I know this question has been answered before...

[calligirl]

but I have done search after search and can't find the thread for it that I know must be here somewhere so forgive me for being redundant.

My question is: What do you do when you first receive a new deck?
What is your ritual?
Do you bless the cards before you open them?
Do you clear your mind and find a quiet place to meditate first?
Do you go through them one by one to see if they are all there?
Or do you tear all the packaging off and spread them out like candy after Halloween trick-or-treat?
Do you shuffle immediately and do a reading?

The reason I'm asking is that I'm waiting (impatiently!) for the...gasp...Druidcraft to get here and I would like to know the 'proper' way to greet the cards. If I remember correctly, with the Gilded, I tore off all the wrappings and just stared at them. Which is what I still do, actually...

So what do YOU do?

 

[Osher]

I tend to look at each card, and also to put them into order, to make sure they're all there. Nothing special, but I do try and bond with the cards, by looking at each one.

 

[ros]

I open my new deck up and look at The Hermit, The Star & The Moon cards first. Those are my favorites.
I make sure the cards are all there.
Put the deck away until I'm ready to read with it. Then re-open it
& do some fancy shuffling & spread them on the table! LOL

 

[Emeraldgirl]

I jump up and down giving off little shreiks of happiness (most of my decks come mail order so it's really exciting when they arrive) Open up all the packaging etc and go through them all ohhhing and ahhhhing over the cards then they get put in a box I have with some nice smelling incense and some crystals and then I use themor put them with the rest of the decks.

 

[Emily]

First for me its getting the actual deck - Our postie is a nightmare and sometimes doesn't knock my door or even bring the packages with him - I've had a card pushed through to say they've tried to deliver but didn't even have the package with them.

So once I have the deck, I find a quiet place to open them, first I count to make sure they are all there, not looking at the card fronts just the backs, lets me check too that all the backs are the same and not marked in anyway. Then I count again, face up and separate the Majors and Minors - lay the Minors out into their suits, again to make sure I have all the cards.

Once all this is over, then comes the time to really look at the cards - Keeping them in suit order, I play around laying all the numbers together, all the Aces, two's, three's etc to compare them. I don't try any readings until I've shuffled and really get the feel for the deck.

If its a straight RWS clone then I'll be doing readings with it within the first day or so but decks that need a little more thought, like Vargo's Gothic, I won't read with it until I've got a firm idea of the artwork.

The DruidCraft was one of the decks that I was able to read with straight out of the box but be prepared to get lost in the artwork the first time you see it - I just kept shuffling and looking through them, its such a beautiful deck it seems to overwhelm, very much like an over-enthusiastic friend, until you get to know it.

 

[Moonbow*]

I always check that all the cards are present and correct..

Then I lay them all out on a table, in order and look at them, looking at colours, and any connections that I might make. sometimes I move them around and put all of the courts together to compare the messages they give me. Or all of the Aces... twos....threes... etc together and look at them with an eye for seeing the differences in them. They may stay on the table all day, and I keep going back to them with a fresh eye.

Then I try a quickie three card reading... it goes from there......

 

[raeanne]

Hi all,
No one else is mentioning this but I.....well, I......gee, I smell them. There is something about the smell of paper and ink that I love! An office supply store or a library smells great to me. After I float on the smell, I look through the deck and make sure no cards are missing. I add a page to my "deck notebook" where I will keep notes about this deck. I list which suit goes with each of the four elements and also the names of the four court cards. I write down any differences to the names of the majors, the name of any additional cards, the 8/11 order for this deck, and any other first look points of interest. Then I go back and look at each card to see what symbols I see and how it is similar or different from my other decks. I shuffle the deck and do a new deck reading. For several days after that I go through the deck again and again.

 

[NightWing]

I guess I'm a casual "sniffer" too, though some recent decks are pretty bad, and smell strongly of something resembling acetone.

I have no initial special ritual, beyond tearing off the cellophane wrappers on the box and then the deck itself as fast as possible, and doing a quick count. I've been "burned" twice by cards missing from decks.

BUT I've developed the habit of laying out all the cards on a big flat surface (table or carpet), arranged in rows of Majors and then each of the four suits. I leave them like that for at least several days, to get acquainted. They also get to air out. Often my first shuffling and reading is not until weeks after the acquisition; it very much depends on the particular deck and how it "speaks" to me. I have some decks I very much like that I have never read with.

I don't believe ritual is important at this stage, except to always treat the cards with respect.

 

[SunChariot]

Can't say I have a ritual much either,but I need to be alone when I open them, usually lying on my bed. I feel such a sense of awe and reverence the every time I look at my decks. The feeling is even stronger the first time. Excitement at the beauty of the images yes, but also just a wonder at the wisdom of this new set of imagers and all the amazing things we will learn together. Underneath I know that the answers and wisdom come from inside me somewhere and my connection to the universe, still each deck is such a deep amazing spirtual tool. Just AweSome!

If I have any ritual, it is to always wash my hands before touching any of my decks of spiritual tools, even if they are not dirty.

Then I look through the deck once, or a few times) with the proper amount of awe for their wisdom, and put them away in their new pouch. I always have a pouch waiting for them before I open a deck, and I always have lavendar petals in all my pouches to keep the decks smelling pleasant.

Bar

 

[Thirteen]

ros wrote:I open my new deck up and look at The Hermit, The Star & The Moon cards first. Those are my favorites.

Heh. I do the same only with the High Priestess, Hanged Man, Moon and Devil cards.

Then I go through the cards from the Fool on to that final court card. I give each a good look and try to see that intersection between what I think of as that card's meaning and what the deck's artist/creator has focused on. The differences not only give me a feel for the deck, but often a new way of seeing that card. Like Connolly's Deck where the 6/Swords is a woman running over a bridge rather than a boat traveling across a river. A much more solid interpetation of that card meaning there.

And then, if there's a book (not the little white book, but a REAL book written by the creator), I eagerly read through that while working through the deck yet again. I find this useful because often there are little things that I miss that the artist put in--like, in the Sacred Circle Tarot where the plants depicted in some of the cards reflect meaning (symbolic flowers and such). Or the Ancient Egyptian Tarot where it helped to know why the deck's creator picked certain Egyptian dieties for certain Major Arcana.

What can I say? When I decide to get to know a deck, I really get to know it. I love to get underneath and behind the story. Love listening to writer/director commentaries on DVD's come to that