Mad deck

[rabidwolfie]

I know this will sound strange, but I bought the dragon tarot a long time ago, my very first deck, ever, & anyone who has seen these can tell you they are very beautiful but very hard to read, so I rarely use them except apon special request.
Well, here's the weird part, I took them out a few days back & I just had the strangest feeling they were mad at me. A deck of cards, mad at me. I don't have delusions of inanimate objects being alive, but every time I touched or looked at my cards, I couldn't help shake the feeling. It still persists now. I've never heard of anything like that before. I know sometimes you don't connect, but for a stack of painted cardboard to feel anger because of rare useage?

Am I insane or can someone else relate?

 

[tarotbear]

I was posting a reply and Yahoo! interrupted and made me verify my password! Don't tell me an inanimate object doesn't 'do' things!

sorry~

Before Yahoo interrupted me, I was saying that I understand exactly what you are saying. A deck is cardboard, some inks, some thin plastic coating -- nothing there! But anyone who uses a deck over time can tell you that they can 'sense' when the deck is acting up - or contrary - to what it normally 'feels' like. They say things like 'The cards are aggressive today' or "I felt as though the cards were lying to me."

It's your intuition kicking in, your psychicsm taking hold. Prhaps it is really yourself sensing that you should work with this deck more often than your do.

PS - when my deck gets 'aggressive' or starts giving me platitudes for answers, I usually take the deck and RAP THE LONG EDGE HARD AGAINST THE TABLETOP two or three times and say 'STOP THIS NOW! Give me the answer that I need to hear, not the one I expect to get!' People are surprized I admit to doing this.

Although I don't suggest getting arrested for 'deck abuse', perhaps you should cleanse your deck?

 

[Michelle]

Hi Rabidwolfie ~

I hope you get some good replies . I posted a very similar question some time ago and quickly wished I could delete the thread .

I understand exactly what you are saying and YES I think our decks do get a bit miffed at times.


.

p.s. I was happy to read Tarotbears reply - now I don't feel so stupid for having asked the same question.

 

[Diana]

But anyone who uses a deck over time can tell you that they can 'sense' when the deck is acting up - or contrary - to what it normally 'feels' like. They say things like 'The cards are aggressive today' or "I felt as though the cards were lying to me."

I think by "anyone", Tarotbear probably means "some people", and not "everyone".

I have NEVER had a deck acting up and I do not believe for one minute that a deck could. However, I think some people have imaginations that run away with them. There are TONS of superstitions involved with Tarot and I think that believing that decks can have feelings is one of the worst.

To be very blunt and please do NOT take this personally. I do not know you so I am not trying to come down on your head for any purpose. It's for the general public that I am saying: "Thinking one's decks are aggressive/sad/jealous/demented/whatever... is a load of tripe".

 

[Umbrae]

My decks never act up.

But me, I am not perfect. So one day I relate to one deck’s set of imagery, and the next day I relate well with another deck. I flip around six or eight. They change. I change. I relationship with the imagery changes. Some days I use regular playing cards. Usually it’s rune stones, and occasionally it’s wood runes.

Ya gotta go with what you feel.

And if you feel your cards are angry – choose another deck till they calm down.

 

[Emeraldgirl]

I used a my Arthuiran Legend Deck this weekend to do a reading for someone that I shouldn't of been reading for (they are too sarcastic, negative and all round too much of a prick to take it with any measure of dignity and seriousness). I don't feel the deck is mad at me but I feel I may need some time using other decks to allow myself to use this deck without having feelings that this a**hole polluted my deck (that's the main feeling) I have done a lot of readings for sceptics but this guy is just such a tosser when it comes to respecting other people and their beliefs that I really regret doing a reading for him. Teach me to listen to people when they ask me to read for their partners when the partners are sitting there calling it a "load of crap" and other less complimentry words.

Anyway totally veered off subject but what I was trying to say is that it may be that your feeelings on the deck could be giving you the impression that the deck is mad at you. Are you feeling guilty about the deck at all? Or that you have been neglecting it or anything? Sometimes your unacknowledged feelings can come across and influence other areas of your life.

 

[Eco74]

This is one of the reasons I prefer to have multiple decks.

I also don't really believe that inanimate objects hold grudges or feelings But, I do belive that I mentally connect certain inanimate objects with a certain feeling.
Just consider that slip of a ticket you saved because it makes you feel happy, or that horrible looking little figurine that doesn't go with anything but still stands there on the "fancy shelf" because it seems to spread positive energy. In reality it is the memories you've connected with the ticket and the figurine that spreads the happiness for you, but seeing the items will make the feelings come out, and so the item itself becomes positively charged.

Some decks are very difficult for me to work with, and others are open for play any time. Some only make sense when I'm in a certain state of mind and others will be accessible and understandable regardless.


A cleansing, or some meditation-work with the deck might help you get past the block and allow you to use the deck without getting these feelings when you look at it.
It has done the trick for me a couple of times (both for decks and other items).

 

[spoonbender]

I've said this before in other threads, but I really REALLY think it's BS to believe that your deck is angry/jealous/whatever. These kinds of superstitions of some tarot readers is exactly what I meant by Tarot's bad reputation on this thread.

Spoon

 

[Sophie]

I've said this before in other threads, but I really REALLY think it's BS to believe that your deck is angry/jealous/whatever.

But it's not tripe or BS to have projections of the personality on a deck of cards.

There are days I get into my car, it acts up and I say it's angy with me. I know it's projection and anthropomorphising, but it still feels that way. I don't think that's imagination running away with me - my imaginationa is serving its function as explaining the world in a certain way - a poetic way. The factual down-to-earth is only one way of explaining the world. There are others.

Or do you believe that when Robbie Burns wrote "my love is as a red red rose" he really believed his girl was a actual rose? Yet he saw her as one and his love and his poetic imagination made her one.

So when my cards are in a bad mood, I know - factually - that it is me not them, but still, I give myself the poetic licence to say and think - "my cards are mad at me, I think I'll take a walk until they calm down". Or pick up another deck, like Umbrae.

 

[Emily]

I too think that maybe its a projection of personality onto a deck - When I don't use my Morgan Greer for a while (this is a deck that pushed me to learn tarot when I was close to giving up) and it sits around while I use and enjoy other decks then I go back to the Morgan Greer and feel the deck is a bit offish with me - but really its not the deck - its my guilt feelings for ignoring my beloved deck.

Now the second-hand Thoth deck I have - nope can't understand where those feelings come from lol