Buying your own deck

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 22 Mar 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Goldilocks	22 Mar 2003
Hi everyone! Someone once told me that you're not supposed to buy your own tarot deck, that it has to be given to you as a gift. I admit, I bought my own deck 13 years ago and I still use it, but I hadn't heard that rule at that time. Has anyone heard of this before? And don't you feel a little like you're...uhm...kinda showing disloyalty by buying another deck? I know it sounds stupid, but I'd sort of feel as though I was treating the first deck as though it wasn't good enough...not that the cards have feelings, but still...

Diana	22 Mar 2003
Dear Goldilocks: About every two months, a new member (I don't think I welcomed you before by the way, so WELCOME :) ) asks this question. The answer you will get here on Aeclectic is: Go ahead and buy all the decks you want. (And also ask your friends to buy them for you as gifts as they can work out pretty expensive.) It's an old supersition (but SOOOO tenacious) that has no reality - not in today's world anyway. Everyone comes up with a different historical reason for where this superstition started - each probably having some basis in truth. As to being faithful or not to a Tarot deck. Firstly, cardboard pieces of paper do not have feelings, as you said, so don't worry about that. When you were a little toddler, and your mum bought you your first book: did you feel guilty towards that first book when you bought your second one? And your third and fourth......? Just enjoy Tarot and don't have any hang-ups about it. And if you want to buy lots of Tarot decks, don't forget to add a Tarot of Marseilles to your collection - a marvellous deck that will take you right back to the origins of Tarot, hundreds and hundreds of years ago. By understanding where Tarot came from, it is easier to see how it evolved to where it is today. :)

Khatruman	22 Mar 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Diana As to being faithful or not to a Tarot deck. Firstly, cardboard pieces of paper do not have feelings, as you said, so don't worry about that. When you were a little toddler, and your mum bought you your first book: did you feel guilty towards that first book when you bought your second one? And your third and fourth......? :) I think that is a wonderful metaphor for a tarot deck, Diana! I am beginning to see tarot more and more as a non-linear book. I have been reading Pollack's Forest of Souls and got caught with a line about a reading being just that.. reading a story. A layout presents a story and you piece together the story from its component pieces. Seems I am beginning to acquire quite a library myself...all these darned Tarotholics making me buy.. Buy... BUY!!!! }) PS... you should save that post to paste into the response for the next person who comes in and asks. I think it was just a couple days ago where we got that same question. Or how about on a tarot FAQ page?

Diana	22 Mar 2003
Khatruman: but if that post goes into the FAQ's, I can't do my little schpiel about the Tarot of Marseilles, can I? :D

The Buying your own deck thread was originally posted on 22 Mar 2003 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.