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This is the crux of it all. The norms of an era require that we conform to those norms. The personal desire to belong (originating in the stone ages for safety) means we will agree with others and modify who we are and our behaviours in order to fit in, whether or not that is honest representation of ourselves, or honest more generally. Today's context is we're supposed to be professional. And nice and diplomatic, polished. Usually to grease the wheels of economy and maintain social inequalities. Civilisation isn't civilised if we look around at the environment. Now everybody's looking at their phones and don't look up - it will all disappear - and 'they'll' blame someone else, when in reality it was because they were in a culture that brainwashed people through slick marketing by psychologists not working to heal but make people think a particular way - in this case - that they need to consume. That we need to wear designer labels because hand-me-downs are shameful, who cares about environmental sustainability - or let's greenwash. Sacrifice is limited to going to work to provide for the children we bred - encouraged by the government - so they'd be unknowingly enslaved and provide billions to some guy with no name dodging tax, that should pay for the world's healthcare and educational needs, in the Cayman Islands. Everyone is so busy meeting the housing and food needs through externalised providers that have turned these essential needs into consumer items, that they don't stop to think that this is not necessary, or right, that the commons have been enclosed, and that if they do not work for someone else they cannot eat. Then there are people forced to be poor and go without because of the system. When it is all free in nature! We would behave much better and protect these things if we were closer to them. Yet we're told someone needs to pay for all this healthcare, when everyone could volunteer 3 days a week and get the belonging they seek, and contribute meaningfully to a community who knows each other, and meet their needs, But we leave everything up to someone else. Even our 'new agers' encourage people to meet their own needs without regard to the wider world's. So that's some of our current zeitgeist context. Let's hope that's a zeitgeist that transforming. People are protesting all the injustices, but the state is moving to outlaw protest. Governments have been leaving things to the market, and works for the corporations, not the people now. Everyone needs to act quickly. Sadly, the world could be destroyed in front of our eyes, but some of us need to be seen in a particular way for our ego's sake, status is important and maintaining our self-image. Another burden of being so-called 'civilised' meanwhile killing others to take their lands and food and water - and the Animals are especially included in this self-riddled era. So the external context I rambled about above, and personal things like religion, caste, even historical standing in the little village, and blood feuds, marriages, all of these things add context that are worth exploring. We are more than the sum of our parts, we are own and we are others'. I'm known as a bit of a ranter and raver on a soapbox around these parts, but I settle down occasionally. My intentions are good.

*Nancy Hendrickson is the author for ancestral Tarot books (e.g. "Ancestral Tarot, uncover your past and chart your future"). I have 2 of her books sitting on my shelf as yet unread (well...I've begun one). Great decks for this are: The Relative Tarot by Carrie Paris (designed for ancestral work, she got permission to use ancestral photos) Stretch Tarot by Joseph Stretch The Quiet Rebel Oracle by Lyn Thurman. These are the 3 that I have - and will use for this purpose at some point (when I can get 2 minutes to read thoroughly through Nancy Hendrickson's book). Now, I'm off to check out that deck of yours @karma_eleon on youtube...

Reading for someone else - yes! What I do, is I shuffle the deck thoroughly myself first. Then, I get them to shuffle, to draw them into the idea that "we are exploring this together". If they can't shuffle the way I've just demonstrated, I get them to smoosh the cards on the table. For other interested parties - again yes! I'm all for giving people as full an education about cards as I can, so I'm happy to let them look. I do impress on them that they need to treat the cards with care. If it's a child - I will be wary and may watch them do it, if I think there's a possibility they may damage them. I am not energetically sensitive and believe that when I shuffle my cards, and when the cards are in my possession - all other energy that may influence the items in question is negated by ME. If a particularly challenging person has handled my cards and I'm thinking - ewwwww, or - that's someone carrying a huge amount of "stuff" around. I may do a cleansing ritual on my cards. But- to-date, I've never had to do that. *N.B. For my absolute favourite card decks, or decks that I may use exclusively for personal Magickal purposes, I have a second copy of the deck - so that there is no possibility of there ever being any doubt of energetic residue/transfer.

I have not had any trouble reconnecting with a deck once somebody else has handled it, so I guess it's all down to an individual how they feel about this. Mind you, I've had people say they'd never buy a used deck for that reason as well, and I've never had that problem. I have several decks I bought 'used' that work really well for me. But everybody's different. Whatever works, works! I am quite pragmatic about my cards. Although I keep them clean and tidy, in either their original boxes or in boxes I've acquired for them, I don't keep them on an altar, or anything like that. Getting myself into the proper mood for reading cards matters to me, so I have established rituals around that.

@JoyousGirl thanks four your idea (I hadn't even thought of epigenetics in this context, even though I JUST explained (or tried to) them to someone recently...) I am just barely a Gen X (narrowly escaped the boomers 😉 . We are all from the same region, not a lot of migration on that end (very different on my dad's side). My mom was born in 1937, was very young when WW II hit; HER mom was, iirc, around 1918, so around WW I . So both knew food scarcity and insecurities well; also my grandma was quite young when she had my mom, after that, she had at least 10 more children (that survived), so she was always pregnant, nurturing, nursing, for over 20 years of her life (Queen of Cups, alright!) . Before her, I have no dates - but my grandma's austere mom must have been around during Victorian ages (although our region had nothing to do with Victoria, it must have been the "Zeitgeist" even here). The furthest one back, I have even fewer ideas, just that it looks like she may have been the adventurous one (and the absent one) branded as insane because not fitting the times....

Thanks @Chariot , I had understood, as you mentioned, that there's nothing supernatural about the cards themselves but that the energy you bring (be it yours or your guide/s) to the shuffling/sorting, your question, and the draw, is transferred from you into the cards. I guess I was concerned that allowing others to handle them may lessen this connection... if you believe in that sort of thing. I agree though with you that if looking at and handling the cards gets somebody new interested in tarot, then that's a good thing!

Yes, if they ask to, and I know they are careful, truly interested people. I don't think there is anything particularly supernatural about the cards themselves. And if looking at and handling my cards gets somebody new interested in tarot, that's a good thing! That being said, I would say no if they seemed flippant or careless ...same as I would not allow that person to handle other items I value. During a reading? Well, I prefer to handle the cards myself when doing a reading. Not because I think the querent is going to ruin the cards ...quite the opposite. In my experience, they are fearful of shuffling at all. I get a very half-hearted shuffle most of the time, that only displaces a few cards. If they are interested, I let them handle the cards and look at them beforehand, but then I do the shuffle.

A quick question, do you let others handle your cards? (not read, just handle - kids, partner, etc not just anyone)

Thanks for sharing your reading. This is interesting. It would be good to include a background of dates for the era each one lives/lived through - the zeitgeist and cultural norms - for context. For example, my grandmother's father died before she was born in WWI, impacting her mother. His Irish ancestors likely travelled to England around the time of the potato famine. Epigenetics or past life material can be revealed through this. I hoard food that sits in the cupboard for years, for example.

Here is a summary of the reading I did for myself using this spread. I used the “Zwischen der Zeit” Tarot (“inbetween time”; translated from a rather bulkily named “A Day in the Forest with the Tarot Witch” deck) for my generational reading – me and 4 generations up on my mother's side, all female. Me – Knight of cups She sits on a black horse, wears romantic coat with lots of embroideries; holds a big cup from which a white flower grows, pointing towards throat chakra; cup at level of solar plexus. I need to learn to speak for myself. (also very funny because I don't consider myself romantic, but others have pointed out that sometimes I am) My mother – Page of wands Facing away , looking through a doorway into the distance where the sun sets. She had dreams, She took decisions that she may have regretted but felt it was too late to remedy. (She also had a tendency to put others first and put her own dreams aside). She also was very afraid of me growing as large as her mother Her Mother, my grandmother – Queen of cups coming out of the ocean, steaming cup / pot in one hand, fork in the other. She may have eaten her emotions (she was rather large), she also had a lot of love to give but may not have known how. My great-grandmother (mom's grandmother) – King of Swords Sharp mind, strong character, strict ruler, no love to learn from. Any emotions got turned into blame, never got internalised (flower worn on lapel). Possibly spiritually sensitive but rationalising it or thinking she was crazy (being told she was crazy). Her mother (great-great-grandmother) – Knight of wands She may have been the passionate one who did what came into her head, impulsive, spontaneous, not always conforming to social norms. Possibly not very reliable, therefore her daughter tried to be the rational one. Her grand-daughter therefore did not learn how to love and got submerged by emotions she didn't know how to handle and all she learned was serve. Which she bestowed on my mother who dutifully did what she was taught – not speaking up and handing that to me (and I became exactly as large as my mother feared I would). After the reading, I spoke with my sister, and she had a tidbit of information - one of these women was absent, I have a feeling it may have been this knight of wands!

So sorry for your loss, @Marina . Consider yourself hugged (but only if you want) ! And yes, any deck with lots of (single, unless there are twins?) people will do, we could even filter out people cards from the majors!

That's a very interesting spread! I knew my grandmas very well (one is still alive, the other I lost early this year ), but I was never really close to the generations beyond them. I think I may try this! I believe this spread could also be used with 'people-heavy' oracles (as in, oracles that feature a lot of characters/people cards). Thanks for sharing!

If you compare the classic Rider-Waite Temperance card with Chapter 10 of the Book of Revelation, the visual copy-paste is completely unhinged. We are looking at a towering, glowing angel standing with one foot in the ocean and one foot on dry land, looking like they’re about to drop the most dramatic cosmic announcement of the millennium. This was no accident. Back in 1909, Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith were designing tarot’s most iconic deck and thought, "You know what screams 'chill out, drink your water, and find your center'? An apocalypse angel." Here is how a biblical harbinger of doom got a complete corporate rebrand into tarot’s ultimate zen master. The Apocalypse Power Stance vs. The Copy-Paste Job In Revelation 10:1–2, John describes a colossal entity descending from the heavens: "He was robed in a cloud, with a rainbow above his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were like fiery pillars... He planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land." This absolute unit of an angel takes a massive power stance across the globe to announce total divine authority. When Pamela Colman Smith picked up her paintbrushes, she essentially pulled a classic "can I copy your homework?" move: The One-Foot Stance: Temperance mimics this exact ocean-and-dirt posture, balancing land (waking reality and paying bills) with water (your subconscious and spiritual mess). The Solar Glow: Revelation’s angel has a face "like the sun." Temperance sports a solar symbol on their forehead and a glowing crown-sun rising over the distant mountains. The Fits: Both wear celestial white robes—Temperance's stamped with a triangle inside a square to keep the spirit-meets-matter aesthetic locked in. From "End of the World" to "Epsom Salt Bath" In the Bible, this angel is shouting like a lion and holding an open scroll to initiate the end of days. Total "CANCEL EVERYTHING, THE WORLD IS ENDING" energy. In Tarot? The angel decides to tone it way down. They swap the apocalyptic scroll for two shiny gold cups, carefully pouring liquid back and forth with the steady hands of a top-shelf mixologist. Instead of blowing up the planet, Temperance is out here saying: "Bestie, stop texting your ex, balance your chakras, drink some chamomile, and stop overreacting to minor inconveniences." Tarot is a delicious mashup of ancient drama and spicy biblical lore. Temperance proves that keeping your cool isn't soft—it takes massive, angel-level energy to stay grounded when everything around you is trying to catch fire.

I recently got told to look back 4 generations into female ancestors on my mother's side (with me being generation 0). So I came up with the following: Using ONLY court cards, pull a card for you and for each of the ancestors you want to look into and define who they are. Read them according to characteristics like suits, position in court, details on the card, etc. Look for character insights or a common thread weaving through the generations. I found readings I did this way very illuminating! (for me those were, for example: 0 - me -1 - my mother -2 - her mother -3 - her grand-mother -4 - my mother's great-grand-mother I never met any of them beyond my grandmother and I hardly knew her - but I found an interesting cascade of reactions to each of their mothers which are now influencing me - might post the reading itself later)

I know I am late to this party (and tell me off if I am flogging a dead horse here), but I am quite often making a spread up on the spot as is needed for the reading at hand, possibly never to be used again after that.... so I am team make my own 😊

Well, yes. I tried pretty hard with the houses, but man using a lot of them was like a headache, lol. I’m happy to look for nuance only where I need it most. The rest comes from the cards. I use mirroring for that purpose. The houses would be the flavor of the cards that occupy them, regardless of time. I think of that card as “possessed” by the house beneath it! 😜 The house is “getting into” the card, in other words, making it act in a certain way. It’s right to go with what makes sense to you and is comfortable in your own practice. I agree with the others; give your idea a try. Even if it doesn’t work out, at the very least you’ve experimented with something new!

Thanks for sharing how you use the houses, @Moon-Hermit ! I guess you fall into the category of GT readers who only take the houses into consideration in a more punctual, selective manner. Which I think is a very effective method. However, by doing so you do not run into questioning the fixed house sequence, as I mentioned above. My understanding of the houses' function is different. I use them as modifyier for the cards, or I see them as a kind of context – where does XY come from? What's the background of the card, its modus operandi? I've never seen the houses as having an impact on a cards' scope in relation to other cards. An idea I find quite intruiguing nevertheless. It seems, my discomfort with fixed houses stems from my reading style that is a bit different than the traditional. I'm OK with that.

Like you mentioned in the title of this post, I have always thought of the houses as fixed placements. They’re just a sequence from 1-36, with no specific meaning behind the particular order whatsoever. I would find the idea of having random houses with a second deck redundant. We already have random combinations when we deal out the cards, so why make it even more complex? In my own practice, I note the houses, but only specific houses (like the Key, Clouds, etc.) or the house that a certain card grabbing my attention has fallen in. I don’t rely on it heavily, because I’ve always had difficulty grasping the concept fully; houses are not like combinations. They are boundaries that sort of limit how a card can behave in relation to its neighboring cards, and all of that is something I find more complex than using distance/combinations. It’s precisely the same reason why I prefer counting to following the chain of houses for clarifying my points, etc.

Ah, ok. I get it. Yeah, that would bother me too. Thanks for the info and sharing the deck!

So, this is what I meant re: a personal system I don't jive with 😅 They use Mignon to mean 'King's Favorite' aka the Queen. For that alone I might not be able to reliably use the deck. A shame.

It does look very nice! Love the colors. It's always a shame when you really like the art in a deck that's not going to work out for readings. But nice that you supported the artist. (I have to ask - and I'm sure this is my ignorance - that Mignon of Wands. Is it the usage of Mignon that means "Cute, Delicate" because it doesn't really have that tone, but the only other meaning I'm familiar with has to do with a cut of meat. 😶

It's been a minute; here's some decks I've recently gotten. Mostly from KS of late, though with my avoidance of AI decks and their proliferation even that's winding down. Maybe I'm finally at my deck limit! The Threshold Tarot by Margrave Lucian: This is a really interesting and visceral deck which I may not keep. It has some aspects which don't jive for me, due to it being a deck using the creator's personal system. Such decks are always a gamble but I don't mind backing and finding out it won't work, as I consider it like patronizing an artist. I'm not always going to love everything they make, but that's not the point of being a patron. A shame because the art is INCREDIBLE, I really adore the palette and style. (Artist is in the UK for those of you seeking decks outside US tariff nonsense!) Mine came with a lovely handmade reading cloth in old lemon yellow silk taffeta, which is partly why I might wind up holding on to this one a while. The Cracked Amethyst Tarot by Jai Bott AT LONG LAST!!!! the followup deck to the Idiosyncradeck came to KS and I was so overjoyed I almost died. I've been waiting for this deck for what feels like an age. I have the Idiosyncradeck, and this one is quite different, enough that I think they both have their own flavor and style even as the one is clearly an evolution of the other. She also made a Cracked Lenormand to go with it. Really liking it so far. I also got my Blood Moon mass market copy; it's borderless, unlike the original, but I don't know that the linen finish is doing the cards any favors. Hopefully they'll publish a smooth one at some point. The box is lovely, though. A nice, affordable alternative for anyone who missed out on the indie run.