A deck to Bond with

What decks are the easiest to basically fall in love with, and why?

Since my first ever deck was Barbarar Moore's Gilded Tarot, obviously that deck has a special place in my heart, and I feel so comfortable using it. It's as if the deck gets me. After suck long use, I've powdered it a few time, so it's really nice to handle and shuffle too. And I like how straight forward and basic the pictures are, and how well they communicate their symbolic meaning.

My other "one true love" has to be the Steampunk Tarot. I do own a few other Tarot decks, but besides the Gilded Tarot, the only one I honestly Love using is the Steampunk Tarot. Maybe it's the same as with the Gilded Tarot, that the pictures are straight forward and easy to read, I've used it for a long time, and it was my second deck, so It's special to me for that reason as well.

So what decks have you bonded with? What decks could as well be friends or lovers to you? and Why? I'd love to know.

Out of all the Tarot I have..i think Wild Unknown Tarot is the only deck I LOVE..
The others I like very much..but its not Love
The wild unknown is so simple...and the messages that it gives is so clear and I could understand it so easily without doing any hard thinking...
I just love it!

Legion said:

What decks are the easiest to basically fall in love with, and why

So what decks have you bonded with? What decks could as well be friends or lovers to you? and Why? I'd love to know.

Click to expand...

Out of my now small collection (l have trimmed down to my favourites now). These are the ones l have a special bond with.

1JJ Swiss - My very best friend, very knowing, wise and warm.

Pagan Cats - loving and sympathetic friend, always picks me up.

Bohemian Gothic - Love at first sight, deliciously exciting and chatty.

I have a polygamous relationship with my decks and would never be able to stick to just one. The ones I have bonded with the most are:

The Greenwood: Next to the Ironwing and Deirdre of the Sorrows this is the only deck I truly meditate with. I was on the fence about getting this deck in the first place, but as I was looking at the online scans I became more and more fascinated with it. The moment I took it out of the box I was sold. I bought it used off an Ebay seller and it literally smelled like someone had buried it in a forest and dug it back up. Very appropriate since it's the most earthy deck I own.

Deirdre of the Sorrows- Beautiful and silky cardstock(the best cardstock of any deck I own), charming and rural images and of course everything about it screams Ireland(which happens to be my favorite country that I've never visited, but really want to). Its voice is soft and subtle, almost like a gentle mother, and the readings are spot-on. It's like a voice of reason.

Vanessa- I like to refer to this as my BFF-deck. It's literally my best friend deck and we don't even have to spend a lot of time together for it to be that way. It is snarky and stubborn and it has one thing that none of the other decks in my collection have: at times I find it completely unreadable and it doesn't even bother me one bit. It's like a best friend: you can disagree on a lot, but you'll still love her all the same.

Tyldwick- I was surprised to find that the lack of human characters does not bother me one bit. At first I didn't think I'd be able to read with it, but it sparks my intuition in ways that most other decks fail to do. It reads like a dream and it really gives you the feel of walking through an abandoned mansion. You can feel every detail, every scent, every sound(or lack thereof) like you're actually walking through those grounds in person.

Wild Unknown- Much like the Tyldwick it's an intuitive deck which speaks with a loud and clear voice without distracting details. It reads surprisingly well and is a straight-to-the-point, no-nonsense deck.

Rosetta- This is the one Thoth-based deck I've actually found myself to use and enjoy. Its readings are spot-on, though it feels a bit eccentric at times. I love the strong colors in it.

Bohemian Gothic- This was my first dark deck and it really appeals to my shadowy self. I find it hauntingly beautiful rather than intimidating or scary and it appeals to every sense. What makes it even more perfect is that it's incredibly readable(to me much more so than for instance the Victorian Romantic or the Tarot of Prague by the same artists) and again the readings are perfectly accurate and always seem to give me room for thought.

The above are my perfect decks and with the exception of my Lenormand collections the ones that I have formed the strongest bonds with. There are other decks in my collection that I love as well, but these are my top....errr...7. They also happen to be the ones that I would never consider parting with.

I think the deck I have bonded with most is the Liber T. It was a deck I thought I would never be able to use because with it being a Thoth clone I thought it would be complex and difficult to understand and get into. I was very wrong, the first time I used the Liber T it was on my very basic level and I could read it like that. It is still the same and I love it for that, I never get bored, it gives good readings and gut-punches when needed. I know that when I want to take my tarot studies further it will be with the Liber T and even though I do use other decks, I won't move on - I don't feel the need.

There is definitely something about independent decks that I my mass-market decks haven't been able to replicate. I've found an instant bond with many of my decks from small, independent companies. The three that come to mind are my Wild Unknown, my Tyldwick, and my Bohemian Gothic. They feel like old friends, right out of the box.

Decks that give me the same card or combination of cards when speaking about my situations are the ones I feel a special bond with. Over time it begins to feel like the deck is speaking just to me in a language that we share. Sometimes it isn't even exactly the same cards but a similar rhythm or shape to the spread.

This is different from being "easy to read with".

Goddess or the Crystal Visions tarots. Both amazing decks.

I really need to just bond with one deck right now, but am torn between The Rabbit and the RWS. I have to worry about the rabbit, while the RWS can be replaced so easily. But it is the bunnies that call to me.

For me the tactile experience is critical. I adore the feel of playing card size and paper quality.

I don't like to get used to a non RWS system of a hard to replace deck. The Rabbit is not hard to replace NOW, but I worry about the future. Self-soothing for me includes the feeling of not having to worry about loss. frantically searching the table and chair below me before I leave, fearing I might have dropped a hard to replace card isn't soothing. And the added worry that not only would the pictures be different in a new deck, but also the basic meanings, decreases my ability to bond.

Pictures are less important to me than the feel of the cards and the ability to move on after loss. If the RWS was playing card shape and size, it would win over the bunnies. But it's not.

I'm so torn, I cannot settle down and bond with either deck.

I've spent most of my life with a Rider-Waite, and I really can't see myself exceeding my bond with it - but to be honest, it took a great many years to reach this degree of familiarity. I do well with most RWS clones, but I'd always thought it was a "time-factor" that kept me back from the automatic understanding...

This, however, wasn't the case with The Wild Unknown. Like someone else said, "right out of the box" it was something different and special - and I've NEVER had that happen before. Oh, I love my Deck of the Bastard, Original Rider-Waite, and Gilded Royale - but it just isn't the same. I really don't know how to describe it. if I were to ever try to seriously be an "intuitive" reader, it would absolutely have to be with the Wild one. Maybe this is because it isn't quite so obviously a tarot deck - or at least the imagery, while strangely familiar, isn't the same old, same old.

Michael