What Was Your Very First Tarot Deck You Got?

[Eco74]

Not counting the one I got in some magazine (majors only and filled with the soap-stars of the time) or the one I got in a cheap beginners kit (another majors only I've forgotten the name of now)...

...the very first deck (proper one anyway) I got was the Swedish Witch (Jolanda den Tredjes) deck.
A really good deck to start with I think, since it not only presented me with the basics but gave lots of influences to look towards the odd and the "sideways" in the symbology.

Still holding on to it, having had it for maybe 4 years now, and still using it occationally even though my collection has grown plenty since I started out. It was my only deck for a little over a year but then got some tough competition.
It's been handling the competition really well though.

 

[Lillie]

Way back in 82 or 83 I got the 1JJ Swiss.
It was just about the only deck I could find (except the Marseilles) and I recognised the 1JJ off tales of the Unexpected.

I didn't like it.
And the more I learned the less I liked it.
The Marseilles would have been better, actually.
The 1JJ is really neither fish nor fowl (as they say).

Within a few month I found somewhere with more decks (though still not many) and got the Thoth.

I gave the old one to a friend.

Been a Thoth girl through and through since then. Still am.

 

[mythos]

My first deck was a Thoth ... a birthday present from my first husband back in about 1976. It lasted about 2 days before he tore it to shreds in a fit of rage. Ah well ... c'est la vie ... So it das leben. Although I dipped into and out of tarot over the decades, the Morgan Greer peeked my interest in the '90's, and then the Mythic. But I only began serious work with tarot in 2000 with the PCS/RWS ... so, I am a newbie. Now my passion is TdM, but that does not yet mean that I can read with it. It is all an adventure after all.

mythos, who loves adventures!

 

[Whitestar]

My first deck was the Connolly...in around 1991. I didn't know anything about tarot, and it caught my eye in a bookstore.

It was a nice deck to start with.

 

[hedgecub]

Oh dear.

I bought my first deck just over 4 years ago when I was a complete tarot newbie. At the time, I didn't know about the huge variety of decks out there, nor did I know of websites such as Aeclectic which would later aid me greatly in finding new decks that I would learn from and enjoy using.

So I picked up the first interesting-looking deck I saw: the Lord of the Rings tarot. *shudder* There was a lot of hype about the upcoming films at the time, so the deck was everywhere and, with its colouful artwork, lured me in. It was only after I made a few attempts to read with the deck that I realised just how out of my depth I was, and how terrible the deck was.

My choice of decks has mostly moved upwards since then, thanks in a large part to Aeclectic's deck reviews, card scans, and of course you lot whose praise of the Robin Wood led me to request it for a birthday present. It's been perhaps my most well-used deck since.

 

[HearthCricket]

The first deck I got was the Swiss IJJ deck, for Christmas! My best friend had it, and I wanted one. It was around 1975, or so, and just about the only deck you could find. Though it wasn't exactly "me" or my style, which developed later, I did learn the major arcana, very well, with it, and used the minors to play solitaire with, and learn my Roman numerals well with. I still remember my father looking on with interest as I played with these unique cards!

 

[L'Etoile]

I got my first when I was 10. Tarot of the Cats, Major arcana only. I don't know where it is anymore.

 

[zazen]

.

.....

 

[Rusty Neon]

The very first tarot deck I got was a bilingual (English/French) Grimaud Tarot de Marseille deck. Fortunately, one of the pip cards (don't recall which) was missing and no replacements were in stock, so I was able to get my money back. A month or two later, I bought a different deck instead: Universal Waite deck.

 

[MareSaturni]

My first deck was The Enchanted Tarot. I still have it...i got it when i was 13

Yuko