Care To Try This?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 03 Jul 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Le_Corsair	03 Jul 2003
I haven't, but it is fun to speculate! Purchase a clean, new wastebasket, or, alternatively, get a lovely basket from the local market, or a treasured wooden box of size equivalent to a waste basket. Open every deck you own, and dump the cards into the basket. Thoroughly mix the cards in the basket by stirring or shaking, whatever your preferred cocktail method is! Take the basket to a clean, bare table. Draw cards one at a time from the basket and place them on the table without looking at them as you do so. Do this as many times as it takes to suit your favorite Tarot spread. Once you have drawn a sufficient number of cards, arrange them into your preferred spread. Now it's time to read: The cards will be read in normal fashion, save that repeats will obviously indicate a lesson that is of particular interest; imagine seeing six different 9 of Swords, for example, and you'll possibly think yourself in for a difficult night! Some cards, or even all of them, may end up face down. This will mean that the answer is none of your business. For advanced students, close inspection of the face-down cards to see if they are upright or reversed (it is possible with some decks) will give clues as to whether this is a good thing or not. If you have a large number of decks, you might decide that this is a superior way to read cards from this point, because assembling 78 cards from, say, 20 decks (1560 cards) is going to be a tedious chore! The ultimate Zen variant of this reading is to buy 20+ blank decks, place them in the basket, and read as described above. Have......fun! Bob :THERM :OL :CL :WL :SL

RedWood	03 Jul 2003
I think i would just rather shuffle one deck..pull a card..move to the next one hehe... Maybe you are going for energys melding etc to..by putting them together? hmmm..not going to do it..but interesting.

cjtarot	03 Jul 2003
Hi, I'll do it if you promise to come over and seperate and reorder my 20+ decks...lol Reality, I don't think I would be able to mix different style cards in 1 reading. I tend to like things to flow. A Compromise: Take 2 decks that are similar in style and colors..Hudes and New Pandini maybe.... and play 156 pickup I'll have to try it. Thanks for getting the wheels turning with a new idea Blessings, CJ

jog1118	03 Jul 2003
hey there le_corsair!!! i'll do it! i'll do it! just promise me that you'll give me the 20+ decks free of charge (ok i'll shoulder the freight since i'm here in the philippines) :D :smoker:

firemaiden	04 Jul 2003
I have thought of doing something like this, and wondered if anyone has done it. I think it would be pretty interesting. You'd need one of those special tumblers the tv uses for picking lottery numbers. :D

LadyMedusa	04 Jul 2003
Very interesting option indeed...I think I will have to pass though. I have a hard enough time sorting socks from the laundry for 4 of us, let alone at last count 35 decks. LadyMedusa

Ravenswing	04 Jul 2003
This sound like an intriguing idea, but re-sorting a bunch of decks... :( Especially for those of us how number into the hundreds.:D How about this varient? Take one card from each of your decks and put them in whatever container you see fit (the proverbial hat will do well :laugh: ). To determine which deck you use for which position, draw a card-- use that deck. Put the card back and draw for the next position... You have the option here of using the entire deck for each position. This way not only could you get a profusion of 9 of swords, but they might even be from the same deck...}) And there's no re-sort problem... :) fly well Ravenswing

WolfSpirit	05 Jul 2003
The idea is cool... I already keep all my decks in a big basket (but all in their own separate container at the moment), the idea appeals and frightens at the same time }) Ravenswing's idea is much more sensible of course, but it lacks a bit the dramatic effect. Also it would appreciate us again how lucky we are to have all these decks. Count your blessings... I think I would do it with decks I now regularly use to read with anyway (about seven decks), that looks doable.

SingingTarot	05 Jul 2003
What a great idea! For those tarotholic, the best bet would be to rent a cement mixer (the truck). I am sure this could hold up quite a high number of decks. It might get a little dangerous to go pick up your cards, just make sure it is free of cement to start with. Could be quite the project. Then you get to bond with you decks by sorting every single one! And they all get to know each other in the process! Brilliant! Alice

Myrrha	06 Jul 2003
That is a really interesting idea. I should think it would be especially interesting although also more daunting for those who have a lot of decks, just to see which cards out of all those hundreds come up. I may try this, but am a little worried about the more fragile decks in my collection. Resorting the decks doesn't seem like a problem, just an excuse to gaze at the lovely cards! Myrrha

Cerulean	12 Jul 2003
I did a very downscale version---only two decks, a stationery box and Susan Levitt's Intro to Tarot from her Complete Tarot kit. Granted, this is not really what the original suggestion said...but thank you for inspiring me! It was all that I could do to gently shake a closed box and pick from a messy pile of cards. The urge was to separate the decks and pile them neatly again, even sort them out in a favored order. But I bought this kit with the idea of reading for others in a way that would be easier for them to understand what went around my silly brain...and work with a known structure using modern decks. The 'shake, shake' element of mini decks in a box actually might add a fun random element if you were going to read at parties or for friends. Anyway, I'm keeping this 'reading' kit in the stationery box, closed for random shakes and pulls. Mari H.

Le_Corsair	12 Jul 2003
Quote: Originally posted by Mari_Hoshizaki I did a very downscale version---only two decks, a stationery box and Susan Levitt's Intro to Tarot from her Complete Tarot kit. Granted, this is not really what the original suggestion said...but thank you for inspiring me! It was all that I could do to gently shake a closed box and pick from a messy pile of cards. The urge was to separate the decks and pile them neatly again, even sort them out in a favored order. But I bought this kit with the idea of reading for others in a way that would be easier for them to understand what went around my silly brain...and work with a known structure using modern decks. The 'shake, shake' element of mini decks in a box actually might add a fun random element if you were going to read at parties or for friends. Anyway, I'm keeping this 'reading' kit in the stationery box, closed for random shakes and pulls. Mari H. Mari, I hope you'll share a result now and again, and the conclusions that you draw from it; this is a variation I haven't even tried myself yet, so you're actually a few steps ahead of me in this regard. Bob :THERM

The Care To Try This? thread was originally posted on 03 Jul 2003 in the Using Tarot Cards board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Using Tarot Cards, or read more archived threads.