Breaking in a New Deck - what are your habits?

[Carla]

I check that all the cards are there, then I lay them out on the floor so that all the numbers line up properly. Court cards out to the sides. I look at them for a while, then I gather them up and lay them out by number. (All the aces together, all the twos together, all the kings together, etc). Then I put gather them up again and shuffle and shuffle, and I sit for a while turning the cards over one by one and examining them. I read the companion book. I will handle the deck a LOT over 3 or 4 days before I try a reading with it. I just sit and shuffle and look at the cards, I carry the deck around with me, put it on my bedside table at night. This usually goes on for a week. I will do some research about images and ideas I find in the cards and companion book. Take notes in my tarot journal. Try a few readings in exchanges here. Try reading for myself, maybe a deck interview. Then it will get stored with my other decks to be used as and when.

 

[Jes]

nice

where do I find a Deck interview? is it a spread?

 

[Carla]

Here's one:

http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=110942&highlight=interview

 

[Fly My Pretty]

where do I find a Deck interview? is it a spread?

I used FireRaven's “New Deck Interview” spread
I found it really insightful, and it helped me get a feel for the deck

 

[Moonbow]

Breaking in a new deck... I check its complete, I spread out the cards and look for oddities, similarities, anything that strikes me as interesting. Then I use it, then I use it, then I use it some more, then I use it some more more.

Check, look, shuffle, handle, spread, read, read, read. I can usually tell at the stage of looking or at least the first read whether the deck will be one I use a lot. My decks are nicely kept but I believe in using them, they have to shuffle well, look good in a spread, and stand up to lots of handling. I have a few I like which don't stand up well to being handled but they are mostly part of my historical collection and so they are used for studying and comparing mostly.

With playing cards I like to give them a bit of rough treatment, if they're good they should stand up to it.

 

[Niti]

When I first started with tarot, I would do all sorts of things - sleep with the cards next to my bed, mull and meditate over individual images, go through the deck one by one, do deck "interview" spreads...

Now, I am more careful about what decks I buy (I no longer buy things just off ONE image or someone else's review) and when I take them home, I barely give each card a cursory glance before I challenge it with an in-depth reading.

Lately, I have been making my own bags for certain decks, and even though I am terrible at sewing, I feel more bonded to the decks afterwards. It goes way further than putting it under my pillow

 

[marimorimo]

I don't really have a ritual per se but what I did with my newest decks was to look at each card one by one and appreciate it; try to glean something from the imagery. I checked if all cards are complete. Then I did an interview. I didn't have a special spread, just asked a question and drew a card at a time. I received a lot of cheeky and fun answers the last time I did that with the Sun and Moon Tarot After that I rearranged the deck before I put it back into its box.

I used to do the 'sleeping with decks under pillow' routine but didn't feel like it did anything for me so I don't do that now.

 

[Le Fanu]

Obviously, first of all I look at them...

I check all the cards are there and if I really, really like the deck I lay all the cards out and mix them up and l draw a few cards and see what I think about the immediacy of the symbolism.

Then I think of how I'm going to make space, so I have to do a bit of jiggling around on the bookcases. No sleeping with them, no new decks spreads. Why would I read about a deck when I can read about ME?

 

[Fly My Pretty]

I'm excited for you about the arrival of your new deck, maybe you could let me know how you break it in?, and we can see if its different to the "how"of your legacy deck

Thanks Jes, yeah i'll definitely let you know how it goes when it finally gets here

 

[paulrosk]

Oh, I do the same thing. When I get a new deck I'll usually just open the package and go through the cards to look at them, feel them, see if I can "connect" with them. Then I do a quick shuffle and put them in a nice little bag. put them in my Tarot Box along with my 2 favorite crystals and put the box up on my Tarot Shelf. For the next 3 nights I'll sleep with the deck under my pillow and after the 3rd night I'll pull the deck out and try a simple "Card Of The Day". If it comes out "Friendly" I'll do a 3 card spread and then go from there. I've lost track of all the decks I've gone through. So far the only 3 decks I've kept are my original Rider-Waite deck, my Quest Tarot deck, and a little "mini" deck a friend of mine gave me. All the other ones are sitting in the "Tarot Junk Yard" up on the shelf. Lately I've been using Oracle decks a lot, but I always pull out a Tarot deck every day for a reading just to see if everything "balances" out. So far so good ...