Re-enabling your existing decks

[Vesper]

Revelations

I don't know if it's ever possible to like a deck that you hate. I loved this one online, but when I got it, it felt crowded and busy, and I have a "thing" about masks (can't stand them), so all the Majors creeped me out.

I kept it because the companion book is really good. It gives equal weight to the reversed meanings, which are illustrated in the cards. As far as I know, it is the only deck with illustrated reversals. One day, when I get around to working with reversals, I'll take it out and use it as a study deck.

 

[Muir Aingeal]

Thanks! Actually, it's not half bad, not my usual style at all but not as bad as I thought it would be to read with. I must say it intimidated me at first, the images looked cold and clinical to me but the colors lovely and vibrant! Swirly dreamy cups, love that ace of cups especially.


There may be chance that I will really like it someday but it sure is different from what I'd usually look for in a deck.

 

[Morwenna]

I dug out my Hanson Roberts last night & I can't imagine why I ever put it away! It's reading like a dream & I've got to go with it...

Mine never gets fully "put away." Even when I'm consciously working with something else, every time I want an actual question answered, or come across a new spread I want to try out (and these for the past couple years now), it's my "go-to" deck. In fact a few days ago I doubled my fun by picking up a Tarot-to-Go! The book can go, but the extra deck has to stay!! I think I'll make that one my official "carry-around" deck, something I haven't done on a daily basis ever.

 

[shadowdancer]

The way I enable my often forgotten or neglected decks, is by offering them for readings on the reading exchange. My plan is, once they have been used twice they are withdrawn and replaced by another. I still have some favs up there, but majority are decks not used as often as they deserve to be

Davina

 

[Libra8ca]

Victorian Romantic

I've started using my Victorian Romantic deck (in anticipation of the release of the Russian version!) and it's beginning to grow on me but I could still use some re-enabling! It's the MRP deck I have used the least.

For some reason I always have to think of fairy tales when I use this deck, which I found curious. I believe it's because I used to have a Grimm Fairy Tale book as a child which was quite old (it belonged to my mother when she was a child) and it had the exact same type of pictures in it that the VR deck has. Too bad I don't have the book with me to compare.
I have to say that I really love to shuffle these cards as they glide so smoothly and are so thin.

I think it's a great reading deck but not the type of art I connect with easily but as I said I'm beginning to bond with it. Some of the pictures are really gorgeous; I think my favourite are the Knight of Swords and the Star. I also have the book but have not read any of it (yet).

 

[Chiriku]

Nathalie Hertz's Faerie Tarot

Why do I own this?

It seems I am doomed to deck regret when it comes to Nathalie Hertz, a talented artist who produces U.S. Games decks in themes that don't interest me whatsoever. Fantasy, vampires, fairies--no, no and no. My favorite decks include the Maat, the Navigators of the Mystic SEA, the Thoth, the Haindl...this should give you an idea of how far removed from my tastes such themed fantasy decks are.

Yet back when I was a fairly indiscriminate collector, I picked up her Fantastical Tarot when it came out (circa 1999-2000) because it was one of the only ones in the shop that I didn't yet own. I found the artwork accomplished but cold and leaden in expression, and I boxed it up with the rest of the collection.

Now here I am, 12-odd years later, with a Faerie Tarot I acquired sometime in the fall when I was on the ever-fruitless quest to acquire decks with strong autumn themes. Hertz's is one of the very few decks with strong seasonal demarcation (one season per suit), and her autumn and winter--the two seasons of interest to me-- are well-rendered.

But the fairies. The butterflies, the flowers, the toadstools, the rosy-cheeked gnomes. I can't take all this whimsy. I knew back when I was considering this deck that it would be a tough pill for me to swallow, but I reminded myself of the suit of Wands and cards like the forbidding, owl-y The Empress and took the plunge.

To be clear, I'm not an irredeemable curmudgeon. I try to be open-minded and am sometimes rewarded for it. For instance, The Tarot of the Sweet Twilight has a fair bit of whimsy and rather elfin looking people, but the surrealistic tinge to the artwork and its melancholic undertones and fresh interpretations of the RWS tradition mightily impressed me, enough that it became one of my favorite decks.

But there's nothing melancholy or haunting about Hertz' Faerie Tarot. It is unabashed cuteness, flowers, butterflies and light. It perilously approaches Tarot of a Moon Garden's level of unrepentant whimsy. I still need a clearly seasonal deck--especially one with a good autumn-- in my life and thus need a reason to keep from cringing when I handle these cards.

The alien coldness of Hertz' Fantastical Tarot is certainly more appealing now. Go figure. In fact, I've re-enabled myself on that one just from complaining about its effusive younger sibling.

I await your re-enabling.

 

[Le Fanu]

No re-enabling from me, I'm afraid, but how timely of you to bump this thread!

I have been thinking about re-enabling. What do you do when you put decks you don't like up in trading and there are no takers? The solution everyone gives for what to do with decks you never use. There are always the "giveaway" threads.

Or there is always re-enabling.

I was looking at the decks which have no takers. Thinking...

How about taking one to work, sticking it in the back of the drawer and when tarot pangs strike, get it out and alleviate the longing (even with a disliked deck?) Just something to ponder on in idle, bored moments.

There are Llewellyn decks in their cumbersome boxes; I think of getting rid of all the packaging - as it's that which takes up the space - and thus invalidating them as decks in "The Collection". They're not worth much anyway and I doubt they ever will be, so no harm done to "worth".

It's so often a question of space. If I took all my unwanted decks out of their boxes, at least I'd have space.

But then, one of these days, somebody will come for a reading, express a little more interest in tarot than your average person and I could give them one of these 15 or so decks - many with companion books - and make them remember their reading (and me!) with a smile and with fondness. That's worthwhile I think.

 

[Chiriku]

Your ideas have more merit than the one I usually seen bandied about: offering readings on the Reading Exchange. I did that recently with a couple of decks I actually love but hadn't used in a while, and had a hell of a time dealing with uncouth sitters. That forum is sadly crawling with them and I don't relish jumping back into the fray (even though the Hertz deck would be perfect, uncomplicated fodder for the types of questions that dominate the Exchange).

A middle ground solution would be joining a reading circle or study group that exchanges within the group and offering readings with the deck there. Those circles are usually comprised of conscientious, active forum members, so the risk of freeloading sitters stealing one's time and riding off into the sunset without reciprocation is greatly reduced.

I don't think I could give away a deck I myself didn't care for. Too much pride, perhaps. I tend to give gifts that are even better than what I would choose for myself, and I can't fob off a deck I hated on an unsuspecting punter.

I too worry about what to do with packaging. There's always the niggling thought lurking in the background, that I might one day want to sell this deck and it needs its natural home...

I'm at a different stage in my collecting life now, when I want each deck to serve a particular purpose for me. Right now I have an out-of-print, sought-after deck that I want to re-enable myself on but don't want to handle for fear of making it less sell-able if I later decide that I didn't connect enough with it to merit hanging onto.

But the idle, bored moments deck-handling, though the simplest idea, seems very plausible. Might try this.