The story of your first deck

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 25 Jul 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Le_Corsair	25 Jul 2003
How did you acquire your first deck? Which deck was it? Do you still have it? How old is it? Do you still use it? My first deck was the original version of the Aquarian Tarot by David Palladini. I lived in Florida by a lake at that time, and the cottage next to our house was rented by a succession of young hippie people. (this was early 1970's) Most of them stayed in the cottage for only a few months before moving on. One married couple stayed for almost a year, growing marijuana on the property and generally neglecting all rent payments and chores such as mowing the lawn until the property looked derelict. The landlord finally evicted them formally, with the country sheriff to post the notice on the door, and all of their belongings were thrown out on the side of the street. Most of this stuff (guitars, crafts, etc.) was collected and kept by various neighbors. I found my copy of the Aquarian Tarot in the junk pile. It was published in 1970, so it is now 33 years old. I still have it, but rarely use it, as the cardstock is thin and it doesn't shuffle well. The images I still like, though, and I may order a copy with foreign language titles, that always makes a deck more mysterious to me. ;) Bob :THERM

CompassRose	25 Jul 2003
My very FIRST deck was some sort of Marseilles deck, which one of my brothers gave me for Christmas one year. I think he just thought it was cool. I was only twelve or thirteen, and did nothing with it (our family was big, you understand, on the giving of cool little trinkets as gifts, most of which just got tucked away and looked at occasionally). I expect it's still in a box somewhere at my parents' house. The first deck I got for myself was an Aquarian, when I was in my late teens, followed shortly thereafter by one of the portable-size Rider Waites. I don't know what happened to the RW, but I still have the Aquarian (though I put it up in my trade thread, no one took it).

wavebreaker	25 Jul 2003
I "found" tarot through an online version of the Glastonbury Tarot, so in a way that was my first deck. ;) I wanted to know more about tarot, looked up some more information on the internet and found that the Rider-Waite deck was the one mentioned most and recommended as a good deck to start with, so I bought it. I still have it, but I hardly use it anymore. It just doesn't speak to me that much.

WolfSpirit	25 Jul 2003
I bought my first deck, it was a rider-waite and the only deck in the shop. I don't use the deck itself anymore for readings, but I am still a lot influenced by rider-waite and go back to its meanings a lot. I think I will buy another one with more attractive colours. The first ever divination deck however was a mlle lenormand we found in an old couch (hidden behind the cushions) that was left behind in an apartment a friend of mine just rented. Although she did not believe in it all, she started doing readings "for fun". Then she did a reading for her father who had a weak heart and had a pacemaker, and she got all possible negative cards: coffin, cross, snake...although none of the negative predictions came true, this had frigthtened her so much she never used the deck anymore (and probably threw it away). Despite this bad start, I had gotten interested in divination by cards and I decided I wanted a tarot deck, I just felt there was something more insightful to be gotten from the cards than the way my friend used them. Probably, the mlle lenormand deck works well too for people who use it properly.

Kaz	25 Jul 2003
waite/smith was the first one i got, it was the only one the shop had. i dont have a waite/smith anymore, mine relocated to holmes. tarot started to get a lot more interesting when i got my 2nd deck, the osho zen. i still have that one and its a lovely deck to read with. then i got a thoth deck, that one opened many doors, its my main reading deck, and i think it will always be. though i do have marseille type decks that i love using as well, the hadar comes to mind here.

LadyMedusa	25 Jul 2003
I was hanging/hiding out at a coffee shop where a friend of mine who read cards worked. She had been further explaining a reading she had done earlier for me. About 45 minutes before her shift ended she got hit with a rush she handed me her cards and the book and told me to give it a try for myself. She turned to a 5 card spread, told me to concentrate on what the cards said to me based on the meaning of the position in the spread and if I got stuck to read a bit of the card meaning and then use that as a starting point for the cards personal meaning. When she was finished with her shift she came over and told me to tell her what I thought they were saying... I was hooked. I used her deck for a few months. Then one day when we were out shopping together, I came home with the Legend Arthurian. This was in 1996 I think. I still have this set. It's rather worn and has a quite a few holes in it (bassett hound incident). I only use it for extra info now. After the Bassett attack I bought another copy that I do occasionally use, but it's just not the same... it doesn't have the same "feel" as my old friend. LadyMedusa

Maan	25 Jul 2003
Got mine for "Sinterklaas" (a dutch traditional feast) From my parents. It was the norse tarot by Cliff Barrett. After that i bought myself the Toth, but that deck did not agree with me ;) And so i came to the RW and later the Robin Wood...etc

Cerulean	25 Jul 2003
...because of all the literature about 'bonding' and such...so I took everything that I was interested in, including folktales and historical culture. I still keep more than one of these decks around. I was fortunate because the imagery, folktale link and write-ups allowed me to enjoy it in a different, meditative way. I didn't know it would lead to a love of traditional tarots with Marseilles-ordering, but I'm very pleased it was my first deck.

fairyhedgehog	25 Jul 2003
My first deck was the Hanson-Roberts, after much advice from people in here :) It was a great deck to learn on, because the fairytale pictures appeal to me and the closeness to RWS makes it easy to find books about its meanings. I still have it, but I find it a bit too hard-hitting now at times. I'm currently using the Ancestral Path and I wonder which one I will use next ... I've only got decks I like but that doesn't mean I always use them :)

Little Baron	25 Jul 2003
My first deck. Well, I was out doing the weekly shop about 8 or 9 years ago. In the supermarket, because it was near Christmas, they had lots of books and toys. Amongst them all, they had different kits - how to play darts, make cocktails. You know the kind of thing. One was How to read tarot. The inclination was never there before, but I popped it into the trolly with the rest of the shopping for the week. The deck didn't have a name but its illustrations were by Shirley Baker. Some friends came over that evening and we played about with it a bit. Trying out the spreads and reading the definitions from the book. It was all a bit of fun, but I began to realise after this that there was something in this deeper for me and that I wanted to know more. As this realisation got deeper in the months ahead, realised that this deck was not enough. Coincidentally, while staying at a friends house, I mentioned this to his new housemate and she happened to have an interest in the tarot as well. The next day she took me to a shop in Covent Garden called Mysteries. We went through the album or cards and I bought the Rohrig. That is where it all started. Yaboot

tabbycat	25 Jul 2003
It was the Celtic Tarot by Courtney Davis. I bought it from a monthly occult and mystery book club! (Encounters - anyone else in the UK remember them?) I still use it and love the artwork. The instruction book is falling to pieces! Jilly

truthsayer	25 Jul 2003
i bought mine, the hoi polloi, through the jc penney christmas catalogue back in 1975. we lived in such a rural fundamentalist neighborhood that the chances of finding a deck thru a bookstore was slim and none. first of all, you have to have a bookstore and we didn't! i had no idea other decks existed until 10 years later when i got the original rws and the thoth. i discovered there were even more deck out there after i discovered the internet in 1998!

Astra	26 Jul 2003
I had to vote Other - I really don't remember. I think it may have been the Hoi Polloi RW variant, and if it was I probably got it at Kroch & Brentano's, but frankly my earliest memories are simply reading and watching people's faces change. Can't even be sure of the deck, and my first one(s) may simply have been borrowed from other readers at the same events I was attending. I have this feeling that I didn't own a deck until after I'd done a fair number of readings.

firemaiden	26 Jul 2003
Through J.C. Penney? Wow! I never knew they had stuff like that in the 70's! I bought my first deck in Berlin a year and a half ago about. I was curious. I wanted to see how it was put together. After months of browsing and snooping, choosing, and not bringing myself to buy, I finally settled on a pocket version of the Thoth for the accompanying book by Akron/Hajo Banzhaff. My German wasn't good enough to make it very easy going deciphering the book and cards, perhaps that made it all the more mysterious.

Macavity	26 Jul 2003
I think it was nominally the Nefertari... bought alongside the RWS at a mid-brow chain bookstore. (Where "New Age" rubs shoulders with "Sex" })) It was there, at that checkout, I heared for the first time, the bit about not "buying them for myself" - Ack too late! :laugh: Now the deck I had really wanted was the "Tarot of the Cat People", eventually bought online, and which arrived third... Macavity

Osher	26 Jul 2003
I started with runes. Walking along Regent Street I wass 'pulled' into Past Times, and then pulled to the 'Blum' runes. A few years later in Watford, Market Street, wandered into Oracle. I asked for advice from Fay Charlotte, and she recommeneded the Tarot of the Old Path, as she used them. She said that they were bright and easy to read. She was right! Still my main deck today (I bought 28 others....)

amyel	26 Jul 2003
My first deck, the "Mythic" was from a friend back in '86. It was the only deck I had for about 8 years. I used it regularly until about, oh, 7 years ago, when it just stopped workign for me - which is partly what brought me to Aeclectic to begin with (that was only 2 years ago or so). I still love the deck and artwork and the Greek mythology that accompanies it. It was the perfect beginning deck for me.

rota	26 Jul 2003
I found my first deck, as a kid, in a box of junk that had been left at the house to be taken to a yard sale. It was an RWS; I was 9 or so. I wonder where it is now?

Chronata	26 Jul 2003
I was about to say that my first deck was given to me...my RWS that my parents bought for me in '82... But then I realized that my actual first deck...technically... was one that I made myself! I had always been interested in the Tarot, and in psychic readings in particular. Various people, on both sides of my family, did readings, but they all used either tea leaves of regular playing cards. I remember I found some book somewhere...an almanac type of thing...that listed the names of the cards, but had no actual pictures. So, based soley on the names I drew my own interpretive tarot deck! And I recall that on a couple of cards I was fairly accurate, too! (based on the illustrations of the "real" tarot decks, when I got them later!) My High Priestess looked a lot like the one from RWS, as did my Chariot, and Hermit... and my idea of both the Fool and the Wheel of Fortune resembled the Marsellies... But I was WAY off on the Hanged Man, Strength, Judgement, and Temperance! (LOL) I found the original drawings the other day (I really don't throw anything out!) And I was amazed at just how intuitive I was as a 10 year old!

WolfSpirit	27 Jul 2003
Chronata, what a great story ! Many people get to make their own deck, but only after seeing other decks. To design a tarot deck completely on intuition without ever having seen one is just so special !

Trogon	27 Jul 2003
Purchased my first deck. This was the Grimaud Tarot of Marseilles, which I had picked up at a local used-book store. I messed around with this deck for a couple of weeks and just couldn't "get it", but I still wanted to learn Tarot. So, I broke down and checked a B. Dalton and found the Rider-Waite. That was the only deck I used for a long time, and I really consider it more my "first deck" than the Grimaud because it was the first one that "worked" for me. Anyway... the Grimaud Tarot of Marseilles has been given away. I still have my RWS, which is now 10+ years old.

Diana	27 Jul 2003
Like Trogon, my first deck was a Grimaud Marseille. I didn't know that other Tarot decks were considered "real" - I thought they were just gimmicks. (My opinion has changed a wee bit since then, although not much......) Other Tarot decks have since then come into my life, a few have stayed, many have gone. But the Grimaud is my constant companion - faithful, sincere and loving.

genna	27 Jul 2003
My first deck was a pocket R-W,and the lady in the shop found it really amusing that I bought a book first(a very bad Tarot book BTW),and didnīt come back for the deck until later. The first deck I chose was The Moongarden.I went out in search of an occult bookshop in a new city;found one at once,and ordered Moongarden out of a catalouge(but I left with the Inner Child Tarot Cards,couldnīt leave empty-handed,and I love that deck too).I bought many other decks there later;and the book I learnt to read with as well.(The deck I used to learn with was the Hanson Robertīs). However,my first deck will always be very special to me,even if I donīt read with it very often right now.

Xarokys	27 Jul 2003
My first deck was a Rider-Waite I bought for myself about twenty years ago. I don't remember why I bought it, probably curiosity. I played with them off and on for about a year, but then a friend talked me into joining her somewhat conservative church and I threw them away. It didn't take long to realize that this church wasn't for me, but I didn't get another deck of tarot cards (Universal-Waite) until 1997 when I discovered the internet. I found that my spiritual beliefs had a name - neo-paganism - and I wasn't the only one with these beliefs. My interest in Tarot was rekindled and now I'm a hopeless tarotholic with about 170 decks. Becky

Phoenyx	03 Aug 2003
My first deck was the Witches' Tarot, and I bought it from Amazon.com. I had been looking for a deck, and the imagery was the only one that I felt really comfortable with. For some reason the R-W felt too sexist to me (*shrugs* I dunno why, it just did), and TWT just felt right.

Kiama	03 Aug 2003
I specified 'Other', since my first deck came free with a magazine I bought... So, I kind of bought it, though I only bought it because I wanted the magazine! I had been studying Tarot since I was 9, and this deck I got when I was 12, so I already had a bit of a headstart understanding and using it. Sadly, when I was 13 I lost the deck, and then bought other decks to replace it. This first deck is now very rare and hard to find, although I did manage to find it once again when I saw a copy on Ebay... I ended up spending about Ģ40 more than I did origainlly on it, but for me, it was worth it... My first deck had so much sentiment and happy memories attached to it, and looking back on it 8 years later gave me a whole new insight into the cards. If you search for 'Sugar Mystic' Tarot at Tarotgarden, you'll see my first deck... :D Kiama

Jeannette	03 Aug 2003
First deck: 1JJ Swiss Tarot. How acquired: Made my mom go to a local toy store to buy it for me, after spending a week at summer camp with a girl who had one. Everyone was gathered around while she laid out the cards, giggling and being goofy and doing all the things that 9-year-olds tend to do with those "creepy cards," but for some reason, I felt an immediate connection to them when I just looked at them. Where is it today?: Still have it, although I'm not sure how. I never remember making a specific effort to take them with me as I've travelled around in my life-path, but somehow, they've always been there. Deck that finally sent me down the road to "tarot addiction": Hanson-Roberts deck, given to me when I was about 22 by a very perceptive friend. She saw me lingering over the tarot decks on a sales table at an event, and must have recognized the "connection" there. She told me to buy one, I didn't. So later, she bought me the HR and gave it to me as a gift. After that, the floodgates were completely open. Today: Completely addicted. Own nearly 800 tarots and cartomantic decks. Have to "deal" to support my habit. ;) ...Do you suppose that one of these days, I actually ought to learn to read the things...? :D -- Jeannette http://www.tarotgarden.cm

Elle	03 Aug 2003
Bought my first deck (Albano-Waite) 12 years ago in some shop in NYC (wish I could remember the name - it was a great mystical shop). I can still remember the walk home. I also bought 2 Journeyman books to learn from. Those I lost along the way, but the cards I just recently gave away. I felt I needed to start over with a new deck - clean energy, new beginnings, whatever. Many, many people had been read with those cards. I needed to rid myself of the past, hence the new deck...(Victoria Regina) Warmest, Elle

Ruby7	03 Aug 2003
I had thought that my first deck was the Connolly deck, which I've had for about 12 years. I bought the Connolly deck because I read on the box "The cards are resplendent in colour reminiscent of stained glass windows". I had no idea that there were so many decks to choose from until this year!!!! But I had forgotten about the first deck that I ever bought and have only now remembered. I was taking a women and religion course at university (14 years ago) and this lead me to the Women's Bookstore (looking for a book) and for some reason I bought the Daughters of the Moon Tarot deck. I have not used this deck in years. I looked at it today and counting the cards I found only 75. The cards are black and white and non-laminated (for colouring in which I did do for some cards). I'm not comfortable with this deck at all now. It is too female only for me (and I am female). I prefer a more balanced deck now, funny how we change. I had no idea there were so many decks to choose from until last year. Now the Hanson Roberts and Universal Waite are my main decks, although I have many others to dabble with too:) Ruby7

Flavio	25 Jun 2004
When I got my first deck, had no idea there were so many decks! so arriving to the store my 1st intention was to get a RWS but the variety of boxes made happy and was difficult to choose which one would be my 1st deck, I saw the Avalon Tarot and since "The Mists of Avalon" is one of my favorite books ever, I picked it up. Less than 2 weeks later I went back to the store and got a RWS hehehehe! I just couldnīt learn to read with the Avalon, when I get more used to RWS maybe will go back to my Avalon deck.

tao51	25 Jun 2004
I walked into a bookstore over 30 years ago. I found a deck of cards called "Tarot Cards". I am not sure who published it because the box was replaced by a leather pouch. I realized that the deck is of the Marseilles group. It has held up through heavy usage. My second was the Rider-Waite. I was specifically looking for this deck.--Tao

Island Dreamer	25 Jun 2004
My first deck was a Hoi Polloi bought from a UK book club (but I can't remember which one) when I was a teenager . It was actually a version released by Reiss Games in about 1972 and had quite a large booklet with a coloured cover. A lot of the cards had plain white backgrounds instead of landscapes and I found that a bit odd. It lived in an old cigar box, wrapped in a yellow silk cloth, through two moves and a very long period of non-use. Fortunately, Kissa provided my deck with an excellent new home and I'm sure it is being very well looked after :D My next deck was The Faeries Oracle followed by Tarot for Mermaids. Dreamer

lunakasha	25 Jun 2004
My first deck was the Crow's Magick by Londa Marks. I bought it at a local metaphysical shop...not sure exactly what prompted me to do it...kind of "spur of the moment" I guess, although I had seen tarot decks before and had been curious about them ever since. I think that I stayed away from them for so long because of some of the rumors I had heard (tarot is evil etc.)...but I guess that my curiosity finally got the better of me! Now...when I looked through the decks at this store....they only had a few to choose from: original RW (nope), Thoth (interesting but not ready for it yet), Motherpeace (too round)....and a few others. The only one that really stood out for me was the Crow's Magick...I loved the imagery, kinda dark and mysterious, unlike any of the others I saw that day. Well, that was about three years ago...I am now up around 70 decks and counting! :eek: Until I discovered Aeclectic, I had NO idea there were so many beautiful decks out there, waiting to be discovered..... BTW...I have not used the CM in a long time....I think it is time for me to dust it off and see what happens! :) Luna

Luminessence	25 Jun 2004
My first deck was a Thoth deck that my dad gave me when I was about fourteen. My parents knew I was interested in things like psychic abilities, so Dad found his old Thoth deck and gave it to me. At that point I wasn't really interested in tarot, though, so I hardly ever used it. And when I did, I didn't really get any messages that made sense. A couple of years later, though, I started getting more interested in tarot, and when my family and I were in Vermont for the weekend, we happened to walk into a metaphysical shop, and I decided I wanted to buy a deck of tarot cards. I looked at all the decks that the shop was selling, and finally bought the Sacred Circle deck. I really connected with those cards, and I started reading with them. It was a few months after I bought those cards that my tarot obsession really started up. I haven't been using the Sacred Circle deck much lately, since I've been focusing on my newer decks, but I still go back to it sometimes. I still don't really like reading with the Thoth deck, though. :)

Moonbow*	25 Jun 2004
My first Tarot deck was the Spiral (as I have already mentioned on other threads). I carefully chose it from on-line sites where I could see as many of the cards as possible. I wanted a deck closely related to the RWS deck but 'not' the RWS deck because I am not keen on the art!! (I still am not - but I do at least own a universal waite deck now). The Spiral appealed to me because of it's simplicity BUT also because it is packed with symbols - this is what first got me interested in Tarot - I love to discover hidden symbols. I was lead to the Spiral from the Faeries Oracle by Froud. The Spiral lead me to discover the Kabbalah and Greek Mythology plus other myths and legends and I am still reading up on alot of this - it's been a journey of discovery for me.

ros	25 Jun 2004
~ Servants of the Light Tarot ~ I had a few readings done and didn't know where to find "those" kind of cards. One year my sister gave me this set for my birthday. It wasn't easy to learn. I had no help, didn't know what Major or Minor was and everyone thought I had problems. Many years of study have gone by and they all still think I'm weird in a neat little way! LOL (My sister and I are not close and this was one of the best gifts anyone could have given me. I have never even read for my sister yet to this day. Funny how things like this happen!)

Rusty Neon	25 Jun 2004
Here's the link to a post of mine about my first and second tarot decks: http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?s=&postid=289048

Marion	25 Jun 2004
Mine was purchased back in 1971. I was from small town Ontario, in the mid to eastern part of Canada, and my first job was in Vancouver, on the west coast. Needless to say I was pretty isolated at first and I spent a lot of time in bookstores. There was a truly charming bookstore which I think is no longer there. One of those complicated stores with narrow corridors and it came complete with an iron winding staircase. I puddled in there many hours and discovered a RWS and a book by Eden Grey. I do not recall that there was a choice of decks. I taught myself tarot from that cookbook sort of book by Eden Grey, really atrocious looking back on it. I also eventually bought AE Waite's key to the Tarot and read that many times over. I tossed the lot during some phase or other during the 80's and then re-acquired the deck a while later. I didn't buy any more decks until I lived in Halifax on the east coast. Charming little store and I bought Robin Wood's deck. They also had other decks. That was really re-opened that door for me, and I joined AT about the same time or a little later. I did have a huge surprise a few years ago. It was after my mother died (dad had died 11 years before that) and we were cleaning stuff out of the house preparatory to putting it up for sale. One of my sibs came up and handed me a copy of the RWS and the Eden Grey book and asked if they were mine. I didn't say anything and took them. I knew I had tossed mine. It was full of notes in my father's handwriting!!!!! I was so astounded, you cannot imagine. My dad was a small town lawyer, and very old-school and strict. Goes to show, kids never really know their parents.

blashamma	25 Jun 2004
I don't know if this counts, but about 10 years ago, my sister moved into a new apartment and found five tarot cards. She gave them to me. I found out recently that they are from a Soprafino reproduction. I still have them, but really I had forgotten about them for years. maybe about 5 years ago or so I had become interested in tarot, but I didn't buy myself a deck because I had heard before that it was bad luck and a deck had to be given to me. Well, then I had a dream that I went to a local book store and bought tarot cards in a purple box (which was strange because the only tarot cards I ever knew existed were Rider-Waite, and they didn't come in a puple box, furthermore, the bookstore never sold tarot cards before). Well, the next day I went to that book store and behold, right in front were stacks of purple boxes each containing a set illustrated by Shirley Barker and a tarot book. I grabbed one and bought it! I still have the deck, but I don't use it since I don't feel any connection with it. I later bought the Aquarian Tarot on a vacation. I use that one now, but I still feel like there is something more for me in the tarot world. But I never knew there were so many different tarot decks until I found this place!

tmgrl2	25 Jun 2004
I found Aeclectic Tarot by "accident" online (there are no accidents) and then purchased a RWS deck with a couple of books Greer's Tarot for YourSelf, Pollack's Illustrated Guide and Bunning's book. Soon I added many many books and a few more decks, and a LOT of posts and learning here at AT. tmgrl

Sillanza	25 Jun 2004
It was a very simple matter. I knew I wanted a tarot deck, I already knew that the RWS was the deck that many books, etc. reference, so I went straight out and bought it. I used it exclusively for about a year, then started to acquire other decks, and it fell out of favor. I've only recently begun using it again. Reading with it after such a long absence is somewhat effortless, and I use it if I don't believe what I'm reading with one of my other decks. I don't mind using it, and I enjoy the symbolism, but it's just not as aesthetically pleasing as other decks.

Cerulean	26 Jun 2004
This made me curious and so I found the cards and deck: http://www.tarotpassages.com/bandn2.JPG I don't blame someone for not connecting to it...interesting ideas though how someone blended three classics together. Regards, Cerulean

The The story of your first deck thread was originally posted on 25 Jul 2003 in the Tarot Decks board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Tarot Decks, or read more archived threads.