Stories thread of how we all got into reading Tarot.

when i was around 15 years old I dabbled in Wicca for a bit (was desperately trying to find where I "fit" in). I wanted to like tarot cards, but found it really difficult to learn the meanings of the cards, and quickly got bored. It seemed like an overwhelming amount of "memorization". 2 years ago I bought an oracle card deck (Heart of Fearie Oracle, by Brian Froud. One of my favourite artists, and didnt realize it was his work i bought- good instincts i guess ) I loved the oracle cards, but recently have grown a bit bored of them and was searching for a new deck. Suddenly, Tarot Cards became very interesting to me, and I bought "The Complete Tarot Kit" (RWS deck) and have fallen in love with it, also surprisingly have picked up the meanings of each card quite quickly. funny enough, the woman that wrote the book in the kit, ("Introduction to Tarot" by: Susan Levitt) shares the same birthday with me (march 15th). I've been enjoying learning the cards, and cant wait to do readings for strangers. I've been told many times by other readers, and witches, that i'm psychic so i'm trying to practice and really hone into my abilities.

Loved nisaba's time is more like a bed sheet description. That makes so much sense.


My story is quite different and not as exciting as some who are posting here. I had a couple of readings from professionals before, some were good, some not so much. Knowing more about the hidden things around me wasn't so important until I met a certain person. I just KNEW we had known each other from a past life and had to find out more; hence the beginning of my quest for knowledge involving this art form. Both of my parents are very "intuitive" and it appears that I've inherited this as well which has helped me with tarot as well as other sources of divination. I couldn't stop once I began.


I've been enjoying the stories so far. Thanks for posting this thread Sharla.

I'm enjoying this thread, too, so thanks for posting it, Sharla.

I grew up in a rather conservative area here in Central Texas, though my parents weren't really religious. Mama was a Baptist and Daddy wasn't really anything, but the culture was (and sadly still is) anti-anything-but-Christian. Despite this, I'd always been fascinated by and pulled to the occult.

I got my first deck about 25 years ago when I was somewhere around 20 years old. I bought The Sacred Rose deck at a little crystal/mystical shop in Austin, then went to Half Price Books and found a used copy of The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. I studied and studied, but still relied on the LWB a lot. I read for myself mostly, then friends, and then friends of friends. They were good readings, even though I still had to refer to the LWB. One was too good - the cards uncovered a secret that the friend (of a friend) hadn't told anyone. That spooked me, me not knowing if I should be doing this to people when I didn't feel like I really knew what I was doing, and I put them down.

I still pulled them out off and on these past two decades, but was still spooked I guess. I picked them back up again recently, after doing a lot of growing and life rearranging. And I don't think I'll ever put them down again.

I have quite a few more decks now, but still have that Sacred Rose deck. Years ago I gave it to a friend who ended up being not such a friend. I got it back, but it hasn't felt quite mine since. There's a happy ending, though, or will be - recently here, I learned about TRIMMING! I think I'll do just that, and put a nice edge finish on. Then it'll be mine again.

Hullo

I suppose I was around thirteen when I bought myself a book containing multiple methods of divination. I loved that book though it is rather dated and I haven't seen it for the best part of two decades now. Sometime in my early teens I bought a magazine which had a free tarot deck with it. It was majors only, small format and with a sort of photo manipulation art style that was popular in the mid nineties. I loved that little deck and probably a year later decided I wanted something a bit more. I went into a fab little shop in the city which sold all manner of trinkets and games and furniture and incense and jewellery and, behind the counter, tarot decks. I had traipsed across town during my lunch break on a Saturday and bought the cheapest one I could see. I didn't even look at it - at £6.50, I think, it was a lot of my money. I remember the counter being a little higher up than the floor level and so I remember a sense of the middle-aged shop assistant towering above me somewhat and the tarot being high up on the shelves. She seemed mildly disapproving when I asked for it but I took it, put it in a little paper bag and went back to my Saturday job, hiding them away.
Turns out the deck I had bought was a Marseille with a beautiful starry back. I loved those cards and I read and read with them, keeping them wrapped in a green silk scarf. They're the only cards I own which are actually worn with use and I still take them out just to handle.
I read for friends but kept it mostly to myself. I scared myself once or twice with it, and after a time they were put away. I came back to the tarot during university and haven't looked back. I have a collection I'm pleased with but am always pruning and adding to as the fancy takes me.

I was in my twenties, going through a phase of voraciously reading anything that would shed some light on life, the universe and everything. After reading Jung's take on acausal synchronicity, I borrowed books on divination (I had a great local library), and then one day happened upon a cheap introductory book on tarot, which I promptly bought and devoured. I was drawn to the artwork of the Sacred Rose, so this was my first deck, and my only for many years. Probably not a great deck for a beginner, in retrospect...Anyway, I did readings for myself, my sister, one or two friends, but never learnt the meanings well. The cards were put away for years at a time while I went through all those distracting things life can throw up, like divorce, new partner, moves, illness...and then came out again several years ago. A few decks were added to the original, then back in the drawer they went. It was a few months ago that I for some reason took the Gilded out of my undies drawer and stuck it on the dressing table. There it sat, looking at me for a week or two, until I picked it up. Since then I have been obsessed! Every spare moment I'm reading tarot books, playing/reading with the cards, on AT, sewing wrap bags and pouches, perusing the net for new decks...I drew a card from my Sidhe to signify me, and got Dancer Eight, Escaping Stagnation. This is what tarot has done for me: I was bored with life, and my rekindled interest in tarot has put paid to that.

JylliM said:

I drew a card from my Sidhe to signify me, and got Dancer Eight, Escaping Stagnation. This is what tarot has done for me: I was bored with life, and my rekindled interest in tarot has put paid to that.

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Oh, well done, you!

Thanks Nisaba - loving this journey

starla said:

I remember the counter being a little higher up than the floor level and so I remember a sense of the middle-aged shop assistant towering above me somewhat and the tarot being high up on the shelves. She seemed mildly disapproving when I asked for it ...

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Oh, I hate that! Now that I'm older I don't really give a fig, but when I was younger the fear of running into a person like this did keep me from buying more.

I have a collection I'm pleased with but am always pruning and adding to as the fancy takes me.

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Mine is growing, too. The trading forum here is dangerous!

JylliM said:

I was drawn to the artwork of the Sacred Rose, so this was my first deck, and my only for many years. Probably not a great deck for a beginner, in retrospect...

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I know what you mean. I think I hamstrung myself when I bought that one first, too. Probably should have gone for a good old Rider-Waite so it would have made more sense with the Pictorial Key book I had.

velvetina said:

It was Summer, 1981 and I was 17 years old. I'd been given some money as a present & went into the nearest town (I grew up in rural Northumberland) to get my ears pierced. On the way to the jewellery shop, in the local stationery shop, all by itself was a deck of Tarot. the blue box Rider-waite, pre-US games deck.

I bought it immediately. I'd never seen a real-life Tarot deck and was really pleased. arriving home, my mum was drinking tea with a neighbour & I excitedly told them "I've bought some Tarot cards!" and of course they were interested & wanted their fortunes told right away.

So I shuffled the deck, pulled out a card, It was the 7 of swords & I said 'oh, a thief is about!' and here's the thing, that was why the neighbour was there, to warn my mum about a spate of robberies in the village gardens.

And that was that! I was completely entranced. I took the deck everywhere, including school & read for everyone (including some teachers!). One day, the French teacher ('Killer' Brown, so-called because she was bloody terrifying!!) asked me to read for her and afterwards said, "you really need to take this seriously you know!" So I did and have never really looked back!

thank heavens for 'Killer'. (she once tore up my exercise book because I'd failed miserably in a French test !)

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What a wonderful, wonderful account velvetina!

My passion started, maybe aged 11 or 12, with these TV titles, mid-70s here which will be familiar to UK viewers. I was entranced. Every week (remember a time before videos and the like and you had to wait a week to see these titles again?) That hypnotic music and the cards spinning on a sort of carousel, hinting at all things dark and magical. And my friend Mick who lived in a (probably haunted) pub said he had some tarot cards and couldn't understand them or get them to work and so offered to sell them to me and the deck was the Modiano Cagliostro but he'd lost the instructions. Never mind, I thought, they had words and meanings written on them.

Then I had the bright idea to buy another deck and just use the instructions from those. Problem solved! So I went to the local bookstore, run by an eccentric old lady who had tested racing cars in her prime and who stocked a formidable range of tarot decks for the time. I chose the Grimaud Etteilla (best box). Got home and was a little confused. So the following week I went back and bought another set with my pocket money (I think it was the Spanish Tarot by Fournier, if I'm not mistaken). With those instructions I started making headway - but by this time I had already done Etteilla readings in my bedroom with the LWB in one hand and poring over meanings and near-and-far cards.

I just loved the feeling of spookiness and age-old mystery that these images gave me. Some time later I got the 1JJ Swiss. And Kaplan's Book and then for Christmas (early 80s) I asked for the Encyclopedia of Tarot, Volume 1 and got that and was hooked.

We had to do a presentation in my last year at school. (1985) I did it on tarot. I did a short intro and a reading with the 007 Tarot of the Witches and passed the cards round for everyone to look at afterwards. I remember the Jehova's Witness in the classroom physically backing away repulsed. My school report that year said that my interest in this presentation was having a detrimental effect on all my other school subjects; If only I could demonstrate the same dedication etc etc...

And I'm still obsessing many years later.