Do I want to read the cards or not?

[Grizabella]

I've been thinking about this for a quite awhile now. Do I want to read the cards or do I just want to flit around acquiring and looking through decks?

Now, if I want to read the cards, then I only need one deck. And I don't need to keep getting this deck and that deck and flitting around among them, learning a little about this one and a little about that one and a little about another one and shopping and trading for more and more decks.

This is kind of like a One Deck Wonder line of thinking but different.

The way it's different is that I'm not talking about committing myself to a month or two months or six months with just one deck. It's about getting honest with myself about why I pursue tarot at all. Is my purpose to get a lot of decks and learn to read with all different ones as fast as I can? Or is it to get really, really good with A (meaning ONE) deck with the goal of reading the cards? To just buckle down and get with it with one deck and one goal in mind.

It's the latter.

I want to devote myself to reading the cards. Not becoming an expert on history (god forbid we start that topic again!) not becoming an expert on the differences between all the schools of tarot thought, not adding every new or every OOP deck to a collection so I can admire them-----I just want to read the cards.

Now, of course in doing this I'm going to be learning some history and all that stuff we got into in another thread, but that isn't my primary goal. And of course, the better I get with just one deck, the better I'll be able to read with other decks I have if I choose to sometimes, but at least I want to have a focus for a change.

This might sound like I don't know how to read. I didn't mean for it to. I just meant to make a post about having a pinpoint focus and sticking with it.

 

[Guiding Cauldron]

me too i'm downsizing my decks and realizing as much as i like them loads are a distraction for what i should be focusing on- which is healing techniques to practice.

i also realized i do better when doing healing readings for others, not will i get that raise at work kinda thing.

i also feel that if your focused you can study and learn better about your primary deck you use, the others become to much of adistraction for me so i have to let them go.

since i've focused i have defiently found a higher vibration and better information coming out of the readings i do for myself and others

hope your path enlightens you more whatever you deciede to do, bles x

 

[Skysteel]

Make your own deck.

 

[Sophie]

This is an excellent question, Solitaire!


I think if you (or I, or anyone else) focus all your intent on reading, then all your choices will fall into place in pursuit of that primary goal, whether it is decks, studying, practicing, growing your reading business, etc. etc.

For me, it's no so much about acquiring or not acquiring new decks - it's about asking myself: what will that deck add to my tarot reading practice? For many years, I read primarily with one deck (the Mythic), with a second one as back-up. I got to know them both pretty well - very intimately, in fact - especially the Mythic.

When I joined AT, in the 8th year of my tarot practice, at first I was not at all struck by acquisition fever. I bought one deck I liked - the Tarot of Prague - and that was it. A few months later, I discovered the Marseille, and worked exclusively with it for over 6 months, to my great benefit and enjoyment. Then, I don't quite know what happened, but I started to acquire all sorts of decks. Some I really liked and still do - in fact, I wouldn't do without them. But most I enjoy without any depth. I don't really engage with them, apart from admiring them. I sold a whole load of decks before I left for Congo last year, and it was a weight off my mind. I came to South Africa with just a handful, and for the most part I've been happy with them. I note down those decks I left in storage which I really miss - those are the keepers.

I have bought a few decks since I've been here. Of those, I only use one regularly, plus one that a friend sent me.

And so I've started focussing back on reading. Not just with one deck, but with very few, and I concentrate on them. My study, my practice, my exercises, my psychic experimentation - all that is aimed primarily at reading, even when I am reading about Behenian stars and the Marseille trumps.

Do I regret the year or so of frequent deck acquisition? Not at all! It taught me about different tarot visions. It was a form of study to see how different deck creators see the tarot. So it has helped me in my readings too. For example, the Tarot of the Sidhe Hanged Man has such an extraordinary play on perspective that it's made me really internalise the Hanged Man-as-changed perspective, and that carried through in my readings with other decks. Of course, it depends on the quality of the decks. Some are just not that good. But on the whole, different decks have been a great tool for learning for me.

Yet I still prefer to read with few decks. Nowadays, I am experimenting more with different types of reading, and reading a fair bit for strangers.

It's a work-in-progress, of course, like everything tarot. One thing I am finding - in study (including various deck studies) - is that, like science, you never really know what's going to be useful in practice until much later. So I might read a bunch of stuff that seems totally unrelated to reading tarot, only to find, some months or years later, that it's actually become useful, in some strange transformatory way. But I also read and study stuff that will never be useful. I just don't know. As I said - I approach it like pure science.

 

[SunChariot]

I collect decks because I want to read with them. I do not have any decks I don't use regularly. So to me it is not an either/or question, as to whether I want to read or collect. I have over 40 decks now and I use them all.

I find all decks are not equal, some read better than others on different types of questions, and each "thinks" in different ways so for myself I would not want to limit myself to just one point of view when there are so many out there to learn and grow from.

Of course I read intuitively in the large part, so I don't spend months learning a deck. I have developed my technique over time and it works with any pictorial deck as I tend to read in the most part by analysing imagery...

Anyway, to me I don't choose between wanting to read or collect. I want to do both and things are perfect for me that way. I want a variety of decks to read with, not just one.

Bar

 

[HonestPuck]

I agree that it does not have to be an either-or situation, some people read tarot differently than others. But in my opinion if you want to read well, it's good to know a specific deck really well. It's like any relationship, you can have a bunch of friends that you know more or less equally well, and not know very much about each, or have one or two friends that you know extremely well.

But in most cases, people sort of end up in the middle of that. They collect decks, similar to the way one collects art; but primarily use only a few which they've been able to get to know on a deeper level. So they a part of both worlds.

 

[Little Baron]

I understand where you are coming from Solitaire.

I am not longer constraining myself to one, but a few is a nice compromise.

I am in an in-depth affair and study with the New Orleans Voodoo, but I know it shall be some time before I can read with it properly and as a whole.

I have the Renaissance for my 'bang, bang, bang' straight-out readings. And it performs - bang, bang, bang.

And in between, is the Mythic. I recently started reading the accompanying book at bedtime and the myths by Graves on the train in the morning. The deck is opening up 'reading' in a way that many others have not.

And that is about it.

I wondered the same as you at one point. I considered how I didn't really know the meaning of the Hierophant, but how I could probably tell you which Hierophant was which out of about 60 annonymous packs in a tv quiz. And I wondered if maybe I had more of a tarot catalogue in my mind than any kind of deep wisdom learnt from the cards.

If I could be bothered to sell decks right now, I would. Many are a rope around my neck. I limit where I go on the forum these days. I am trying to tailor my posts to the study and reading areas [with the odd exception], rather than the 'woohoo, lets get the chequebook out again' ones. In waiting for decks to be finshed and published, I realised I was chasing the wrong dreams.

LB

 

[connegrl]

I completely skipped that other thread. But I have a nice analogy. See I want to read. Eventually that means reading for others, but not yet.

Here's the analogy - Anyone can get on a horse. But once they're up there, they may not know what to do. You can read about getting up on a horse and what to do once you're there. But books can't teach you feel and timing. For that you need to practice and study. You have to ride a lot of horses to get really good and you need to be ruthless in your self awareness. You need to also watch alot of riders and what they do. And somewhere along the way if you're really lucky, you'll find good instruction as opposed to misguided instruction. If you're going to get on a horse and not get hurt, you need keen observation skills, you need to be present and you need to be self aware. Throw in a drive to work hard and a bit of luck and by the time you die, you might be good. You might even have been lucky enough to find a true partner.

I want to read. That means that I study more than one deck sometimes and learn from each one. Even the decks that I look at and go 'yuck' teach me something. It all goes into my body of knowledge. I'm careful about the decks I buy anymore. I have a couple here that are going to require alot of study from me. I have time. I can wait until its the right time. I have alot of books. I have fewer decks. I just need a few decks that will teach me what I need to know at that time. I'm getting better about selecting them. I'm in no hurry. I read for myself and practice on my dog right now. I've read for one stranger. It was enough to teach me what I needed to know. I need to find my style.

Yes, I want to read. I don't think I can get to where I want to go with just one deck and only one deck. For me that means at times I will only work with one deck. But there are lots of decks that can teach me. Its about the journey, not how fast you get there.

Jen

 

[coyoteblack]

Wht have only one friend

I think decks are like friends I have a best friend (Druid Craft) we talk laugh and meet new friends together.
I also have other friends that I can do different things with or get different opinions (Tarot of dreams is great for meditating and tarot spells)
I think the Saki Saki helps me understand the “art" of tarot I work as a network admin and this saki helps me see a new tarot.

The Buddha and ancestral path tarots will teach me many other things.

I pretty much took those put them in my drawer and bring the rest to our tarot meet up in NYC ad gave the rest away that were giving to me.

I guess what I am trying to say is it is great to have one solid go to friend that is always there for you but it is also nice to have other opinions and hang with different friends.

So now I am doing the 78 weeks with my DC and 21 ways group with my tarot of dreams to become better friends

 

[Miss Divine]

I am deliberately not acquiring any more tarot decks now, because... I wanna seriously study the ones I own. I like having several different decks to compare images and all that. I find it helps me to learn the cards better. There are so many beautiful other decks I would want to have, just for looks alone, but I restrain myself from doing that because having too many now would be overwhelming for me as I still have so much to learn. I absolutely love the few decks I have, except for the Rider waites, but I think they are valuable for learning the basics (I think).
I don't wanna acquire decks just to sit on a shelf looking pretty, I really wanna learn to read with them.

Phoebe