Tarot Collectors...what exactly do you DO??

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 09 Jun 2005, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Pipistrelle	09 Jun 2005
Apologies for the rather rude question in the title...:) but I would like to know more about those of you who simply collect (or, well, collect AND read!) My wishlist gets longer by the day but I only read for myself and only about once or twice a month. I currently own eight decks but at the moment I'm only reading with the Druidcraft. I'm starting to think that I'm drawn to exploring Tarot and Tarot decks more than I am to reading with them. There are so many beautiful decks out there that I'm longing to buy but I'm having a little trouble justifying it. After all, the likelihood is that after having looked at a new deck and spread all the cards out, it will probably spend most of its time in its box :( So my question to collectors is: what do you do with all your decks? Do you display them? Gaze lovingly at them? Get the cards out and talk to them ;) Compare and contrast? Study? (And, if so, how?) How do you store them and how often do you "get them out"? Please, reveal all! Help me justify buying more decks! Pip

Annabelle	09 Jun 2005
Pipistrelle wrote: So my question to collectors is: what do you do with all your decks? Do you display them? Gaze lovingly at them? Get the cards out and talk to them ;) Compare and contrast? Study? (And, if so, how?) How do you store them and how often do you "get them out"? Please, reveal all! Help me justify buying more decks! Pip Well, let's see. I'm a tarot collector and a tarot reader (if I dare call myself that . . . mostly I just do readings in the reading exchange here). As you'll see if you look at my profile, I have a fair-sized collection of decks at the moment (around 100, counting those on the way in the mail). So what do I do with my decks? I don't display them, although I'd like to figure out a means to do that someday. Right now the apartment I live in is fairly cramped with books and musical instruments and assorted other "stuff" and so I keep the majority of my tarot collection in clear plastic Rubbermaid storage boxes that I can easily move from room to room, stack up one on top of the other, etc. Yes, I definitely spend a lot of time gazing lovingly at my decks. I always have about 8 decks or so within easy reach, the ones that I'm most in love with at the moment and that I'm actively using for readings. But the rest don't just sit unnoticed in the storage boxes . . . I look through all my decks fairly regularly, with only a few exceptions. I wouldn't buy this many decks if I didn't intend to really enjoy the cards . . . No, I don't talk to my cards -- well, maybe, just maybe, I've had short chats with the Tarot of the Gnomes and the Faeries' Oracle. ;) I do compare and contrast decks sometimes . . . for example, just the other day I laid out some of the cards from the Rider-Waite-Smith alongside the Tarot of the New Vision to see how they worked together. Last week I brought out several Thoth-style decks to compare those to one another. And those are just a couple of examples...I love looking at two or more decks together to see how they are different/alike. Something else I enjoy with my decks is storytelling, although my significant other is better at it than I am. If I lay out all the cards from a deck, he will sometimes just glance over at the cards and start putting a story together out of nowhere, picking up cards and arranging them and finding the connections between them. He teaches literature, though, so that kind of thinking comes naturally to him. Anyway, sometimes we entertain ourselves in the evenings by telling stories together using tarot cards. It frustrates me, though, that he typically wants to use the Rider-Waite-Smith every time when there are so many others to choose from! :D I wouldn't say that I'm formally "studying" any particular deck at the moment, although tarot history is something that really interests me. If I do decide to really start studying tarot, I'm not sure what I'd look into first. Probably the history of Marseille style decks and how they have been used and read for divinatory purposes. I'll have to brush up on my French first, though . . . I took a lot of French courses in college (above and beyond what was required) but I've forgotten a lot since then. So, you are looking for justification to buy more decks? How about this - tarot decks are beautiful, and we can all benefit from more beauty in our lives. Or this - tarot decks (whether you read with them, admire them, study them, etc.) can bring a lot of pleasure into your life at a relatively low cost. As collectables go, tarot decks are pretty darned inexpensive. Sure, you can pay hundreds, even thousands of dollars for a single tarot deck. But you can also order plenty of them at bargain prices from Amazon and other such places. It is possible to have a large collection without spending much money. I hope I haven't rambled on too long! But I do love to talk about tarot :)! Cheers, Annabelle

Ankou	09 Jun 2005
I'm quickly falling into the collector's trap. The trading forum here is hard to resist!!! I have 3 tarot, one oracle, 2 homemade decks, and another tarot in the mail... When I first saw this website I had 3 decks, period. :D I read for myself occationally and for others rarely. But I do pull the decks out at random to study the symbols and mythology involved with them. I've spent alot of time recently with my Thoth and Leonardo decks, pulling out books on symbols noting the amount of points on each star and background shapes, making notes in my B-o-S and generally doing the kind of abstract research I get manic about. I even disect the lwb's for any additional info that the artist may have written in. Lady Frieda's descriptions of her work on the Thoth are fasinating. So the coffee table is littered with random cards I'm studying on any given day. "After hours" they go in the "witchy pantry" with the bones and candles and books on ancient alphas, ect... I had to smack myself not to buy the House Wife tarot yesterday, told my husband and he said I was obsessed. Course it made him feel better because he's usually the outrageously obsessed one!

Osher	09 Jun 2005
I throw the boxes away, and keep Little White Booklets (LWB) in a bag. The Tarot are wrapped in silk, and some of them (one day all) kept in wooden boxes. I talk to my Tarot when I read, and always say thanks when I've finished a reading with them.

calligirl	09 Jun 2005
Oh, this made me laugh! When I first started lurking here, I was amazed that people had more than one Tarot deck since the only one I'd ever seen was the RWS and that was one an aunt had that she kept hidden away and we weren't allowed to touch. Imagine my surprise that people actually more than 100! Why on earth...? So I've been a member now for a few months... ...I have three decks...plus one on order that should be here this week sometime. Ya just git hooked, that's what ya do!

mythos	09 Jun 2005
I have a heap of decks. Some are for the purposes of study. Some are because I love the artwork, so they are for drooling purposes. Some were deals too good to miss on ebay, some because I got a good deal through my book club. I only read with one or other of the Waite Colman-Smith decks. I try my others ocassionally, but this is the reading deck for me.... and I read rarely. I have them in wooden boxes, bags I've made and beaded, stacked on shelves, all over. I'd get a glass fronted cabinet for them ... one of those lovely leadlight ones in which my grandma displayed her best china ... but ... I have no room. Between thousands of books, necessary furniture, paintings stacked against walls (because I've run out of wall space), my painting gear, I don't know where I'd put it. Ones that don't have boxes or bags stay in their own boxes for protective purposes. I seem to spend a lot of time wandering the house muttering "It must be here somewhere!" ... but that applies to everything in my life. Hard to believe I'm a quadruple Virgo, but 'tis true....wish I'd gotten the 'neat-freak' bit. mythos

HearthCricket	09 Jun 2005
Right now most of my decks are in a maple nightstand, that has a cabinet for the bottom part. I have them lined up, neatly, in their boxes, according to styles, usage, publisher, etc. I also have my few Tarot books in there. But, for the decks that I may be presently using, they are in boxes or bags, either on a table, my desk, top of my nightstand, right here next to me on the computer table. I like to keep them neat and orderly, so as to keep them fresh and not let the boxes get banged about or faded from sunlight. And I am a bit of a neat freak, too. :)

Emily	09 Jun 2005
My decks are all on display in a glass-fronted bookcase/cabinet, straight across from where I work on my pc, so I see them all day. :) Most are in their cardboard boxes, about a dozen or so are in bags. When people come to visit I used to open the cabinet and cover the decks with a cloth to hide them. I don't do that anymore, I'm proud of my little collection. :)

Emeraldgirl	09 Jun 2005
I have over 40 decks which is nothing compared to some here but more than I ever thought I'd own. I use them to study, to read with (I have my faves for this) and just to look at cause they're pretty. Most are RWS based and I like to see the similarities and differences between decks for the same card. I also like decks that have artwork that appeals to e so I have quite a few of those as well.

tarotbear	10 Jun 2005
I have about 40 tarot decks and some oracle decks ( and a new deck that MeeWah is sending me!) I have opened all of them and used most of them ~ once. Many of them are 'limited edition' decks or are signed by the artist or creator. When I was teaching classes, I would bring in several different decks with each class to show people what kind of stuff is out there. I also did card comparisions, showing the difference between certain kinds of decks (European/Continential and English ones, for example.) I also would show the differences in a same card from different decks ~ anything to keep my classes interested! It helps to have so many examples! Currently, and unfortunately, my decks are in an underbed storage box since there is no room in this apartment to store them otherwise! I would like to put them in a LOCKED glass storage case in the new house and share it with my antique mustache cups and tea leaf reading cups and tarot dolls .... :smoker:

Emily	10 Jun 2005
Adding onto my post because I never actually said what I do with them lol. My favourites get read with and I have about 10 favourites, I also have my main reading decks - All the decks in my collection have been read with at least once, some i just keep for the artwork and doubt very much whether I'll ever be able to read with them again but all the decks have a place in my collection. I get decks out to compare cards - I like to spread the cards over my dining room table, in order and then compare them card by card. This is useful if I have a card that I just can't see the symbolism and its supposed to be a RWS clone deck so I compare it to the RWS and see if anything kicks in. Sometimes I'll just take a deck out and do a reading with it - I found the Spiral again like this, after it was left sitting for two years in the tarot bookcase. :)

rainwolf	10 Jun 2005
Ever since i joined eBay,I bought tarot decks like mad and I began to start a form of "bid rage". I get sooo mad when I'm outbidded at the last minute on something i really wanted and was not capable of being there to bid....but anyway: I need to update my list because I have bought several. I always look at the deck I purchase and make sure I like it. I haven't really bought a deck I didn't like unless I didn't check it out long enough. I like to look through the deck and see how the author has "depicted" their thoughts of themes I have pondered many times but have not seen myself. I just bought some blank cards to make my own deck in a medium that is tedious but that I am also good at....:D I hope to make it over the summer and maybe get it published by US Games since it will be a clever clone deck(really!).

WolfSpirit	10 Jun 2005
So many different decks...and different purposes. Part of my collection is used for readings. There are a few decks I find particularly helpful for meditation; decks like the Tarot for Transformation and Sacred Circle tarot. Decks that I was not sure of if I could read with them, but wanted to study at least: like the Marseilles decks and the Thoth. Decks that I bought because the theme interested me and wanted to use to study more: the Arthurian decks and Celtic story-telling decks for example. Decks that I found worth having because I just love the artwork - without really knowing why. I like going through my deck collection and re-discovering old decks. Some I haven't had enough time for yet - but there is plenty of time still to get to know them. My deck buying goes in cycles, I am buying less at the moment and still getting to know what I already have.

Pipistrelle	10 Jun 2005
Wow - thanks for all the replies everyone :) Hmmm...deck collecting DOES sound like fun...I might have to give it a try ;) If only I could make up my mind which deck to buy next! Your posts have made me realise as well that I don't spend near enough time with the decks I already have and I'm planning to get them out and gaze lovingly at them this weekend :) Pip

Pipistrelle	11 Jun 2005
After further thought... It's interesting to observe the shift that takes place when you start thinking about collecting decks as opposed to just buying decks that you think you might read with. I am looking to buy another deck and have had a few in mind, but since I started thinking about collecting, I've added a few others to the list that might not have been there before. Such as the Golden Tarot of the Tsar, which I can't see myself reading with but it seems lovely. Or maybe the Golden Tarot of the Renaissance, which - in that it is a "historical" deck - would be a valuable addition to my "collection" which is pretty modern. That one I could possibly read with... The downfall to all this is, of course, that if I'm not buying a deck to read with, what's to stop me buying more than one deck at a time?? Then I'll be in trouble ;) Decisions, decisions. At the end of the day, there are so many nice decks out there and in so many different styles that whichever deck I choose to buy next I'm sure it won't be long before I want another, and another, and another... But if I look at it as I'm buying a deck to read with then there will be a certain amount of time spent getting to know that deck and learning to read with it and perhaps that's better in the long run for my credit card balance! :) All of which boils down to me just rambling and not offering anything of value to the thread! So I'll go now ;) Pip

The Tarot Collectors...what exactly do you DO?? thread was originally posted on 09 Jun 2005 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.