Why did you start learning tarot?

I started because...

I was interested in the mystery behind the cards, that image of the fortune teller. I was in my local book store and there was this box with Gilded Tarot printed on it. The images on the box really grabbed me, so I bought it. I was so happy when I got home and opened the box because of the book that came with it and the cards where beautiful. I tried to learn all that the book had to say but I was just not getting it. So after a month or two the box went onto the self, I was just not ready. Later The Thoth caught my eye and it came home with me, the deck was way to much for me. I had two boxes on a shelf, I looked at them now and again but that was about it. I was watching You Tube and the great channels about Tarot and I saw The Mary-El Tarot deck, I checked some reviews. This month I ordered The Mary-El and Tarot 101, the deck has just pulled me in and I am now keeping a journal. I am so ready to study this deck

Well it encapsulates everything I love without its collateral damage (please forgive my shallowness! I tend to go for easy eclecticism for this one=)

a palpable, practical medium to train my intuitive capability without going out of my depth in the crazy unknown world whatsoever.

hellenistic astrology without its fatalism.

Kabbalah without its prohibitive learning curve.

quaint works of art without being canonized.

a universal narrative framework without losing diversity.

...and a little hobby that welcomes some shopping spree once in a while without going bankrupt!

I read about fortune telling with tarot cards in a book when I was very young, (6 or 7?) and was intrigued, and then when I was 9 my dad suggested the first book in The Chronicles of Amber series as a book I'd enjoy. (I did). Even more intrigued by tarot, I kept looking for a deck I liked, but the only decks available in my area back then were Marseilles style decks or the old RWS, which didn't appeal to me. I can't remember the Thoth as being one they had, either.

When the Aquarian came out at our local bookstore (I was 11) I knew I'd found the deck for me. By a favorite illustrator. Even as a kid I had a liking for graphic art, and an interest in the unknown. And parents who encouraged me to explore.

My Grand and my Mom both read Marseille decks so I had to be different and learned the Thoth. They have both passed so I have their old decks. Every time I pull one out I cry.

Why did you start leaning tarot?

Went to consult a tarot reader during a dark period in my life. I wasn't sure that was the right thing to do but it was what I needed. I had a strong feeling that what she was reading wasn't just the cards but also her own value system. She had strong feelings about what she felt was the right or good or sensible choices for me. My instinct were telling me I wasn't getting my reading. So I became extremely confused as she spend more and more time talking and counselling me rather than simply reading the cards. Clarifications and reflections were expected. But when she started to became more and more detached from the cards, using them almost only as springboards for further guidance based on her own thoughts, I became curious about what the cards were actually saying. So I googled each card's meaning and watch every YouTube videos about tarot that I could muster watching (some of them were a bit out there...). I calibrated them against the notes I took during my session. I then decided that I really do need a physical deck, and so I bought the Sun and Moon tarot from Amazon. And then of course I also came across AT as I researched the various decks I was looking at getting. And the rest is history.

For as long as I remember, I have been interested in all things
mysterious and magical. So, as a teenager, when I spotted the
Mythic Tarot in my local bookstore, I simply had to have it. Plus
I knew my Mom would disapprove. So in the beginning,
I guess it was a mixture of personal interest, rebellion, and the
influence of my tea leaf-reading Nana, who used to give me books
about numerology and dream interpretation when Mom wasn't looking.

Nowadays, I am still drawn by the magic and mystery of the cards,
but I mainly use them for personal insight and reflection.

tarot_quest said:

Hi guys!

Everybody started Tarot for a reason (curiosity, skepticism, somebody did teach you, fascination...)

So why did you start?

Click to expand...

None of the above, really. It was just one of those inevitabilities. It was always going to happen. (t was also nearly forty years ago, and it's hard for me to remember who I was back then).

I was into Wicca as a teenager (probably inspired by Sabrina and Bewitched LOL I admit!) and that's part of what got me interested. I was also really intrigued by my mom telling me a story of how she as a young woman got her cards read, and that reading turned out to be very accurate. I think those two things made me decide to learn how to do readings.

Since then I've much more started to appreciate actually studying tarot, and not just do readings - there's just so much more to it. I've learned so much about myself.

I've always been fascinated by the tarot. As long as I can remember I've wanted to learn them. Now I'm almost 30 and my psych wants me to learn inner validation and to find my life purpose. In the last 6 or so months I'd neglected my spiritual side (I've always used crystals) and my life started to suffer, my relationships started to crumble. In the week or so I've been researching tarot and what deck I want my spirit has been reenergised. I'm struggling to find a tarot deck that calls to me. There's nowhere in my town that has anything so it's all online for me. There's a few oracle decks I love so maybe I'm going to start there.

For me, it was kind of just a random happening. I was ~12 years old and browsing in a new age shop in mystic, ct. I saw a deck of cards I liked and asked for the price. Literally had the exact change in my pocket and decided it was fate that I should get them.
I've been studying them ever since. I love them. I have soo many decks now, though.
It started out as just an attraction to the deck (Crowley's Thoth deck) and became a fascination and then a hobby and now partially a career but it is a staple in my life.