bad deck?

Hi,

I have been using my Thoth Deck for a couple years now but lately the cards I have been picking are giving me really "bad" or "sad" news. Even readings which I know are obviously wrong. Has anyone ever experienced this? Where the readings are confusing and contradictory and which you instinctively know are wrong? Should I throw this deck away and get a new one?

By the way, I have been following this forum for some years now and I really must thank all of you for the many insights and lessons I have benefited from all of you!

hslimcaroline said:

I have been using my Thoth Deck for a couple years now but lately the cards I have been picking are giving me really "bad" or "sad" news. Even readings which I know are obviously wrong. Has anyone ever experienced this? Where the readings are confusing and contradictory and which you instinctively know are wrong? Should I throw this deck away and get a new one?

Click to expand...

Have you tried cleansing it? Maybe it's expressing its own sadness and need for some rest and renewal?

Thank you for the reply, Thirteen. I tried cleansing like passing it over a candle or leaving it out in the sun for a while but its still giving me (strangely) more or less the same sad readings.

Have you tried putting it back into order? Fool - World, Ace - 10 and then courts of each suit in whatever suit order you feel is appropriate? (Or whatever order is more appropriate for the Thoth.) Kinda like a reset to zero?

Rodney

Perhaps you could do a spread about the deck itself?

Or set it aside in a beautiful bag or scarf for awhile?

I wouldn't throw it out. It's served you well in the past, and it may be that there's something it needs to say, or that you need a break from it for awhile. Maybe instead of cleansing the deck, there's something you need to do?

Hugs and good luck!

When decks do this to me I put them away for awhile. Any deck that gets a lot of use will (in my experience at least) eventually tire out & become--either overly negative or just trite/nonexpressive. I'm not sure whether this is something within the deck itself, or due to my overfamiliarity with the images. After some rest & recuperation, though, a tired deck usually bounces back. Unless I've just outgrown it--in which case the trading forum comes in handy.

I also put any tired cards away in a beautiful bag...

...but I add in a "very clear quartz crystal point and ask it to draw or "change"
any negative energies surrounding my cards.

I believe that "everything" is made up of atoms and is alive, has vibrations
and is of the Spirit as I am Spirit.

Note:
...before I put my crystal in with my cards, I keep the crystal in the palm
of my right hand for awhile, until it feels really hot and energized...then I add
it to the bag. When I touch these cards again, they feel renewed and energized
with more positive vibrations.

Actually, I keep my most used decks in bags with CLEAR quartz crystal points
all the time. I also keep "cone incense" in the bottom of my deck bags and that
keeps my cards smelling great! (not for everyone though)

It does work for me. I also keep lots of semi-precious stones around my cards
when doing a reading. Sometimes I just set a crystal point on top of the deck
after I have drawn out the cards I want to use for the spread.

Might not be appealing to everyone though...

successgoodhealth (Lyn)

Ever since I read Crowley's Autobiography (all 900 pages), the guy has really started to creep me out.


http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/confess/index.html

He frequently committed animal sacrifices in his boarding house. He tortured a cat just to see if it had "nine lives".

Quote from chapter 6:
>> I therefore caught a cat, and having administered a large dose of arsenic I chloroformed it, hanged it above the gas jet, stabbed it, cut its throat, smashed its skull and, when it had been pretty thoroughly burnt, drowned it and threw it out of the window that the fall might remove the ninth life.<<

Some of his woman hating comments are such that I could not repeat them here.


He talks (a lot) about the dangers of "mixed blood".

Quote from chapter 34:
>> It was atrocious folly to allow Indians to come to England to study, to mix freely with our women, often to marry or seduce them.<<

His attitude toward the handicapped? Quote from Liber AL:
>>We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp down the wretched & the weak<<

In his own words he tells how he cheated the poor people who worked for him in China. On a mountain climbing trip, he heard people shouting who were trapped in an avalanche but he did not help them because he was already in his tent with his boots off. They died.

He repeated the charge against the Jews that has gotten so many killed, by saying (in 2 different books) that Jews were committing human sacrifice. In his diary (See July 29, 1943) He stated that "Mein Kampf" was a masterpiece and claimed that Hitler had taken his ideas.



I think most Tarot people are very sensitive to influences, and Crowley's influences are about as negative as you can get. There are thousands of decks out there, and most of them were surely invented by better people than Uncle Al.

Influences do mean something. They mean everything. I think you should listen to your intuition, and find a new deck that you can feel totally good about that will be a positive force in the world.

Good luck!







***Standard Disclaimer: This is just a suggestion. I am not claiming that my way is the only way, or that any way is the only way. I am not trying to impose a system upon people who reject all systems.***

Kircher Tree said:

I think most Tarot people are very sensitive to influences, and Crowley's influences are about as negative as you can get. There are thousands of decks out there, and most of them were invented by better people than Uncle Al.

Click to expand...

and you know *what* about all the other people who created the other decks that you use?

I think that art or genius doesn't depend on whether a person is a good person or not. Alas for the human race, not all our best, be they artists, inventors or writers, were angels. A lot of them were awful. But luckily for us, amazing things can be created by complete bastards. Which isn't to say that the creator of a tarot deck isn't in the deck--they always are to some extent or other--but I think what's in the deck is that part of them that was focused on creating the deck, not treating women badly or whatever else they say they did...and might or might not have done.

Uncle Al told some tall tales in his time, after all, and loved to boast about how naughty he was.

Putting it another way, I think it's a little silly to be "creeped out" by a little old man who, when you hear him on tape, sounds like someone's Scottish grandmother. We're not talking about Adolph Hitler here. And Caroline says she's been using this deck for a couple of years now and only lately has it been giving her sad readings, so that's hardly a ringing endorsement for the evil influence of Uncle Al haunting her from beyond.

If we're going to go in that direction, however, than what's good for the goose is good for the gander. We're going to have to investigate the full life's history of every creator of every deck we decide to use and hope that said creator doesn't have have any bodies buried under the floorboards...because if he or she does we'll get sad readings (horrors!).

Oh, and um, what about Lady Frieda Harris? Was she a nice lady? How it is that you give all the influence of this deck to Crowley and none to her? She painted all the pictures.

It's no fair judging one deck by the lifestyle of only one of its creators, no matter how famous (infamous), and not the other. And it's certainly not fair to judge one deck only by it's creator and no other decks.

Kircher Tree, I sympathize with your feelings toward the deck . . . just because I've always found the imagery unappealing, and have never been able to connect with it. For me, it is pretty negative. But, it's important to remember that Crowley didn't create the deck on his own . . . that is to say, his energy is not the only energy in it. Many wonderful people find it to be a wonderful deck! And hslimcaroline, you've used it successfully for two years; I assume it's a close friend by now . . . In your shoes, I would definitely give it some time out/personal space, and a second chance.

Edited to add: crossed replies with Thirteen, who said this better than I could have