Using one tarot deck only

[GoldenWolf]

I think for those of us who are older it was easier to spend time and focus in on one deck because it wasn't always easy to find decks other than the RWS, the Thoth or some sort of TdM unless you lived in a large and fairly progressive city. I know this will be hard for the younger folks to believe, but in the pre-Internet era, we just sort of bought whatever happened to be on the shelf at the bookstore. It was typically one of the decks mentioned above and often there was no actual choice involved. You just bought what you could find.

I think the huge variety of different decks just reflects the world we live in with many more options and choices and possibilities. I don't know that that fact in and of itself degrades the tarot.

It's so much easier now to find out about a variety of decks, and it's possible to buy them from anywhere in the world. The instant Paypal purchase I made tonight for a small run deck published in New Zealand never would have happened when I started reading in the 1970s. First, I likely would never have known it existed. Even if I had, I'd have sent the payment via snail mail (likely after a lengthy snail inquiry about cost, etc) and then hoped that my letter would get there, that the person at the other end would actually process the order, and then wait and wait and wait for it to arrive. Impulse buys don't really happen in a market like that. Although I do study the esoteric aspects of the cards, I do buy many more decks now because a) they are available and easy to discover, b) they can be easily purchased in most cases, and c) compared to the old school scenario above, the gratification is nearly instant.

There is room in the world for all types of readers and deck collectors and tarot students and practitioners. There's value in studying one and only one deck. There is also value in studying a variety of decks and being able to compare and contrast them even when some of the varieties may be of questionable worth in one person's eyes. I have a male friend who loves the US Games Tarot of Baseball because framing tarot in the metaphor of baseball makes it understandable and easier for him to grasp. Maybe he will go on to study some deeper, more esoteric decks. Maybe not. Who knows? I just remember how excited he got about the tarot because of that deck.

 

[SunChariot]

l have friends who are professional readers and have been for a number of years. They have used their skills Internationally and on TV. What interests me is that they each have their favourite deck and never use any others. One friend has the Gilded Tarot which she purchased when it first came out, the cards have grown very thin and floppy and because of numerous shuffling over the years you can hardly see the pictures anymore, she won't even buy a new one. Another friend has the 1JJ Swiss which over the years has faired very much better. Another has a deck l can't remember the name, they are so worn and well loved, her dog has chewed at one of the cards leaving about 3/4 's of it but she still shuffles away with it.

l know here at AT lots of us have many decks. But my friends just will not ever part with or use any other deck.
It would save me a lot of money if l used one deck!
Do you use only one deck ever, or know someone who does?

It's really personal choice. If it saves you money to have only one and you don't feel the call to have more than one, then that's all you need.

Because of the way I read, having lots of decks works best for me. But what works best for a reader varies a lot from person to person. I have abotu 114 decks and use them all. I try to use them fairly equally, or each time choose one I have not used in a long time. So in effect each only gets used rarely.

I only knew one person in my life personally who only had one deck. She told me that you could not have more than one deck and be a good reader. This was just before I started to learn Tarot so I did not know any better and just believed her. It was a long time before I figured out that that was a bit of a Tarot superstition and it was not really true.

Yes you can read well only with one deck, but having more does not dillute you or make you a bad reader, as she told me. Really in the end, as in anything in Tarot, just do whgat calls to you personally.

Babs

 

[Wintergreen]

For those who believe it's better to use many decks, as well as those who are faithful to one:

Enrique Enriquez: "Do you think the tarot intends to take us all to a specific place?"

Jean-Claude Flornoy: "Yes, it has been doing that discreetly for centuries. It would seem that today there are still amateurs for this variety of shamanism, and a very modern one it is. The source tarots behave like a GPS. They all lead us to the same place, but for some it will be springtime in a crowd while others will experience loneliness and winter. The tarot is above all experimental, so I have often chosen to use the word psychonaut (or tarotnaut) to indicate this spiritual-psychological voyager. Aren't we all sailors on the ocean of the soul?"

To me, this touches the heart of the question: whether you are reading from just one deck or you use many, whether you use it for fortune-telling, esoteric studies or psychology, it's the same thing. We're all trying to divine something beyond the surface of our common human existence. Whether you're going deep with one deck or several, the resulting experience is the same. As SunChariot said, its a personal choice.

I think I will eventually settle on a single deck for intense study, but I still have some months or even years ahead of me of exploring the landscape of the abyss through a variety of imagery.

 

[Freddie]

This is a good thread and I have been haunted by it for the last few days. I regret buying most of the decks I have purchased and I won't reveal out of shame how many I did buy. I ask myself now just what was I looking for. I have sold some here and there, but I put most of these decks and books into my local charity box. I do not miss the decks that I had a brief affair with and who knows they could become treasured by a new owner. I have kept eight decks and have only kept two of them solely for sentimental reasons.

I think there is something to bonding with one deck as I have had many beautiful Tarot packs, but I still go to my big wood box and dig out my beloved Agmuller/US Games Oswald Wirth. I had what many bright and tasteful people here consider the best/prettiest/most valuable/most intelligent decks, but no matter what I still went back to deck that I liked reguardless of what anyone else here thought about it.

I have used my Oswald Wirth deck and 'Tarot of the Angels' (Lo Scarabeo) more than any of my others, so I don't know that I could ever stick to just one. Some on here have said they could see themselves going down to one (really I say 3-5 is a fairer number, but to each their own..I won't be giving up my Rumi, Tsar, Wang Golden Dawn, Albano-Waite...you catch my drift here...) pack in the future and I wanted to share my experience on here for you all.

Every pack and book can bring a new experience, but there just a point where I had to say this is just insane and most of these Tarot decks could not compete with the very small handful I could actually bond with.


Blessings


Freddie

 

[shells]

I am currently suffering from deck monogamy. I say suffering, because my task is to use the Shapeshifter for the next year exclusively. It's miserable. I haven't done a bloody reading since I made this "promise".

I can't understand this concept. Why persist with something that makes you so miserable that you are not even using it? I can certainly understand sticking with one deck because you are drawn to it, or want to learn all its secrets, but sticking with something that makes you miserable when you have a choice in the matter seems...I don't know, almost against what Tarot can teach us?

Personally I stuck with the Original RW for a number of years while I was learning, purely because I found it difficult enough trying to remember the meanings of the cards without complicating it with different decks/themes/images.

Now that I have come back to tarot and realise that memorising meanings is not what its all about, I have been freed to purchase a nice selection of decks that resonate with me

 

[vinLove]

Interesting thread.

When I keep using one deck for a few days or weeks intensely, then open another deck, then I seem to feel distant or even foreign from the new deck. It takes a while to get familiar with the deck even I had it for sometime. Maybe is it because I am a beginner?

 

[Tarot Orat]

Interesting thread.

When I keep using one deck for a few days or weeks intensely, then open another deck, then I seem to feel distant or even foreign from the new deck. It takes a while to get familiar with the deck even I had it for sometime. Maybe is it because I am a beginner?

I've been reading Tarot since the late 1990s and I still have the same thing happen to me when I stop using one deck exclusively. It does take some time to acquaint myself with the new one - and even to reacquaint myself with a familiar one.

In fact, that happened with the deck I was doing a six-month One Deck Wonder with! The ODW was over and I'd started using other decks; a while later I went back to the ODW deck, thinking it would read as easily as it always had, and it felt totally unfamiliar. Adversarial, even: I'd draw a card, and it would just sit there looking at me saying nothing. I needed almost two weeks to readjust! (I think part of that is that the deck was sulking from under-use. It has a personality...)

 

[nisaba]

l have friends who are professional readers and have been for a number of years. They have used their skills Internationally and on TV

<grin> I use my skills internationally. I have made a point of not being on TV except to document my collection for a collectors programme. It's amazing that so many of your personal friends are on TV, unless you work in the industry <smile>.

l know here at AT lots of us have many decks. But my friends just will not ever part with or use any other deck.

I used to have two friends like that, I now have only one friend like that because I converted the other friend.

The first one, Miss S, did a six-week course of weekly hour-long lessons decades ago with someone who sold all the students copies of the same deck (The Mythic), and gave them dire warnings that if they used any other deck they were straying into the darkness and would never be able to use that deck again afterwards <rolls eyes>. She also didn't seem to teach them anything particularly useful, as far as I can tell by swapping readings with Miss S.

Her readings are facile, and she doesn't seem to know how to read about either a person's real concerns or their spiritual life.

She says what she likes about the deck is that the sequence of each of the suits makes its own story. Not how well each individual image allowed her to tell stories about the client, but how, if she laid them out in their original order, they told one story and one story only. I see an immediate problem there.

The other one, Miss A, started from a point of arrogance, thinking she was better than me because she could read with her one deck and I "needed" to collect. I don't need any such thing. Like all humans, I need food, water and shelter from the elements. Anything else is a want, not a need. As I showed her various decks, though, she borrowed one or two (never returning them), and bought others. I converted her.

It would save me a lot of money if l used one deck!

Yeah, but how boring would your life be.

Your TV friends have less Tarot-cred with me than people who aren't show-ponies and apologists for particular decks.

 

[Holly doll]

I've worked on TV & internationally too - but love my mad collection of decks! I couldn't own or work with just one deck - that's like opening a massive box of chocolates & only eating the ones with caramel centres...!

I find I get "stale" if I use one deck for too long, so I "freshen" things up by using a deck that seems the opposite of the previous one. For instance, if I'm using the Shadowscapes I'll switch across to a Steampunk (don't ask... ). Or, if I'm using Witches Tarot, I'll switch to Stained Glass Tarot. Keeps things fresh & interesting & there's always something new to learn when you do!

If you know the right places to search for decks they don't need to cost the earth either - win/win

 

[Thoughtful]

<grin> I use my skills internationally. I have made a point of not being on TV except to document my collection for a collectors programme. It's amazing that so many of your personal friends are on TV, unless you work in the industry <smile>.

I did not say many friends nisaba, would be nice to be that popular, no, l have 3 in fact who are close friends the rest acqaintances since that post a year ago, gosh where has the time gone, they have actually bought new decks but they are still the same ones.

No I am not in the TV industry, god forbid, l would curl up with fright!! My readings are only ever done over the phone or face to face. I like different decks to work with myself, though l really thought it cool to have one well worn and well read deck.

l have come to realise my friends do not really need the cards anyway as they get the messages clairaudiently and psychically, it just seems to re-assure people to see cards being used and ones that have been well used. They don't feel the need to change their decks as they continue to serve their purpose.

They also teach tarot so its a good idea to be seen using them