful. I don't even think of myself as a collector, but I have decks that I wouldn't rebuy even if I could. And yet you can be a perfectly good reader with only one deck--maybe not even that.

Click to expand...

That is true. I guess that curiosity just gets the better of me, and I whip out the credit card. sigh.

Here I am, wanting to divest myself of many decks that no longer interest me (or in some cases, never did!), and I just received 2 decks, and have 4 on the way! (two in a trade, but *really*!)