How much does your interest in tarot wax and wane?

[Richard Pickman]

After a couple years' involvement with tarot, it seems that I am in a "wane" phase lately. Much of this is due to the fact that I have had a very busy summer and have been out of town much of the time. Also, I have a number of other interests and things that keep me very busy. I do both art and music, and never seem to have enough time for either of those. Add tarot to the mix and I have even more decisions to make as to how to spend my time.

I'm just wondering, how much does your interest in tarot wax and wane over time?

Also, some of you may know that I started drawing a deck a few months ago, and I have been totally stalled on that project for the last month or more. I'm not happy about this, and really want to continue, but I guess it has just not been "in the cards" for me lately or something....

RP

 

[Calliope]

A lot. It waxes and wanes a lot. It usually depends on how much I am working and how much time school takes up. This weekend I worked about 25-30 hours in 3 days and I felt like I needed a card fix. I haven't been on AT much and I had to wait on really crabby people.

I really needed Tarot.

With that said, I have been interested in Tarot since I was 12 when I was given my first deck by my mom. I fiddled around with the cards but didn't do much with them. They sat on my book shelf for some time before I decided to take another stab at them (when I was around 16 or so). Same thing happened. It wasn't until my early 20s that I really settled into the cards and even then I tucked 'em away when my boyfriend-at-the-time looked a little weirded out when he learned that I liked Tarot (he didn't last long).

Now that I've written this decent sized post, I have to conclude that my interest in Tarot doesn't wane, necessarily, but the time I feel I am able to properly commit to reading does.

Sometimes it takes me a bit to get to what I really mean to say.

 

[MareSaturni]

I think it's normal. When you are going through a busy or difficult phase, sometimes you don't feel like doing something you usually love, or just don't have time enough. It depends on how ingrained is tarot in your life. If it's a hobby, then there's a fat chance that busy/difficult moments will pull you away from it. But if tarot in somehow in your everyday life, then probably it won't happen. You'll probably give up (temporarily) other hobbies.

Also, i've seen that sometimes people also lose their faith in themselves as reader, which also makes them leave the tarot for a while. They feel they cannot read, and end up throwing all their deck in a drawer to be forgotten. Then, some times after, they come back...and that may happen many times!

Whatever it is, it isn't bad if you don't feel bad. If you do, then you must seek inside yourself why not having time to practice tarot makes you feel like that. Do you feel guilty? Do you think that you should be studying tarot? Does it feel more like an obligation than a pleasure? And so on...

You ought to do what makes you feel best
There's no right or wrong.

 

[Lysh]

I think it is normal too to go back and forth during phases in our life. I went through a phase were I did not touch tarot for a year. It was a tough year of my life and I felt I could not give tarot and my studies what it deserved...I needed to figure me out first. So I let it be and when the time was right to return to tarot I knew it because my cards kept calling out to me. And the amazing thing is that when I did go back to it I felt stronger and more in tune to the cards than I ever did before.

So in short....it happens and all we can do is ride it out!

Lysh

 

[Calliope]

I think it's normal. When you are going through a busy or difficult phase, sometimes you don't feel like doing something you usually love, or just don't have time enough. It depends on how ingrained is tarot in your life. If it's a hobby, then there's a fat chance that busy/difficult moments will pull you away from it. But if tarot in somehow in your everyday life, then probably it won't happen. You'll probably give up (temporarily) other hobbies.

'Tis true in my case. Sometimes it takes everything in me just to wrench myself out of bed and get a cup of coffee, much less draw a card and reflect on it.

 

[Disa]

It took me a while to get serious about learning Tarot. I'd give up too easily and put it aside for a year or two in the beginning. I Also had the problem of trying to learn scrying, pendulums, mediumship, astral travel, runes and everything else all at once. Then I decided I needed to focus on one thing and it became Tarot.

These past few years I've not put it down. I study cards or read posts here almost every day. I signed up as a volunteer reader at another site and participate in different tarot exercises. I'm taking my 2nd series of 6 week tarot courses in a "real life" place. I don't even know for sure if I really want to be a professional tarot reader, but I keep pushing myself just to see... because maybe, deep down inside, I do. My interest in Tarot never wanes. I want to know everything there is to know about it and I want to know it RIGHT NOW. But I realize it's a life long process, and I'm ok with that,

Like you I have other interests (I write fiction and I "can" make silver jewelry) It's just a matter of finding a balance. I can't get to everything at once. I have a short story that I can't seem to write, it's ready- I just have to write it. Oh, and I'm also taking metaphysical courses online and have a ton of tarot related homework in my real life tarot class.

Usually, something's gotta give and unfortunately it's usually housework that doesn't get done.

Anyway... I'm sure interest does wax and wane. Sometimes it feels good to put it down for a little while and have a new perspective when you pick it back up again. If you really love the tarot, it won't let you abandon it entirely-it'll keep calling ... until you finally answer.

 

[Mellaenn]

Disa, your post describes how it is for me right now perfectly. I have gone from owning a dusty 1JJ that I left sitting on the shelf, wishing I could make hide or hair out of it, to the "tarot-ista" that I like to think I am now.

I do daily draws, I do exchanges here, I read for friends and family, I read at a local shop here and there when I can. I have one or two books about tarot going at any given time and now my meager little collection is growing (though I do like to really get to know them and spend some time with them before I get a new deck). I belong to a local tarot group and this year I invested in attending the Readers Studio; it was amazing and I will be there next year if I have to hitch-hike!

I would say that this website has really allowed me to improve my TQ (Tarot Quotient) by giving me leads for so-o-o-o much information, not to mention the wisdom of the many who post here.

Anyway, right now my passion for tarot is not waxing and waning, it's on permanent wax mode - but I'll let you know in a year or two!

 

[emmsma]

I've gone back and forth with tarot many times over the years. I was about 16-17 when I first became interested and purchased my first decks. I read alot early into college. Got married at 19 to someone who reallly disapproved. I had to hide everything, so I stopped reading for several years.

In my mid-twenties, when I was in a better place emotionally, I becan to read again. Acquired some more decks. Spent more time and got deeper into the cards. Learned to read intuitively.

Lots of changes and a busy life drew me away again for a few more years. Now nearly 40, I am back at it and am even more devoted than before. I don't always have the time and energy to read. But I look at some decks or other daily and may draw a single card or just enjoy the pleasure of looking through or browsing a deck. Some days simply shuffling is enough for me.

But I can't see me putting them down for good any time soon.

 

[The crowned one]

It does cycle for me, but every time I return, I return stronger in some sort of incarnation wither it be the ESP side, cartomancie or the history side.

 

[.traveller.]

I go in cycles, but I found that in my waning phase I am incubating various things I have learned or grown into. The more I grow as a reader, the faster I cycle through a wax/wane cycle.