How I began with Tarot

[Talisman]

'Lo all,

I don't intend to unroll my mat, sit upon it, and tell a tale. I've told my beginner stories.

But I would love to listen to your tales. The very first time, the first inspiration, the first deck, the first time you pulled a sense of wonder from the box. The dreams your stuff is made from.

Perhaps there was a time when Tarot swam into your ken, occupied an idle thought in an idle moment, then passed out of mind, only to appear much later as a real very first time.

I'm not asking for much. Just the cosmic big bang that launched your Tarot universe, and that contained the inspiration for the logic, the cosmic glue, that holds it all together. The stories that begin, "Once upon a time . . ."

That's all.

Talisman

 

[Demonesse]

Easy.

I wasn't HOOKED - as in really hooked - until I stumbled onto this little site, better known as Aeclectic (Aeclectians, it's all YOUR fault) and feasted on the sight of exquisite tarot decks...As a result, I have now morphed into what is popularly known as a tarotgollum.

 

[wavebreaker]

Once upon a time somebody sent me a link to the online Glastonbury Tarot (unfortunately, I can't remember who it was that sent me this link... I'd love to thank him/her!!). I didn't know anything about tarot, but I thought it was a fun "game". Over a few weeks I did several readings online and found that they did make sense (although they were not as accurate as "real" readings, as I later found out). That got me interested, I wanted to know more about tarot.

I searched around the internet for some more background information and decided to buy the Rider-Waite deck to start with. When I got it, I remember sitting on the floor with the deck and the LWB eagerly wanting to get started and... not getting anywhere...

So I went back to the internet to search for more info, and found Joan Bunning's website. I think I also found Aeclectic at this time, but at first I didn't see there was a forum here as well. Joan Bunning's website got me started and soon afterwards I found this forum and the rest is history...

 

[Keslynn]

I too got hooked on online readings though I believe my usual site was www.facade.com. I thought it was fun but I started to get curious about doing it myself. So... it being in my character to follow my random whims, one day, I just felt like buying a deck. So I did. I learned using Joan Bunning's website and book (which I ordered almost the same day). The true moment when I really knew that this was something I wanted to do was when I took my brand new deck and offered to do a reading for my best friend. I had to read every single meaning out of the book, but it was DEAD ON. I was fascinated and pleased, and tarot still does that for me (30 odd decks later - lol).

Kes

 

[Joywalker]

I worked in a bookstore and it was there when I first saw the RW tarot deck.Everyday,I would walk pass that shelf, pick it up and look at it.Don't even know why.Eventually,I bought that deck and it is still with me,12 years later.

 

[MeeWah]

Mine began in a matter-of-fact way. I already had the RWS deck. The result of an impulse purchase, it was the only deck available at my then favorite bookshop, Brentano's. I was doing fine with my regular deck of playing cards & with Zolar's Astrological Fortune Telling Cards so I did not try to use it.

I turned to Tarot after my regular deck of playing cards disappeared & Zolar's cards lost their appeal. There were few Tarot books then, but I was not really looking. I came across books by Eden Gray & Arthur Waite, but they did not inspire me nor was I able to relate to the book meanings. The LWB left me cold at first glance. I decided to sit down & write my own interpretations of the Major Arcana, using numerology as a basis. The lightbulb lit, & I wrote interpretations of the rest of the cards. Since then, I have read a few books & am more appreciative of Waite's book & but I still rely on my initial reaction to a card.

 

[rota]

When I was a mere lad, my mom would have been considered one of those wacky moms, who read books and talked about politics and religion. She wasn't appreciated in the microscopic rural town I grew up in. An inveterate reader, she read anything that came to hand, trying to make do with the small collection in the county library. That meant a constant parade of borrowed books of every kind were on hand in the house all through my childhood. I can remember the time a Jehovah's Witness came to the door one Saturday morning and spotted on the coffeetable a book by Sybil Leek...

Anyway, when I was 11 or so, along with the books, a partial RWS deck passed through the house. Not knowing what else to do with it, I played solitaire. I was actually into dinosaurs and prehistory at the time; I thought the card pictures were kind of neat, though.

Years pass, and I'd become an adult working as an artist,studying Blavatsky, Besant and Leadbeater, and I'd become a 32nd-degree Mason, and by then I'd run across many many mentions of the Tarot in my reading. Also, I was asked by a Tarot scholar to help with the artwork of a deck he was designing.
I knew nothing about the Tarot, really, except in a vague and objective way, and I found out that even though I could draw and he could describe, I was unable to make a decent Tarot deck because I just wasn't interested.

That happened later, in my 40's. I woke up one day with the idea of getting hold of a Tarot deck and starting to learn about it. It was as simple as that. I just sat myself down for a half hour every day with books by Eden Gray or whatever I found at the local used book store, and taught myself the standard card meanings. Slowly I learned to use and interpret them in a more intuitive manner.

So, for me it was an education arrived at as an adult by conscious decision.

 

[Silverlotus]

My story is a bit odd. I honestly became interested in Tarot because of a video game. Really, I'd pretty much always had an interest in the "occult", but playing Ultima IV was the final step. In the game, you choose what type of character you will play by answering questions. Each answer is represented by a card. My older cousin, who was living with us at the time, said they looked like Tarot cards. We got talking about Tarot, and a few days later he took me downtown (wow!) to The Occult Shoppe! (lol! The things that thrill a young girl.) There I bought my first deck, the Aquarian Tarot, and the book that went with it. I was so excited.
I can remember the cold day and the long bus ride even now. Sadly, the store closed down a few years later, my cousin moved away after finishing school, and the long bus ride became just a short part of the ride I took to university every day many years later. I still have my love of tarot though. Although there were times through high school that I thought about giving it up. Being "different" is difficult in high school, but I stuck by my religion (Wicca) and my cards during those years. I think I'm stronger for it. Tarot has had an interesting place in my life over the years, although I have come and gone from it.
Thank you for starting this thread and getting me thinking about this.

Silverlotus

 

[anjocoxo]

the beginning

Once upon a time... I remember when I was about 18 (just starting university) I saw some deck in a store and become fascinated by them... so I "convinced" my friends to buy me one deck as a birthday present. They offered me the golden rider and I studied the LWB and began to do readings in university (only with the major arcana). I went on reading them (on and off) and for the last four years I barely touched them until 2 or 3 months ago, my spiritual side come back. I started to read again, I joined aeclectic and, b/c of that I had to buy two more decks!

Now i'm studying the minor arcana (after all they are easier than what I've thought) and my wishlist is getting bigger by the hour...
Oh, and everyday I find a new exciting detail in my cardssss... my preciousssss....

 

[Diana]

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