How to like/connect with a tarot deck?

[Golden Moon]

When I buy a tarot deck, I have high hopes for it. But once I looked through the cards the art pleases me but the images don't or vice versa. And what I hate most is that when I don't connect with a deck, I end up trading or giving it away, or returning it. Anyone have any tips how I can connect or like a tarot deck?

Thanks.

 

[bellathebrave123]

For me, its simply a matter of, it happens or it doesnt. When I first hold a deck, I pretty much know whether straight away whether Ill 'bomd' with the deck. Try as I might , it seems that if the connections not there it just wont happen, no matter what I do or how 'pretty' the cards may be.

 

[Grizabella]

I wonder if what people refer to as "bonding" or "connecting" just means whether or not you can read with it. If you can't read with it right away, just keep it for awhile and maybe later on you'll be able to. Or if you really, really feel cold toward it, then I guess you have to just do what you feel you must with it.

 

[SunChariot]

You can't make it happen, any more than you can force yourself to like a person you don't like, or a colour or a song or brocolli or whatever. Our tastes are our tastes, we're born with em.

You can and will get bettercin time at knowing in advance what you don't like so you don't buyvthose kinds of decks. And also try not to expect perfection of a deck. Nothing in life can ever be perfect. But each deck dies have a unique beauty, wisdom and lifeview.

Babs

 

[gregory]

Patience. I have several decks I thought WTF about when I got them, but I NEVER get rid, and with most - years later, I suddenly "get" them and start to use and/or love them. (I don't read with every deck I own (!!!!) but I do like to look at them all, and even the rubbish two or three I have have something to say.)

Kitty Kahane is a case in point - I thought that was WELL weird, though the colours amused me - but it reads wonderfully; I just had to TRY and it flew.

 

[Le Fanu]

Immediate bonding with a deck - for me - means nothing.

I keep digging down old decks from the shelf which I just never found very interesting and suddenly I love them. Happens all the time.

Hence; never trade and never think that liking a deck is immediate or that it should be love at first sight.

Another good tip; don't make a decision about liking/not liking while all the hype and shrill, gushing launch threads are bouncing around.

You need to let everything die down and come to it on your own terms. well I do anyway...

 

[gregory]

What he said He is like me - poor man....

 

[terow]

why don't u just meditate ur card, as soon as u got it?

 

[alesia]

I look at as many pictures as I can of the deck, and see if the cards speak to me; most of the time they don't, so I don't even bother. And the decks that I have, even if they don't do much for me now, I remember that once I desperately loved them, and I might again.

Not to say I won't give one away if I don't feel I'll use it much, but that's more of a general attempt to reduce possessions to the truly essential than any particular frustration with a deck.

(ETA) It's not quite true that I've desperately loved all my decks. I've never particularly connected with the Rider-Waite-Smith, but it's taught me a lot regardless and I'd never get rid of it. Connection isn't everything.

 

[jcwirish]

I seem to be one of those people who either loves or dislikes a deck almost immediately. I've finally gotten a hold of a deck I desperately wanted only to find it just didn't gel with me, but I've also gotten a few decks that I felt were just 'right' for me as soon as I got them in my hands. Everyone is different.

I may like everything about a deck, but find I can't really read with it. Other times, I don't think I'll like a deck, but find I can read with it and love it.

I'm a big shuffler, so I start shuffling as soon as I open a new deck. This seems to help me get a feel for the deck and can be a sort of bonding experience for me. The more I handle certain decks, the more connected I feel to them. I had no idea how much color could affect my feelings and intuition till I got my Stone tarot. It was just "my deck" from the moment I saw it. It's the intense colors of this deck that grabbed me right off the bat. They stir up emotion in me and help me to read better than any other deck I've had.

Maybe you just need to figure out what qualities in a given deck pull the feelings from you. It could be color or detail or expression, any number of things really. What works for me won't necessarily work for you. I discovered my connection to color quite by accident.