"My deck hates me" and such ideas

Goetian said:

A deck can TOTALLY hate you.

Treat others the way you want to be treated. This applies to things as much as people - if you don't take proper care of your computer, car, tarot deck, or anything else, why should you be surprised when it doesn't perform as expected?

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I see mistreatment such as that a reflection of the owner. People who dont take care of their cars get in a lot more accidents because A) they're mechanical in nature and will not work correctly without mantiance B) if they dont take the care of their vehicle seriously, they proably dont take driving seriously and suck at it.

Same with people who wont take care of their computer, the parts over heat, wear down, dust causes damages, malware builds up etc.

But neither the car or the computer "hate" you. You're just doing it wrong. You need to treat your car like two tons of metal that's holding your life and the lives of others. You need to treat your computer like a thousand dollar tool that costs hundreds to repair.

I'd imagine some one haphazard with their other things would be haphazard with their deck, and not put in the time to study the deck or put any time into the readings and understanding them.

room said:

Oh my God Marion, and you're still alive!!!

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I know!!! eerie or what? how could one survive?

I wouldn't put myself past the possibility of a deck not liking someone, but I think it's mainly the reader's psychology and energy that tends to get in the way. I know if I have negative ideas about a deck, I don't get as good of readings. Not only can our energy affect how we view things (a bad reading from a deck we don't like or have bad feelings about might seem worse than a bad reading with a deck we adore and get along with) but can also affect the readings themselves, I think.

"Garbage in, garbage out"....if you project negativity onto the cards, then negativity will come back out at you.

sleepingcat said:

What's everyone's take on decks "hating"?

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Personally I see cards as tools (very pretty ones, but tools all the same), and I don't think cardboard or cardstock has the ability to hate ... so with that said my feeling is that if you are projecting negativity on the deck, or you don't like it (or think it does not like you) or what it says, then give it away, trade, or sell it. If you really hate it burn it for your own satisfaction.

Marion, I do name my cars ~chuckles~, but other than that no other inanimate objects or decks have names. You really never named your car???? *LOL*

Sometimes I feel tarot is like the young vestal sitting at Delphi's fumes. The cards are in perennial state of trance, babbling sparks of imagery that we must interpret with great humility. There is great plasticity in Tarots. They don't move, yet they aren't fixed. Our words reshape them in the sitter's eye, making a fragile smile being perceived as sad, indifferent, or hopeful... depending of on the way our personal mood has been affected by the sitter's mood. Still, we are just the "mouthpiece". Our message made of words parallel Tarot's optical meta-message. Our words are the foreplay we wrap around Tarot's power to fecundate the human mind by the power of image alone. No matter how much, or how little, we say, the Hanged Man will always look at us, like saying; "he is talking, and talking... but I AM here: hanging."

But, please, forgive my animistic rapture. Tarot's richness makes easy to project intelligence on it. In fact, this is the ultimate illusion, and going beyond that illusion equals crossing the most important frontier in our understanding of Tarot. When we look at Tarot for the first time, we are swept by a tornado, just like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz was. When we start experiencing the wonders of synchronicity, and we see how Tarot is able to express with uncanny accuracy our life's experiences, we know that we aren't in Kansas anymore. But if we follow the yellow path (after all, Yellow is tarot's color for enlightenment!) we end up discovering that beyond the illusion of a superior intelligence posed on us by Tarot, we will find the true "man behind the curtain": ourselves. Just like in the story of Oz, we end up discovering what the Tin man, the Scarecrow, the Lion, and Dorothy, learned: we have no more heart than our own capacity to love (Cups); no more brain than our own peace of mind (Swords); no more courage than our own need to be brave (Wands); and no other home than our own body (Coins). The Wizard of Oz, and Tarot, are both initiatic myths that help us understand how any quest for the sacred ends where it began: in the vastness of our own humanity.

Best,

EE

room said:

Well of course several of my decks hate me. So I take pictures of them with flowers and then they start to like me. If they're really good, I buy them decks to match them in some way. They really enjoy that.

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[ whines ] I wanna be your deck!!

I have to say, i have humbly always seen a deck's appearance of 'not liking me' as them reflecting my own flaws vis-a-vis what Umbrae said. And then not so humbly got my indignant knickers in a twist at how dare they ( i know i'm just meant to learn!)

I don't beleive decks have feelings. They are in fact just cardboard until we add our magic to them. The magic to read comes from us. If we can't read with a deck that is coming from us.

I think it must be projection too. It is maybe easier for some people to say it is the deck's fault not their own. It can be easier to say that the deck hates me than to say that I am not good at reading with this deck. On the other hand decks are very different and so are people. It's perfectly normal for us to resonate better with some than with others.Nothing to be ashamed of, it's the same for everyone.

Bar

I feel that what we should all remember is that it does not matter what I or anyone else "thinks." After all, we are all talking about Tarot here, and all we have to build upon is our own beliefs and superstitions. Some one else might say that we are all wasting our time here, thinking that a pack of paper pieces can tell us anything.

I do tend to personify decks when I'm trying to describe the imagery and how it works in readings - one may be "lively" another "unpredictable" and so on. But this doesn't mean that I actually believe that the deck, as an entity, has feelings or intentions. I agree that thinking your deck "hates" you is a bit of a cop-out. It may be a lot more useful to ask why you feel readings are persistently negative.