Taste shift?

So today I went to update my profile and such, and I was re-checking what my wishlist decks looked like, etc. I must have taken at least a half dozen off my list because when I looked them up again, I went "EWWW!" And the majority of those were adds from the last six months!

Isn't that weird?

I mean, in general my tastes haven't changed, but I was just surprised that there were so many that I no longer liked AT ALL!

Do you ever have "drastic" taste shifts when it comes to tarot?

SarahRose said:

Do you ever have "drastic" taste shifts when it comes to tarot?

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Generally, in life, yes. That's why I have over 400 decks in my collection. That should pretty well cover any drastic shift that occurs in the future. "My collection's so large just in case my tastes change in the future." That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Rodney

rwcarter said:

Generally, in life, yes. That's why I have over 400 decks in my collection. That should pretty well cover any drastic shift that occurs in the future. "My collection's so large just in case my tastes change in the future." That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Rodney

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Sounds like a good story to me!

In response to the OP, I recently went through all my decks, and couldn't believe how many that I was so excited about when I got them, that I have no interest at all in now. In fact, I've started giving several away, because they're just sitting gathering dust!

In another thread I made mention of the humpback redheaded stepchildren decks. Those are the "What WAS I thinking?" decks. I have a number of them in my collection for various reasons:

• I liked them at one point, but my tastes have changed
• I bought them having seen only a few (1 or 6) of the cards and wasn't impressed with the deck
• I got them as part of a lot of decks and never would have bought them were I in my right mind
• I succumbed to the hype around a deck only to find that I didn't like the deck

That said, I won't get rid of any of those decks (barring a serious change in finances) cause my tastes may shift again and I may find that an ugly redheaded stepchild is actually a beautiful swan. (Yeah, I know I mixed metaphors.)

Rodney

rwcarter said:

That said, I won't get rid of any of those decks (barring a serious change in finances) cause my tastes may shift again and I may find that an ugly redheaded stepchild is actually a beautiful swan. (Yeah, I know I mixed metaphors.)

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But how do you handle all of them looking at you with those big eyes that beg you to love them and spend time with them, when you can't? That's what makes me find them new homes every time...

SarahRose said:

Do you ever have "drastic" taste shifts when it comes to tarot?

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Often. My collection at its peak was around 170. I culled down to 40 and remained roughly there ever since. I've just culled again and find I could live happily with just 18 of my decks.

My 'drastic' tasteshifting has paved the way for what I really want. Now I'm extremely fussy about what I buy.

And I still make mistakes!

As a collector I probably won't get rid of any of my decks, although I toy with the idea from time to time....

As a reader my tastes have definately changed. It's kind of fun, actually.

Mariana said:

But how do you handle all of them looking at you with those big eyes that beg you to love them and spend time with them, when you can't? That's what makes me find them new homes every time...

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As VGimlet says, I'm a collector. Plus I know that I'd have to live to be a few hundred years old to learn, use and love all of the decks I currently have in my collection, and that's not even adding in the decks I know I'll buy in the future.

So, yes, unfortunately there are decks in my collection that will probably never get used (by me at least). But I can't definitively say which ones those will be. (Well, I could say, but I'm sure next month my answer would be different, as it would be the month after that and the month after that, ad nauseum.)

I'm not a huge fan of either TdM decks or pip decks. And I have a lot of them in my collection. While I could get rid of all of them cause I don't use them, 6 months from now, I could wake up and decide I'm going to learn and use a TdM or pip deck.* If I've gotten rid of them all cause they're not to my current tastes, I'll have to acquire one or more decks (probably requiring at a more expensive price something I used to have!) before I can start.

When I want to use/study/look at a tarot deck, I want it right then. I don't want to have to order it or go to the store to get it. If it's not readily accessible, I'll move on to something else that is accessible. So, even if something isn't to my tastes right now, I still keep it around cause I have no way of knowing when I might have a hankering for it and if I miss that window of interest, who knows when or if I'll get another hankering for it in the future.


*- (Something similar happened to me with food. For the first 5 or so years after I came to California, you couldn't pay me to eat Mexican food. Didn't grow up with it. It wasn't an option. It wasn't even on my radar. One day I woke up with a hankering for Mexican food and I've been eating it ever since.)

Rodney

I can't say that my tastes drastically changed, but what I can say is that what I thought was shiny and pretty wasn't always what worked best for me. Though I love, love, love the gilded I found I couldn't read with it right away. I initially thought all tarot decks should be pristine and regal, bright and bold as the gilded, decks fit for a royal bag made of silk and velvet.

What actually worked for me was decks that were more earth/nature based Druidcraft/Fenestra/Froud's fairies and misc. pagan decks. Decks that are more meant for a comfortable, cotton type bag.

There is a time and a place for every deck. There isn't one I regret having, just some I wonder when I will ever get around to understanding or taking the time to get to know better. I think all decks have a certain charm, whether or not they get appreciated is up to us.

I guess I'm lucky that I'm so damned lazy. Stuff goes on my wishlist and then falls off before I can ever get around to buying it.

The above principle does not apply to any deck designed by baba studios or Bob Place.

M_M~