I need your opinion

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 16 Jun 2004, and now archived in the Forum Library.

XANTHE	16 Jun 2004
Hello everyone, I have a query for you, but first a bit of a background on me. I have been reading the Cartouche Cards for guidance for the past 10 years or so and found them very helpful. I felt I had a strong link with my cards until they were taken from me. My brother came to visit me and after he left I found my cards and book missing. My brother has a few problems with telling the truth, so when I asked if he "accidentally" took them with him, he denied it. My query is this, do you think that my time with this set was over i.e. am I meant to change to a new tarot or should I try and get another set of Cartouche? After alot of searching I have found a place where I can get another set but now I am wondering if I should. Please tell what you think.

CreativeFire	16 Jun 2004
Hi XANTHE First of all let me welcome you to the forum :) When you get the chance drop over to the New Members forum and post an introduction so others get the opportunity to welcome you to our tarot community. In response to your question after your reading your post, in my humble opinion, it seems to me the fact that you are asking yourself this question your own feeling maybe directing you try another deck. Things often happen in strange ways and it may well be that your decks absence was meant to be at the moment, and it may turn up again for you at another time. :) Is there another deck that you feel drawn to or are interested in at the moment? Hope you find what is right for you. CreativeFire

XANTHE	16 Jun 2004
Dear Creative Fire, Thankyou for your prompt response. I was also surprised to find you are an Aussie, so am I, but now living here in Portugal. Y'know what you said about questioning myself, you are right, I have often thought that myself but thought I should get some insight from someone else just to clarify what I thought. I have had an interest in Wicca for many years as well but have unable to find the time and peace of quiet to fully explore it. I have noticed that Raymond Buckland author of Bucklands Complete Book of Witchcraft also has a tarot set for wiccans, so I have thought that might be a good option. But I still find it hard to let go of my Cartouche as it was my first pack and the circumstances in which I bought them were to me quite profound, so I don't know if I can get that same feel from another set of cards.

ferrous	16 Jun 2004
I'm only new to tarot, so I can only give my opinion based on how I'd feel about my own cards. I tend to develop attachments to inanimate objects fairly easily (I think it's a girl thing anyway, speaking generally). If it were my cards that had 'gone missing' that I had felt so drawn to, I would definintely mourn the loss of them, but I'm not sure that I'd want to replace them with the same type of deck. I suppose I might feel as though another deck wouldn't be able to live up to the old one, since it didn't have the history & the energy from its use with me. Oh, by the way, welcome! :)

smleite	16 Jun 2004
In my humble opinion, you are simply ready to try another deck – I don’t think that your Cartouche disappeared simply by accident. A different deck might have something extra (or a lot) to teach you. Well, so far, this is an Australian – Portuguese thread… Silvia

Kiama	16 Jun 2004
Well, you can always try another deck as well as getting a new set of Cartouche cards. After all, there's no rule saying you can't own and use more than one deck at a time! You might find that comparing the Cartouche cards to a new deck (or three... })) will give you some new insights. Blessings, Kiama

jmd	16 Jun 2004
With smleite just around the corner from you... get yourself a Marseille deck :D !!!

smleite	16 Jun 2004
Oh dear God, I so much wanted to write, “get a Marseilles deck” when I posted my reply to you, Xanthe… and didn’t dare too. But jmd is a very wise person, you’d better listen to him!

XANTHE	16 Jun 2004
Thanks everyone for letting me know what you think, it has helpd me alot. You're answers have confirmed my original feeling that it wasn't a mistake that I lost them. I think I will try another pack, the only problem is trying to find one in English here in Lisbon. I have researched the net and can buy over the net but I think it depersonalises it totally. When I bought my first pack the shop drew me in and when I saw the Cartouche pack I knew they were the ones for me and you just can't get that same reaction through a computer. Anyone know of a shop here in Lisbon that would have them in English? Thanks for the great welcome by the way, I was a little nervous about getting into a chat, but now I have been put at ease. Thankyou all!!!!

XANTHE	16 Jun 2004
You have me intrigued, what is the Marseille deck?????? O.K. stop laughing!!!!! I now know what the Marseille deck is, but a question to smleite and jmb, does this deck have the same healing and protective qualities the Cartouche cards have, or can you use all tarot cards the same way?

smleite	16 Jun 2004
I don’t know if I can answer this; Marseilles cards are the world to me! If a Marseilles deck has the same healing and protective qualities the Cartouche cards have? Dear Xanthe, I don’t think cards (as cardboard pieces) have any of those qualities, unless you discharge into them (or any other object) your own healing and protective energy… But I understand what you mean, their symbols are strong indeed, and are old and certainly powerful signs of a spiritual nature. Anyway, I can’t refer to the Tarot of Marseilles in this sense… the symbols in a proper Marseilles deck are of a very deep and powerful spiritual nature, but work within you in a different way. Using my poor knowledge and practice, I would say their symbols can open to you an endless path of insights and leaning, in all levels. Maybe the best solution to you would really be getting at least two decks; another Cartouche, because it seems to be a great ally of yours, a deck you can “rely on”; and also this new deck that is knocking at your door, and that you should choose according to your obviously strong intuition. You can always see some of the threads on the Tarot of Marseilles, I have discovered that many people find it too cryptic, or visually unattractive, or both, so getting some information about it is important - but looking at the cards is probably the best way to decide. I don’t intend to use these forums like if I was a “Marseilles missionary” promoting The True Tarot! I am a Marseilles lover, though, and if you ever need help with it and find yourself with no better option than asking me, please, feel free to do so. Silvia

smleite	16 Jun 2004
Hey, sorry, I don’t know were you can buy a deck in English in Lisboa, I live here but I never look specifically for decks in English – first, because I am Portuguese, and second, because I use Marseilles, and prefer to read about it in French. Silvia

XANTHE	16 Jun 2004
Thanks for your reply and explanation of the marseille cards. I was starting to wander what happened to everybody then I realised it's the middle of the night in Australia so they have all probably gone to bed. Well unfortunately I only know 2 languages and I have only been in Portugal for 2 years so my Portuguese is still very rusty. Well thanks anyway for your help. I need to go pick up my son from school now so I'll talk to you later. Take care xanthe

DewDrop	16 Jun 2004
This situation with your brother made me thinking, i have a brother my self and i would just love it if he got interested in tarot! But the thing is, that if you dont trust your brothers answer, you should take a serious talk with him. Tell him that it doesnt matter that he took the cards, u can understand that he liked them, but that you are quite upset about him not telling the truth. Say he can keep the card, but that he has to be honest with you. That if he sees any more things in your home that he want, he should tell u, so that you together can discus what to do: - for you to give it to him, for him to buy something similar, or for you to help him finance it so he can buy what he wants, if he cant afford it himself. Make it clear to him that in this way, he can give you a chanse to be helpful, and give you a chanse to give him advises when it comes to the use of tarot. This use to help....good luck! :) (usually people doesnt tell the truth because they are scared to do so.)

miss_apples	16 Jun 2004
If I was in your situation...I would get another Cartouche deck AND another deck. But thats just me :)

tao51	16 Jun 2004
First, if you feel a special affinity for the Cartouche deck then buy another and see if that is still there. My first deck was a Marseilles deck. It is over 30 years old. My second deck was a Rider-Waite. If I lost either one I would feel like I lost a close friend. I had a difficult reading that my old Marseilles deck made it simple. I believe that a deck becomes saturated in the psychic energy of the user.--Tao

jmd	17 Jun 2004
I presume the Cartouche deck being referred to is the 25 card deck based on Egyptian godforms which was created and made popular following the equally (or more so) popular R. Blum 25 Rune book&'stone' set. I too, by the way, have a copy of this deck from around the early 1990s (or perhaps late 80s). With the suggestion to a Marseille, I suppose that this is for three especial reasons: the first is that you have just joined a Tarot community - and at a time that you may have lost your copy of the Cartouche Oracle (which I'm confident you'll find again); the second is that I just took the opportunity to recommend not just my preferred deck, but the basis on which other and later Tarot decks ultimately depend. Being in Portugal, access to Marseille type imagery and literature is bound to come a little more easily than here. If you prefer a Marseille with English titles, then the Grimaud Marseille Tarot is also available in a bilingual version (French/English). What you will not find, of course, are scenic depictions on its pips, being rather fully illustrated with the number of implements (eg, Cups) and floral embellishments; the third is that I simply couldn't resist given that you are in that very same city in which one of our more knowledgeable Marseille afficionado resides.... But of course, choose a deck to which you may be drawn to as well :)

The I need your opinion thread was originally posted on 16 Jun 2004 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.