Thats a lot!!

I nearly fell off my chair, when i saw how many decks some of you have.
How do you work with them? How to you choose which one to use?
Tell me a little about it.
Love, Marua.

Hi Marua

I remember feeling just as shocked as you, infact finding out that others had such long lists of decks seemed to give me a kind of freedom to buy more

Some people here are collectors and probably don't intend using all the decks that they have. Others - like moi! don't consider themselves collectors but just umm... accumulate them as they go through life.

My list is slowly and gradually getting smaller with the intent of having just the decks that are meaningful to me. Each one has something to offer, even if its just the artwork that intrigues.

I justify it by looking at my husband's CD collection!! I'm not doing so badly afterall.

Hi Marua,

Yeah, I remember being shocked too, when I was new here. I had only a few decks at that time, and the thought of some people having hundreds of decks - or heck, even 40 or 50 decks - just blew my mind.

And yet now I have a growing collection of over 170 decks . I'm not quite sure how it happened . . . I just keep spotting beautiful decks online and buying them! I consider myself a collector now, so I don't really intend to use each and every deck for readings; however, I really prefer to only buy decks that I could use for readings if I wanted to. In other words, if I don't like a deck, I won't buy it, even if it is highly collectable.

At any given moment I have between 5-10 decks sitting around the house that I'm actually using for study, readings, meditation, etc. My current favorites for frequent use are the Stone tarot and the Tarot of the Magical Forest. And as for the rest of my decks, they are sitting cozily in their boxes and bags, in my carefully labeled clear Rubbermaid storage bins.

You know, collecting tarot decks really is an inexpensive hobby compared to many others . . . or so I keep telling myself!

I'm closing in to 40 decks now, and I must say it's such a pleasure to open a drawer and see those pretties laying there, just waiting for me to look through them or use them for readings...

Some of them will be used as inspiration only, others will be used for readings and others will simply be adored and admired. Somehow, I think however many decks one gets, each will have its own special place in the collection.
Though I'm still in awe at those who have hundreds of decks..
And I want to have a peak at how they're all housed to give me ideas on how to handle my own growing collection.

Ahem, blush.....

And actually I don't read yet. But when I do, I shall know enough decks to know which is best for me (I am already getting an idea....)

But I love them all, truly I do. Some more than others. And I visit them all frequently !

I too was gobsmacked when I saw howmany decks people have.

I now have my own, very small, collection.

It's a lovely thing to collect. Each deck is 78 individual pieces of art.

I only read with one deck (thoth), but I love to look at the others.
Some I try to understand the symbolism, others I just love the art.

This is how I see it.
The magician is a card that has a certain, set, meaning. However, the ideas contained in that meaning, in that card, can be expressed in thousands of different ways.
It is expressed in a different way in each and every different deck.
By looking at different ways of rendering that card you are looking at different ways of expressing that meaning.
Some cards focus on one part of that meaning, some on another.
So, by looking at different decks you are looking at all the different ways of interpreting that card.

So, even though I only use one deck to read, the meanings I assign to the cards of that deck are influenced and expanded by all the other decks I have seen.

It is interesting to think that if someone had a thousand decks, and looked at one deck every day, it would take three years to look through them all.

Lillie said:

Some I try to understand the symbolism, others I just love the art.

This is how I see it.
The magician is a card that has a certain, set, meaning. However, the ideas contained in that meaning, in that card, can be expressed in thousands of different ways.
<snip>
So, by looking at different decks you are looking at all the different ways of interpreting that card.

Click to expand...

EXACTLY ! I do that a lot. And the art thing is true too.

Lillie said:

It is interesting to think that if someone had a thousand decks, and looked at one deck every day, it would take three years to look through them all.

Click to expand...

You do not need to tell me this..... Why do you think I have so much trouble trying to find the time to go to work..... (and I only have 974. At the moment.)

How lucky you are to have such a big problem!

Marua said:

I nearly fell off my chair, when i saw how many decks some of you have.
How do you work with them? How to you choose which one to use?
Tell me a little about it.
Love, Marua.

Click to expand...

Hi, Marua!

I don't collect anymore, but I still recall the feeling of
adding an OOP deck to my collection. What a victory!
It was even a bit of a rush...

Now I have just under twenty or so decks, and I hope
to eliminate some of those. I want to "collect" just the
decks that I use, but there's still those that I keep for
sentimental reasons, such as the tarots that were gifts.
However, having hundreds of decks no longer suits my
needs.

That's vastly different from when I used to collect; my
collection of nearly 200 decks was an obsession. So, I
gave them up and just focused on learning with a few
favorite decks. I wanted to be good at reading tarot
cards, but I was a long way off; I had all those decks
around, but I wasn't learning by osmosis.

I released all but forty decks at first, and then I reduced
that lot by half; twenty is the most I've had since I broke
up my collection. I'll still access new decks, but if I realize
that there's been a few sitting around unused, then I'll go
ahead and give them to like-minded friends or trade them.

I understand very well the allure of collecting, and I miss
my own collection, in a way. By the same token, I also
admire those tarotists who have found the one deck for
them, and they seek no other. The collections of many
decks is impressive, but so is the devotion to just one.

Most interesting to me is those collections that are kind
of thematic. Many here will choose only certain kinds of
decks, such as historical, fairy, or cat-themed tarots.
Those collections are my favorites, and I quite enjoy the
new acquisitions of those fellow Aeclecticians.

In truth, I have no need to collect anymore, because my
regular visits to the Aeclectic Forums give me a multitude
of collections, far more vast than any selection I could
ever accumulate in one lifetime.

I am getting into the 60+ area of decks and I am not really sure how that happened I can't seem to resist some of them. Some i use all the time some I have collected just cause i liked them and they were on a short print run. As mentioned there is a certain sense of victory when you get an OOP deck I remember when i got an email about the Greenwood deck which I'd been hunting for it was fantastic. I guess i just love my decks and like to add to them whenever I can