why & when did you learn tarot?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 04 Mar 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

cheekyminx	04 Mar 2003
Just curious is all folks!! My sister was about 16 when she got into tarot, ruines, wicca, you name it. I was 12 years old & had no idea what was going on behind closed doors when my sister had her grovy friends over. It wasn't until I was about 18 that I realised what she was getting up to. I wished I had questioned my sister when I was 12 & had her help with learning Tarot, but that came much later. I can honestly say I do not remember how I got into tarot or why? (more than likely my sisters influence) I do remember going to the book store when I was about 20 & buying a deck of cards. I played around with the cards for a few years & it wasn't until 2 years ago that I took it all seriously. I haven't looked back since. But it was my 5th deck of cards that really captured my attention & I started doing good readings & felt connected with tarot. I hadn't had such a connection with my previous cards, but I still feel that there is another deck out there waiting for me...

Icestorm	04 Mar 2003
Well, my tarot experience extends back... 2 months!!! I was at a friends house, just past my 18th birthday, and he had a pack of tarot cards from a past christmas present, but he treated them as curiosities. Now, another friend who actually READ tarot gave me a reading with them, and boy were they accurate. To the point that I thought he was completely pulling rabbits out of the hat, so to speak, only for it to hit me 2 weeks later with amazing accuracy :-p It was then that I thought, "I should try this out myself" and scoured the ghost town that is Perth for tarot cards... Im amazed at their rarity. I spent most of the day walking back and forth, with a choice out of Rider-Waite, Sharman-Burke, and Mythic. Not much of a choice, and I found them all distinctly unappealing. That was, until near closing time, where I found Clive Barret's Ancient Egyptian tarot pack in the WRONG SECTION in Astrology. I connected with them immediately and bought it without a second glance. However reading is a great deal more complicated than i thought, and hence i started scouring the net for info. and found a wealth of info here that has helped me greatly! Last night I had my strongest self-reading yet, that hit me so hard with accuracy that i was 'panting' in shock for 10 mins!!!

sagitarian	04 Mar 2003
wow, this dates back 12 years ago. I was 17 and a friend of mine who was taught tarot by her grandmother pulled out her deck and was playing with it. She did readings with them too on a serious matter, but at this point she was just shuffling them for something to do with her hands. In any case, my reaction "wow, are those tarot cards?" and she replied yes, and asked if I wanted a reading. I said sure, but like most people, I didn't understand tarot, and sort of related them to the quija board, not sure if it was "evil" or not. She was my best friend, so i was over at her house a lot. Well, one night i asked her if she'd do a reading for me again, and she said, here, here's the deck, here's the book, do it yourself. I thought, ok. So I did my own reading. As this became a regular practice for me, anytime I went over to her house, i barrowed her deck, she decided to take me shopping one day and buy me a deck of my own for my 18th bday. Shortly after, I came across another teacher who taught me how to listen to my intuition. That's kinda when and how I learned tarot. Why I learned tarot, well, I became addicted in knowing what my fortune was. The more I read for other people using intuition, the less I'd do readings for myself. Then I loved doing readings for other people. Made me feel good about myself, and I found a new type of confidence inside myself. I really liked that, and in some ways I think at the time, I needed it. Why I continue, well, now I only do readings for other people if either I "feel" they need one, or if someone close to me asks. But I did go back to reading for myself. However, if it's an issue that I really need some clarity on, then I'll ask my sister to do a reading for me, or look at who's offering readings in the reading exchange and possibly post there.

scheherazade	04 Mar 2003
My interest in all of the metaphysical has lasted me my entire lifetime. As for organized methods of studying the metaphysical, ex. Wicca, it's been about three years. As for tarot itself, it's been almost a year now. I've always been drawn to truths that not everyone is willing to see.

Silverlotus	04 Mar 2003
My story is a little... odd. I think I was in grade 7, so I was I 11 or 12. I saved up all my money to buy Ultima 4 for my brand new Sega Master System. At the start of the game you are asked questions using cards to choose your character type. My older cousin was watching me play and he mentioned they looked like Tarot cards. He told me a bit about them and we made plans to go down to the Occult Shoppe (yes, that was the store's name) a few days later. There I bought my first deck of cards, the Aquarian Tarot. I turned my nose up at the Rider-Waite deck because I didn't like the backs. :) From there I read books, did readings, and studied hard. I gave up Tarot for a while after a boy broke up with me because he thought it was weird. (Teenagers!) But the cards called me back, and I've been using them off and on for a long time now.

firemaiden	04 Mar 2003
I started learning the tarot last year, age 40. I was doing internet research on the idea of "correspondances" in relation to the poem Correspondances by Baudelaire, and trying to explain the impact this poem had on my life 20 years earlier. This search brought me to the idea of magickal "correspondances". I followed the *magick* to the Book of Thoth by Alistaire Crowley, and was so fascinated by his writings that I had to get his deck. Then I found this website, became addicted to Tarot Art and the rest is history, or rather, the rest is Future-y. I am still learning, and only last week had and gave (sort of) my first live reading, with the advent of Lawguy51 to Berlin!

Mimers	04 Mar 2003
My Aunt read Tarot but mostly used playing cards. While I was little I always wanted to learn, but would never ask. I thought you had to have special powers to use them. Then in my teens I became a born again Christian and renounced them. Everyone in my family was totally frustrated with me and were constantly telling me to open my mind. Except my Aunt. She would say Mimi will find the truth Mimi's way. Right now this is her way. Well, this past summer I was browsing in Barnes and Noble and saw that they sold them there. I picked the Rider Waite deck and also bought the book Tarot for Yourself. The rest is history. My Aunt lives in New Hampshire, so I don't get to see her much, but we are always emailing. She is very excited that someone in the family is following in her footsteps. Mimers

Eissej	04 Mar 2003
I started learning tarot maybe 6 months ago. I was hanging out with some friends and one of them got out his deck and started reading for someone else there. He was good. Very confident, very connected with his cards. The cards were pretty, but I wanted to know how he saw what he was saying in them. I'm sure I'd heard the work tarot before but not paid any attention to it at all, didn't know a thing about it. So I got to researching - all I really wanted to know was the basic theory behind what he was doing - and got hooked. By Aeclectic of course. Read Thirteen's basics and suddenly there were pictures in my head banging on the back of my eyes saying "You'd BETTER paint me or I'll leak out onto your classwork!" So I researched some more. And painted the noisy ones. However, I seriously doubt I will ever be able to say I have learned tarot. The day I stop learning about the cards and their relationships to each other and my life, I'll put them away and search out another tool to learn from!

Teranar	04 Mar 2003
About 4 years ago I got hold of a Ryder White deck... a VERY old Ryder White deck. I thought you had to know the cards' meanings or know channeling to use them, but I tried anyway trying to help a friend with a turbulant relationship... I shuffled the deck, laid some cards out, and it was like the cards spoke to me, I could feel what they we're saying... I've done every reading since the same way.

Kazz	04 Mar 2003
I have always, for as long as I can remember, been drawn to anything supernatural, occult and just generally 'different'. In school my llifelong friend, was right into the tarot and used to practice on me and others, as the years went by she studied more and more about the tarot and came quite clairvoyant, she bought me my first deck (Rider Waite) about 12 or so years ago now I think ;) and I basically taught myself with her help. It's only been in the last couple of years that I have really studied hard (due to getting married and having children) I joined a study group and have met some amazing people who have shared thier gifts with me, and of course stumbling onto this FABULOUS site which has allowed me to grow so much more than I ever thought I would in this field of study with the tarot. Now I read professionally, and I just love it, and it is a huge part of my life. So what started out as simply an interest and a hobby, has now grown into a life long journey in helping others through reading, and learning about the true me!:D Cheers Kazz :TQC

Icestorm	05 Mar 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Silverlotus My story is a little... odd. I think I was in grade 7, so I was I 11 or 12. I saved up all my money to buy Ultima 4 for my brand new Sega Master System. At the start of the game you are asked questions using cards to choose your character type. My older cousin was watching me play and he mentioned they looked like Tarot cards. He told me a bit about them and we made plans to go down to the Occult Shoppe (yes, that was the store's name) a few days later. There I bought my first deck of cards, the Aquarian Tarot. I turned my nose up at the Rider-Waite deck because I didn't like the backs. :) From there I read books, did readings, and studied hard. I gave up Tarot for a while after a boy broke up with me because he thought it was weird. (Teenagers!) But the cards called me back, and I've been using them off and on for a long time now. omg SilverLotus, i know exactly how you feel! (well, almost how you feel) One of my all time favourite games is Quest For Glory 4, and there is this gypsy in the game that does tarot readings. I didnt know what deck it was at the time, but after I got my first tarot deck i was browsing on the web and... bang! I found the Russian Tarot of St. Petersburg... it just drew me in right away with the qfg4 connection, and i HAD to buy it. (No void card though :-p)

Trogon	08 Mar 2003
Hmmm.... how and why? The how is fairly easy I suppose. I started getting interested in "new-age" things many, many years ago... I don't even recall for sure just when this was, certainly more than 10 years though. Anyway, about 7 or 8 years ago my wife and I were visiting the woman who lived next door and I noticed a painting on her wall. I recognized it as a rendition of The Sun and asked about it. That's when I found out that she was "into Tarot". We started talking about it and I started learning about Tarot from her. She is still a good friend, though she now lives in a city several hundred miles away. Why? Hmm.... initially, to expand my horizons I guess. Probably with a dollop of self exploration too. There was a large measure of wanting to help others mixed in, as well as a pinch of wanting to catch a glimpse of the future. All told, it's been an interesting recipe to put together... ;)

Amythist	08 Mar 2003
I learnt tarot because i had a lot of things going on and i wanted light at the end of the tunnel that was long and forever dark. It was this time last year i started learning and i found it helped it alot. If it wasnt for my cards i would of fallen flat on myu face by now so i am pleased i learnt. I was 19 when i first started learning. I am now 20 and i still read for my self

Minderwiz	08 Mar 2003
As many of you will know my main interest is Astrology but I have been 'Tarot Aware' for many years. However for much of that time I didn't really take a lot of interest - the occasional reading done for me (rather than by me). About two years ago I decided to make something of the Astrology side, did a course and got so involved that I enrolled for another. At that time (just over a year ago) I was offered a free course in Tarot, as a reward for the second Astrology enrolment. So I took it up and collected several decks, acquired and read several books and found that I really enjoyed it. What's more it helped my Astrology and my Astrology helped my developing Tarot skills. I have now passed the Tarot course and do readings for my family and some friends. I still don't really feel confident enough to go public on that side though. Having finished the second Astrology course as well, I took up a short course on Numerology (I'm a perpetual reader and 'student' so I enjoy having a focus) - and I'm finding that the Tarot course and experience really helps - so from a freebie of a year ago, I'm now a Tarotholic as well

Moongold	08 Mar 2003
One Saturday afternoon last year I visited my local library, just around the corner from home. I happened to notice an illustrated tarot book and picked it up. The following week I was in an esoteric book shop close to where I then worked, looking for a deck. My first deck was the Witches deck by Ellen Cannon Reed as it was the only one I liked at the time but others soon followed. It was a difficult time of my life and I like to think that the Powers that be put that Tarot book in my path. Moongold

Kiama	10 Mar 2003
Y'know, I have no idea WHY I started studying Tarot. I just did. I was 9 years old at the time, so can't really remember what thoughts were going through my mind at the time when I picked up my first book about Tarot! I think it was a mixture of 'cool!' and 'what's all this about then?' I had always been interested in anything 'unusual', 'occult', or 'spooky', and ever since I can remember I would look at the shapes in the clouds or reflections on water, etc, and try and work out what the images I saw were saying to me... Kinda like what I do now with Tarot! When? As I just said, I was 9. My family had stopped at a 'Welcome Break' place on the way to Devon for a holiday, and I had enough pocket money (A whole £1) to buy the book I saw in the shop there. When I got to the age of 12/13, I realised I knew why I was STILL studying Tarot: The insights I gained from it were priceless, and the fact that I could help give other people a little insight into their own lives was just as priceless. Kiama

Icestorm	11 Mar 2003
Kiama I dont think I had even started collecting Spiderman cards at 9... much less start the difficult and lifelong journey of tarot. Your maturity at that age is quite extra-ordinary. On the bonus, you have a very big head-start to late-comers like me :-]

Kiama	11 Mar 2003
Well, what can I say Icestorm... I was always a strange child! Playing with Barbie Dolls and giving make-overs to friends at sleepovers never really appealed to me like it did to every other girl at that age... (At least the girls I knew!) ;) Unfortunately, being so young I didn't really have the understanding with which to fully grasp the concepts approached in the Tarot... I also didn't have the understanding of the future or indeed the present and life itself to be able to use Tarot to it's full potential or to make the most of it! However, the advantage was that I learned alot of the concepts approached by life from the Tarot... I found I could understand and make the most out of life because of the insights I gained a little later on about myself, the way the world works, etc... They say that the Tarot is a map of the Universe, and I certainly found this to be true! :D Kiama

cheekyminx	12 Mar 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Kiama Y'know, I have no idea WHY I started studying Tarot. I just did. I was 9 years old at the time, so can't really remember what thoughts were going through my mind at the time when I picked up my first book about Tarot! I think it was a mixture of 'cool!' and 'what's all this about then?' Kiama 9 years of age? Wow! I thought anywhere from 16 to 20 was young, but you've changed that for me ;) Does anyone else in your family read tarot Kiama or have any interest in spiritualism?

Kiama	13 Mar 2003
Quote: Originally posted by cheekyminx76 9 years of age? Wow! I thought anywhere from 16 to 20 was young, but you've changed that for me ;) Does anyone else in your family read tarot Kiama or have any interest in spiritualism? Not at all! I've always been the 'black sheep' of the family, even down to hair colour... Mum's got blonde hair blue eyes, Dad's got brown hair brown eyes. My fist little sister was born with blonde hair, brown eyes, the next was born with brown hair, blue eyes. I on the other hand, was born was bright red hair and green eyes. We have not been able to track down the red-gene in my familt yet! (What colour hair did the milkman have? }) Only kidding.) My family were okay with my studying Tarot though. They just saw how much I enjoyed it, and knew it wasn't evil or anything, so let me carry on. :D Kiama

catboxer	13 Mar 2003
In 1964 a woman who was taking a lot of the same journalism classes I was in insisted that I sit down with her so she could read my cards. I only knew her as Gypsy, and she really was a Gypsy. She used regular playing cards, and the reading covered the next 30 years or so of my life. From what I remember of it, it turned out to be quite accurate. A few months later I stumbled into a little second-floor book shop on Powell Street in San Francisco. I asked the owner, "What's good?" and he sold me the Book of Tokens: Tarot Meditations by Paul Foster Case, with poems and illustrations of the major cards. Later on I went back and bought Highlights of Tarot by the same author, because it contains coloring instructions for the pictures. I guess I was 20 when this stuff happened. I still have the Highlights of Tarot booklet.

Pantalaimon	13 Mar 2003
Im not sure when i first heard the word tarot or understood wat it meant, but even when i was young i wanted my own cards. So one day, while i was in this little shop i went to one of the back rooms and by amazing chance i saw 3 decks sitting on a shelf. Well at that moment i knew i had to have 1, so i looked them over, but i wasn't at all drawn to any of them. After looking around some more i spoted one more deck on a shelf. It was the tarot of the trance deck, I LUVED IT!!!! so i have been using them almost a year, and i am so impressed with them! (my readings are getting better, and after I looked at the cards for awhile, i got their meanings right off.) well, i geuss thats my when and why! - Chancy

azuremariposa	01 Apr 2003
i've always been interested in things metaphysical...i remember reading books on astrology when i was 8 and such...my family is "gifted" (psychics/mediums), so that kind of stuff didn't seem so strange to me...it was actually my mother who got into Tarot when i was 16 or so...i read the book she got (pictorial key to the tarot, i think) & started using the deck she had gotten for herself...she ended up giving it to me b/c she didn't get much out of it, and there ya go! i ended up giving that deck to a friend of mine who was also interested...i was hooked from the beginning, for sure... ;)

Astraea	01 Apr 2003
In 1988, I received a phone call from my sister, telling me that my mother had been killed in a car wreck. Dazed with grief, I wandered the block from my home to my friend's metaphysical shop. Dorothy read tarot cards, and she immediately did a reading for me (my first) that was so accurate, so personal, so helpful, that I am still in awe. The spread revealed how to do deal with my grief, certain family attitudes to be prepared for (and watch out for), what I might expect to learn from the experience, and so much more. That reading started me on a journey which has been rich beyond measure.

ihcoyc	01 Apr 2003
I was around thirteen or fourteen when I started to become fascinated by Tarot, I Ching, and related subjects. I suspect, but don't remember specifically, that there was a neighbour girl who lived three houses down from me. The "Dark Shadows" vampire soap was in its original run at the time, and she was into that deeply, and I suspect she first revealed the fact that the cards existed. "To know the future" was what I was after. More accurately, in hindsight, what i needed was a set of symbols I could project onto other people to understand them better.

Gerbear	01 Apr 2003
I was always the one coming up with the difficult question. My father and several of my relatives were ministers, but they couldn't answer MY questions. Curiosity has been with me forever, which led to my studying science. After two years of college and a lot of personal turmoil in my life, I joined the military. While in Vietnam, I had my palm read by the elder of a nearby village. He was dead on. He knew things about my life that not even my parents were aware of. After the war, I went back to school, and back to science, but with even more questions. That first summer, at a rennaisance fair, I was introduced to Tarot. I bought the Rider-Waite deck. At school I ran when into the wall of "official" belief. By chance(?) I ran into a woman who was psychic, and had just started a psychic research group. So, I became the Research Director for the group.We got our incorporation from the state of Massachusetts, and the rest is history.

The why & when did you learn tarot? thread was originally posted on 04 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.