Tarot decks studied and discarded.

For me, the deck I studied and eventually put away was the Thoth. It was my first tarot deck, and I loved it. I put a ton of work into learning the deck, but at the end, I put it away and haven't really revisited it. I'm not sure if the deck was too heavy for a beginner, or if I just was ready to move on, but I bought a Universal Waite next, and ended up shifting my attention to that deck instead.

I still have the Thoth, though, and I plan on working on it again in the nebulous future. Sure. I'm just not sure when...

I like this thread. Hope it's ok to bump it.

Alta, I had a similar experience with Robin Wood in the late 90s. I too used Anthony Louis' book along with it. Although hers was my 9th or 10th deck if I remember correctly, I think his was my first full-length book (as opposed to LWB), and I actually bought her deck because of it.

The images are indeed burned on my brain, probably especially so for me because it was a proxy for RWS, not a later add-on to it. I was emphatically against the RWS artwork and when I saw how very closely patterned on RWS most of the Robin Wood minors were, I just skipped right past the genuine McCoy to its "clone" (I don't mean that pejoratively, BTW).

But goodness, I haven't held that deck in my hands in maybe 10 years, now.

Osho Zen.

<glances around furtively for Zan_Chan> The Haindl. Love the artwork, can read with it well, but for some reason I don't pull it out.

The art is wonderfully chthonic - it appeals to me very strongly on a purely visual level. It's the only deck I have in a leather pouch, making it special. Can't think why I don't pull it out more often, but I'm still not inclined to do so tonight.

As of recent times the Hanson-Roberts. I kinda like it, but there's no real spark there. It doesn't get me all fired up like many other decks do.

The Destiny Tarot also springs to mind. It was my first tarot deck, I read the book(well, most of it) and made a conscious effort to get into it. Absolutely horrible deck and I still think so now, 8 years after I bought it.

I have at least 100 decks and there are only a few of them I use regularly. All of them have been tried, but most have been discarded. Ciro's Tarot of Dreams was one of my absolute favorite decks(still is), but I always found it quite difficult to read with no matter how many times I picked it up.

There are also discarded decks I've used in the past, but that I still think fondly of. LS Universal Goddess Tarot is one of these(oh, the shame). For the longest time that was the only deck I used and it read excellently for me. I even did a reading for my sister and that's one of the very few times I've done one face-to-face. Quite amusing really, because two of the cards I got up were 6 of Swords and 5 of Pentacles- at a time where she, her husband and their two kids were just in the process of moving from the US to Norway

RWS-Was my first deck and I so want(ed) to "click" with this deck, even to the point of getting many different versions thinking that perhaps the color or the card back would change things somehow (LOL) but, after years of forcing it, I realize it probably will not happen (I never say never, though!). So they all sit in the tarot case snuggling closely together for company.

Spent a lot of time with the DruidCraft several years back. The book is just about falling apart now. That one was very loved. It sits in the tarot case now like a friend you lose touch with. Hmmmm, maybe I will "give it a call" today.....

Almost forgot, I did actually go through a period of studying the Maat Tarot. Still have it(at the time I got this one it was my most expensive deck and I spent at least two years saving for it ), but it hasn't been used for ages. It's just a tad complicated and as gorgeous as the cards are they just don't speak to me *sigh*

The more I tried to study the Archeon, the less I enjoy it. The Star was given certain meanings in the LWB yet studying the constellation on it suggested the opposite. A lot of the cards were like that - at best - when I tried to really put any thought into them.

I will break it out sometimes and consider it next-to unillustrated. But for the most part it has been taken out of my "working" sets and stored with my collection.

I haven't really had any decks that I have studied and then "discarded". The only deck I have given up on after using it for a while was the Gilded. I only had two decks at that time and wasn't really studying it seriously.
Now, I will only study a deck more closely and work with it if I really "click" with it and so far I've not been disappointed by any of them. I will put some decks away after a while and move on to studying another one but it doesn't mean that I have discarded or abandoned it.

I hate to say this by Merry Day - I want to try with it again but I have other decks I'm studying at the moment. I really loved this deck at first, but the more I worked with it, the less I connected with it. I have the book also an learned a lot from it, but I tend to find the things I've learned I apply more easily to other decks.