Just thought I would ask...

Emily said:

One that you see in tarot books even now is that the cards have to be wrapped in silk, preferably black, and kept in a special wooden box only ever to be removed to do a reading with - I wonder if cheap multi-coloured cotton and plastic boxes would do as well lol

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They do it for me, I store my decks in brown cotton in an office paper tray.

When I told someone about buying my first tarot deck, they very sternly told me that it was forbidden- yes, FORBIDDEN- to do any readings until you memorised each card's meaning in detail. Tgey didn't say what would happen if you didn't, though...

swedishfish612 said:

Several times when buying a deck at Barnes & Noble, a salesperson has told me that I'm not supposed to buy a deck for myself!

*I have never, ever been gifted a Tarot deck! lol

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Too funny, I was told the same thing at a bookstore. That's sad, like saying you need to have a mysterious sage appear from the shadows and give you a blessed deck before you are allowed to learn tarot. I hope people don't believe that and get discouraged from even trying tarot. Plus it's a STORE, so aren't they trying to sell decks?

Oh, and that tarot cards are the path to the devil - heard that too. Whatever.

Yelell said:

Too funny, I was told the same thing at a bookstore. That's sad, like saying you need to have a mysterious sage appear from the shadows and give you a blessed deck before you are allowed to learn tarot. I hope people don't believe that and get discouraged from even trying tarot. Plus it's a STORE, so aren't they trying to sell decks?

Oh, and that tarot cards are the path to the devil - heard that too. Whatever.

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When I read this, I got the greatest mental image of The Hermit mysteriously appearing from around the corner of a B&N bookshelf, replete with walking stick and lantern, taking the deck you're holding and walking it up to the register. He'd buy it and then hand it over to you, who is still frozen in bewilderment. And then he'd disappear. All without saying a word. XD

To bring this back on topic, I'll add another myth that I remember: you have to be psychic and/or a witch to use the Tarot. I guess this is a pretty common misconception, since a lot of "psychics" advertise use of the Tarot, so the two become associated rather easily.

I once told a woman with an interest in all kinds of esoteric things what Tarot decks I had collected at the time, and she said: "Michael, what are you doing with all those decks?! You are supposed to have ONE that will take on the vibration of your hands then!"

madhatter00o said:

You have to make your own Tarot cloth, and it MUST be black velvet on which you have HAND EMBROIDERED the symbol of the Tarot.

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I made one!!
But I still prefer reading on a black background- the colours look much better and the blackness helps deeper thinking I find.

I started with a green velvet (machine embroidery edge) cloth from my mentor. When I finally found some lovely blue velvet (a story in itself!) I had her edge it on her Bernina the same way. The first day I took it instead of the green cloth to the Psychic Fair was on St Patricks day and when I walked it I was greeted with "Where is your green?" and realized this DAY of all days, it was BLUE I was using not green! (I never WEAR green either, so If I had my cloth at least I would have had SOME green!)

barb

madhatter00o said:

I read it in the very first Tarot book I bought for myself:

You have to make your own Tarot cloth, and it MUST be black velvet on which you have HAND EMBROIDERED the symbol of the Tarot. (It included the Tarot symbol, which is incredibly complicated, as well as colour-coding for what colours to make each part... just in case you *didn't* know it already, pfft.)

Yeah, I wanted a book on how to read the Tarot, not on how to pretend to be Martha Stewart... *rolls eyes* (though, I really do love Martha! XD)

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Ha! Wow this baloney wins hands down so far! Martha is one of my heros!
I have a tarot cloth i made with wild colors. I dont need black backgrounds but id try it. The cloth was not originally for tarot. I didnt even like it but an ex friend gave it back to me and its found its purpose .

Thank you so much everyone. All those answers were so fun and helpful

Acc I LOVE your quote about Tarot being the most fun you can have with your clothes on. I just LOVE that one. So true. LOL

Babs

Emily said:

One that you see in tarot books even now is that the cards have to be wrapped in silk...

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That one got me in my neophyte days! It had to be silk, the book said, to insulate against bad vibrations! But I was lazy: I didn't want to wrap my cards up like a package every time I used them. So I got some raw silk and made a tarot bag out of it...two birds, one stone, and all that. I thought myself SO very clever at the time...

(I still have the bag, and use it for my favorite oracle deck (my current favorite tarot is odd-sized and won't fit). It's almost twenty-five years old now, and it's held up amazingly well, given my amateur sewing skills. So, no regrets...but I keep all my other decks in everything from batik cotton to polyester to a plastic Really Useful Box, and I've never felt any "bad vibrations" invading them.)

SunChariot said:

Acc I LOVE your quote about Tarot being the most fun you can have with your clothes on. I just LOVE that one. So true. LOL

Babs

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Thanks! Recently at a party (where I was all dressed up "Gypsy Fortuneteller") I said that to a person. She replied "Well, you can always take them off." I said, "What! And give up these cool costumes!"

barb