Your Very First Time .......

Which deck was your first? And what was it about that deck that drew you further into tarot?

Mine was the RWS, and I didn't exactly love it but studied it nonetheless. I appreciate it now, and think it was an ideal learning deck. Indeed, I bought the Pixie lenormand because of its RWS imagery - feeling that if I could learn tarot with that art, maybe I could learn lenormand with it too

My first deck was the RWS given to me as a gift when I was 15. I didn't like it, hated some of those swords and pentacles. I took it out every now and then, determined to do something with it but it kept going back in the box. At the time I was rebelling against my Catholic upbringing and the devil card was an image I just wanted to reject outright.

A few years later, I stumbled across the Ancestral Path in a bookshop. That was my first true deck that I used and loved. It was one I was happy to get out in front of other people and read for them with. For many years I just had 4 decks, the RWS, Ancestral Path, Thoth and Waking the Wild Spirit.

It's only in the last couple of years that I've added to my collection. I like to see different takes on the old RWS imagery and explore how different decks read.

Great thread idea, Wendy

My first deck was also a standard yellow-box RWS and to be perfectly frank, it wasn't the deck itself that drew me into tarot so much. I was definitely intrigued by its odd, mysterious images (especially that black-backgrounded Tower), but it was my initial Googling that got me going. Literally minutes after opening it, I took to the internet to see what I could learn, and before I knew it, I was here at this forum, discovering that there was a whole world out there that I hadn't realized existed. Hours later, I was hooked, realizing how many amazingly knowledgable and friendly people there are out there with such a passion for tarot, and such a great willingness to share that passion with others.

Fast-forward a year and some, and here I am, semi-collector, enthusiast, and moderator myself!

My whole tarot experience I owe to this amazing place

My second deck, however, Morgan Greer, was what really started drawing me in... (Not to mention my third deck, the Haindl, but don't get me started on that again )

The Hermetic Tarot, because I was cheap, was looking for something other than the usual RWS artwork, which I kind of regretted later (it wasn't like I didn't have the internet back then, I should have googled around for deck comparisons). But at least I did get around to predicting something major, albeit for shallow reasons awhile back.

Not counting the flimsy 'came with a magazine A5-size majors only' cards or the 'came with a magazine tiny collectors cards majors only with pictures of the popular actors at the time' cards, my first deck was the Swedish Witch (Jolanda).

It came as a deck/book-set and I wanted something more than just a deck to get me started. The artwork resonated with me aswell so after having looked at some of the cards I went for it.
As a bonus, the book contained a lot of other things besides tarot and went into enough detail to make me really think about the cards rather than 'learn' them, and I'm glad this is where I decided to start.

Since then - I've gathered quite a collection of decks and books and other assorted bits and pieces...

Wendywu said:

Which deck was your first? And what was it about that deck that drew you further into tarot?

Click to expand...

Mine was the miniature RWS. As a child some time in the late sixties or early 1970s, the daughter of friends of my parents did a "reading" for me with this mini-deck, looking up each card in the LWB and reading off the meanings. I don't remember much about it at all, except scepticism that she knew what she was doing, and a vague interest that I put aside. A few years later in my middle teens, I bought a copy of the very same mini-deck. I can't remember where I got it - it would have been shop-front - but I can very clearly remember there was a choice between the full-size and the mini, and no other decks. For some time, I assumed that there were no other Tarot decks. I bought Alfred Douglas' book at the same stage in my life, and was enthralled by the smooth, flowing, black-and-white line-drawings of his own cards in the book, and wished with a visceral longing that there was such a thing as a deck that looked like that instead of what all Tarot decks *did* look at! <laughter>.

My first was the Thoth. That's more than 13 years ago now.

I was at a health fair in Copenhagen and on my way home when suddenly I had that feeling ''I gotta go back in and buy that tarot thingy''.

In the evening I got the cards out, read some of the book (Gerd Ziegler's), pulled a couple of cards... and from that evening on I was completely sold and there probably hasn't been one day since then where I haven't in some way handled a deck.

I can't really claim my first deck to be my own, it was my sister who bought the RWS when she was in her early teens. I was intruiged watching her lay out the cards to look at her future. Some time later, I asked if I could do the same and the rest is history. We shared that deck for a few years until I bought my own copy.

My very first deck was the Albano Waite. I had been interested in tarot cards for ages. I went to this cool shop downtown and looked through several decks before choosing the Albano Waite. I remember being drawn to the bright colors. I also remember I hated the backs of the cards.

I bought a basic tarot book and started doing readings using the book meanings. This was about 11 or 12 years ago. I later bought the Thoth, but still had no real idea how the cards worked. I ended up putting the cards and books away for a few years, even though I would still buy decks, I didn't actually use them.

It was a search for a new deck that found me here, and then everything changed for me.

First first was a Cagliostro given to me by a friend (whose mum had found it and made him get rid of it). This must have been late 1982 when I was 13. It came to me without a LWB so I was a bit lost. I decided to go to the local bookshop and buy one of the decks I was sure I had seen there. I chose (no internet, no scans back in those days, just shrinkwrapped decks in very few shops) the Grimaud Grand Etteilla whose LWB - surprise, surprise - didn't match up with my Cagliostro. So I consulted books but my books didn't match up with my Etteilla

So I gave up on both of them and bought the Fournier Spanish Tarot but saw that my best friend's mum had the 1JJ Swiss and that was the one I wanted.

So I bought the 1JJ Swiss and that's when it really started. That's the one I feel to be the first proper deck I read with!

A few years later, my friend found the Cagliostro LWB and gave it to me. So I then had the satisfaction of knowing it was complete.

I still have them all.